---
title: So the man said ‘Yes’ in a moment, and then he caught fish in plenty… — The Red Fairy Book · tree and pragmatics
description: So the man said ‘Yes’ in a moment, and then he caught fish in plenty; but when he got home at night, and his wife showed him a baby which had just been born, and fell a-weeping and wailing when he told her of the promise which he had given, he was very unhappy. Who acts: man, fish, wife. A sentence 
---

<!-- md -->
[Mova](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/) · [this page in HTML](https://mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg540/26/4/)

<!-- crumbs -->
[home](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/) / [corpora](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/) / [tales](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/) / [The Red Fairy Book](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg540/) / [The Three Princesses of Whiteland](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg540/26/) / 4

# The Red Fairy Book, The Three Princesses of Whiteland, sentence 4

<!-- .ven lang=en -->
So the man said ‘Yes’ in a moment, and then he caught fish in plenty; but when he got home at night, and his wife showed him a baby which had just been born, and fell a-weeping and wailing when he told her of the promise which he had given, he was very unhappy.

<!-- .vintro -->
**Who acts:** man, fish, wife · **What happens:** say, catch, get, show, bear, fall · **To what, where:** fish, plenty, baby, weeping, wife, promise · **Speech:** someone speaks here

<!-- .vabout -->
This is a sentence of «The Red Fairy Book» by Andrew Lang, The Three Princesses of Whiteland. The page gives its syntax tree — a dependency tree in the style of Universal Dependencies — and its pragmatics clause by clause: who acts (man, fish, wife), 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:pg540:26:4
# text = So the man said ‘Yes’ in a moment, and then he caught fish in plenty; but when he got home at night, and his wife showed him a baby which had just been born, and fell a-weeping and wailing when he told her of the promise which he had given, he was very unhappy.
1	So	so	ADV	RB	_	4	advmod	_	_
2	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	3	det	_	_
3	man	man	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	4	nsubj	_	_
4	said	say	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	0	root	_	_
5	‘	'	PUNCT	``	_	6	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
6	Yes	yes	INTJ	UH	Polarity=Pos	4	obj	_	SpaceAfter=No
7	’	'	PUNCT	''	_	6	punct	_	_
8	in	in	ADP	IN	_	10	case	_	_
9	a	a	DET	DT	Definite=Ind|PronType=Art	10	det	_	_
10	moment	moment	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	4	obl	_	SpaceAfter=No
11	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	15	punct	_	_
12	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	15	cc	_	_
13	then	then	ADV	RB	PronType=Dem	15	advmod	_	_
14	he	he	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	15	nsubj	_	_
15	caught	catch	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	4	conj	_	_
16	fish	fish	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	15	obj	_	_
17	in	in	ADP	IN	_	18	case	_	_
18	plenty	plenty	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	15	obl	_	SpaceAfter=No
19	;	;	PUNCT	,	_	23	punct	_	_
20	but	but	CCONJ	CC	_	23	cc	_	_
21	when	when	ADV	WRB	PronType=Int	23	advmod	_	_
22	he	he	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	23	nsubj	_	_
23	got	get	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	4	conj	_	_
24	home	home	ADV	RB	_	23	advmod	_	_
25	at	at	ADP	IN	_	26	case	_	_
26	night	night	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	23	obl	_	SpaceAfter=No
27	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	31	punct	_	_
28	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	31	cc	_	_
29	his	his	PRON	PRP$	Case=Gen|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|Poss=Yes|PronType=Prs	30	nmod:poss	_	_
30	wife	wife	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	31	nsubj	_	_
31	showed	show	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	4	conj	_	_
32	him	he	PRON	PRP	Case=Acc|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	31	iobj	_	_
33	a	a	DET	DT	Definite=Ind|PronType=Art	34	det	_	_
34	baby	baby	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	31	obj	_	_
35	which	which	PRON	WDT	PronType=Rel	39	nsubj:pass	_	_
36	had	have	AUX	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	39	aux	_	_
37	just	just	ADV	RB	_	39	advmod	_	_
38	been	be	AUX	VBN	Tense=Past|VerbForm=Part	39	aux:pass	_	_
39	born	bear	VERB	VBN	Tense=Past|VerbForm=Part|Voice=Pass	34	acl:relcl	_	SpaceAfter=No
40	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	42	punct	_	_
41	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	42	cc	_	_
42	fell	fall	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	4	parataxis	_	_
43	a	a	DET	DT	Definite=Ind|PronType=Art	45	det	_	SpaceAfter=No
44	-	-	PUNCT	HYPH	_	43	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
45	weeping	weeping	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	42	obj	_	_
46	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	47	cc	_	_
47	wailing	wail	VERB	VBG	Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Part	42	conj	_	_
48	when	when	ADV	WRB	PronType=Int	50	advmod	_	_
49	he	he	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	50	nsubj	_	_
50	told	tell	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	47	advcl	_	_
51	her	she	PRON	PRP	Case=Acc|Gender=Fem|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	50	iobj	_	_
52	of	of	ADP	IN	_	54	case	_	_
53	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	54	det	_	_
54	promise	promise	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	50	obl	_	_
55	which	which	PRON	WDT	PronType=Rel	58	nsubj	_	_
56	he	he	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	58	nsubj:pass	_	_
57	had	have	AUX	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	58	aux	_	_
58	given	give	VERB	VBN	Tense=Past|VerbForm=Part|Voice=Pass	54	acl:relcl	_	SpaceAfter=No
59	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	63	punct	_	_
60	he	he	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	63	nsubj	_	_
61	was	be	AUX	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	63	cop	_	_
62	very	very	ADV	RB	_	63	advmod	_	_
63	unhappy	unhappy	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	42	conj	_	SpaceAfter=No
64	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	4	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

<!-- .fr -->
| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **say** *speech: assert* | past | the man |  |  |  | moment |  | vn say-37.7-1-1 «NP V NP.topic»: agent=Agent yes=Topic |
| 2 | **catch** | past | man | fish |  | plenty | then |  | vn get-13.5.1 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent fish=Theme |
| 3 | **get** | past | fish |  |  |  | night | home *property* | vn comprehend-87.2-1 «NP V S\_ING»: agent=Experiencer |
| 4 | **show** | past | fish's wife | a baby | fish |  |  |  | vn transfer\_mesg-37.1.1-1-1 «NP V NP-Dative NP»: agent=Agent he=Recipient baby=Topic |
| 5 | **bear** | past · perfect · passive |  | a baby |  |  |  |  | vn birth-28.2-1-1 «NP V NP»: subject=Patient |
| 6 | **fall** | past |  | a weeping |  |  |  |  | vn become-109.1-1 «NP V ADJ»: agent=Patient weeping=Result |
| 7 | **wail** | gerund |  |  |  |  |  |  | vn animal\_sounds-38 «NP V»: agent=Agent |
| 8 | **tell** *speech: assert* | past | fish |  | wife |  |  | of the promise | vn transfer\_mesg-37.1.1-1-1 «NP V NP.recipient»: agent=Agent she=Recipient |
| 9 | **give** | past · perfect · passive |  | the promise |  |  |  |  | vn give-13.1-1 «NP V NP»: subject=Theme |
| 10 | **is** | past | fish |  |  |  |  | unhappy *property* | tree rules |

<!-- .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.

<!-- div src -->

**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.

<!-- /div -->

<!-- pn -->
- ← previous: [sentence 3](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg540/26/3/)
- next →: [sentence 5](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg540/26/5/)
- ↑ back to [The Three Princesses of Whiteland](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg540/26/)