---
title: At last, being of an undecided character and not being able to make… — The Red Fairy Book · tree and pragmatics
description: At last, being of an undecided character and not being able to make up his mind, he took off his boot, and handing it to his daughter, said: Who acts: man. A sentence of «The Red Fairy Book» by Andrew Lang, The Three Dwarfs, part 1, with its dependency tree and the pragmatics of every clause.
---

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# The Red Fairy Book, The Three Dwarfs, part 1, sentence 8

<!-- .ven lang=en -->
At last, being of an undecided character and not being able to make up his mind, he took off his boot, and handing it to his daughter, said:

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**Who acts:** man · **What happens:** be, not be, make up, take off, hand, say · **To what, where:** mind, boot, daughter · **Speech:** someone speaks here

<!-- .vabout -->
This is a sentence of «The Red Fairy Book» by Andrew Lang, The Three Dwarfs, part 1. The page gives its syntax tree — a dependency tree in the style of Universal Dependencies — and its pragmatics clause by clause: who acts (man), 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:pg540:37:8
# text = At last, being of an undecided character and not being able to make up his mind, he took off his boot, and handing it to his daughter, said:
1	At	at	ADP	IN	_	2	case	_	_
2	last	last	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	20	advmod	_	SpaceAfter=No
3	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	8	punct	_	_
4	being	be	AUX	VBG	Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Part	8	cop	_	_
5	of	of	ADP	IN	_	8	case	_	_
6	an	a	DET	DT	Definite=Ind|PronType=Art	8	det	_	_
7	undecided	undecided	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	8	amod	_	_
8	character	character	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	2	parataxis	_	_
9	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	12	cc	_	_
10	not	not	PART	RB	Polarity=Neg	12	advmod	_	_
11	being	be	AUX	VBG	Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Part	12	cop	_	_
12	able	able	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	2	conj	_	_
13	to	to	PART	TO	_	14	mark	_	_
14	make	make	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	12	xcomp	_	_
15	up	up	ADP	RP	_	14	compound:prt	_	_
16	his	his	PRON	PRP$	Case=Gen|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|Poss=Yes|PronType=Prs	17	nmod:poss	_	_
17	mind	mind	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	14	obj	_	SpaceAfter=No
18	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	20	punct	_	_
19	he	he	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	20	nsubj	_	_
20	took	take	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	32	advcl	_	_
21	off	off	ADP	RP	_	20	compound:prt	_	_
22	his	his	PRON	PRP$	Case=Gen|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|Poss=Yes|PronType=Prs	23	nmod:poss	_	_
23	boot	boot	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	20	obj	_	SpaceAfter=No
24	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	32	punct	_	_
25	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	32	cc	_	_
26	handing	hand	VERB	VBG	Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Part	32	advcl	_	_
27	it	it	PRON	PRP	Case=Acc|Gender=Neut|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	26	obj	_	_
28	to	to	ADP	IN	_	30	case	_	_
29	his	his	PRON	PRP$	Case=Gen|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|Poss=Yes|PronType=Prs	30	nmod:poss	_	_
30	daughter	daughter	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	26	obl	_	SpaceAfter=No
31	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	26	punct	_	_
32	said	say	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=1|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	0	root	_	SpaceAfter=No
33	:	:	PUNCT	:	_	32	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

<!-- .fr -->
| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **is** | gerund |  |  |  |  |  | of a undecided character | tree rules |
| 2 | **not** **is** | gerund | man *not said here* |  |  |  |  | able *property* | tree rules |
| 3 | **make up** | to-infinitive | man *not said here* | man's mind |  |  |  |  | vn comprise-107.2-1 «NP V NP»: agent=Theme mind=Pivot |
| 4 | **take off** | past | man | man's boot |  |  |  |  | vn remove-10.1 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent boot=Theme |
| 5 | **hand** | gerund |  | boot | man's daughter |  |  |  | vn send-11.1-1 «NP V NP PP.destination»: agent=Agent it=Theme to daughter=Destination |
| 6 | **say** *speech: assert* | past |  |  |  |  |  |  | vn say-37.7-1-1 «NP V that S»: agent=Agent |
| 7 | **mind** |  | man |  |  |  |  |  | nom mind «cognition transitive»: poss=agent |

<!-- .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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