---
title: Before her departure for fairyland, the Fairy explained to Jack that… — The Red Fairy Book · tree and pragmatics
description: Before her departure for fairyland, the Fairy explained to Jack that she had sent the butcher to meet him with the beans, in order to try what sort of lad he was. Who acts: Fairy, Giant. A sentence of «The Red Fairy Book» by Andrew Lang, The Giant Breaks His Neck., with its dependency tree and the p
---

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# The Red Fairy Book, The Giant Breaks His Neck., sentence 27

<!-- .ven lang=en -->
Before her departure for fairyland, the Fairy explained to Jack that she had sent the butcher to meet him with the beans, in order to try what sort of lad he was.

<!-- .vintro -->
**Who acts:** Fairy, Giant · **What happens:** explain, send, meet, try, depart, sort · **To what, where:** Jack, butcher, sort, lad · **Speech:** someone speaks here

<!-- .vabout -->
This is a sentence of «The Red Fairy Book» by Andrew Lang, The Giant Breaks His Neck.. The page gives its syntax tree — a dependency tree in the style of Universal Dependencies — and its pragmatics clause by clause: who acts (Fairy, Giant), what happens, when and where, as Mova's frames read it from the tree.

<!-- .note-en -->
**Parsed by Mova, not checked by a teacher.** This tree is Mova's own parse (the `en` model, on the CPU, when the site is built); it may be wrong.

## The tree {#tree}

```conllu
# sent_id = book:pg540:21:27
# text = Before her departure for fairyland, the Fairy explained to Jack that she had sent the butcher to meet him with the beans, in order to try what sort of lad he was.
1	Before	before	ADP	IN	_	3	case	_	_
2	her	her	PRON	PRP$	Case=Gen|Gender=Fem|Number=Sing|Person=3|Poss=Yes|PronType=Prs	3	nmod:poss	_	_
3	departure	departure	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	9	obl	_	_
4	for	for	ADP	IN	_	5	case	_	_
5	fairyland	fairyland	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	3	nmod	_	SpaceAfter=No
6	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	3	punct	_	_
7	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	8	det	_	_
8	Fairy	Fairy	PROPN	NNP	Number=Sing	9	nsubj	_	_
9	explained	explain	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	0	root	_	_
10	to	to	ADP	IN	_	11	case	_	_
11	Jack	Jack	PROPN	NNP	Number=Sing	9	obl	_	_
12	that	that	SCONJ	IN	_	15	mark	_	_
13	she	she	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Gender=Fem|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	15	nsubj	_	_
14	had	have	AUX	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	15	aux	_	_
15	sent	send	VERB	VBN	Tense=Past|VerbForm=Part	9	ccomp	_	_
16	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	17	det	_	_
17	butcher	butcher	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	15	obj	_	_
18	to	to	PART	TO	_	19	mark	_	_
19	meet	meet	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	15	advcl	_	_
20	him	he	PRON	PRP	Case=Acc|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	19	obj	_	_
21	with	with	ADP	IN	_	23	case	_	_
22	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	23	det	_	_
23	beans	bean	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	19	obl	_	SpaceAfter=No
24	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	28	punct	_	_
25	in	in	SCONJ	IN	ExtPos=SCONJ	28	mark	_	_
26	order	order	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	25	fixed	_	_
27	to	to	PART	TO	_	28	mark	_	_
28	try	try	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	19	conj	_	_
29	what	what	DET	WDT	PronType=Int	30	det	_	_
30	sort	sort	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	28	obj	_	_
31	of	of	ADP	IN	_	32	case	_	_
32	lad	lad	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	30	nmod	_	_
33	he	he	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	34	nsubj	_	_
34	was	be	AUX	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	30	acl:relcl	_	SpaceAfter=No
35	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	9	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

<!-- .fr -->
| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **explain** *speech: assert* | past | the Fairy |  | Jack |  | before Giant's departure for fairyland |  | vn transfer\_mesg-37.1.1 «NP V PP.recipient how S»: agent=Agent to jack=Recipient clause=Topic |
| 2 | **send** | past · perfect | Fairy | the butcher |  |  |  |  | vn confine-92-1 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent butcher=Theme |
| 3 | **meet** | to-infinitive | Fairy *not said here* | Jack |  |  |  | with the beans | vn satisfy-55.7 «NP V NP PP»: agent=Agent he=Theme with bean=Instrument |
| 4 | **try** | to-infinitive | Fairy *not said here* | what sort of lad |  |  |  |  | vn try-61.1 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent sort=Eventuality |
| 5 | **depart** |  | Giant |  |  |  |  | for fairyland | nom departure «act intransitive»: poss=agent for=obl |
| 6 | **sort** |  |  | lad |  |  |  |  | nom sort «cognition transitive»: of=patient |

<!-- .note -->
One row per clause the reader finds. «not said here»: a role filled from the clause above. «roles by»: a VerbNet class and frame when one fits the verb, else the reader's rules on the tree.

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**Text:** «The Red Fairy Book» by Andrew Lang, Project Gutenberg book 540 (public domain in the USA). **Tree:** Mova's own parse, Elamur Cosmic License. **Frames:** Mova's frames reader (`prag`), the chapter read in order.

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