---
title: When Minnikin came, the Troll asked if it were true that he could br… — The Red Fairy Book · tree and pragmatics
description: When Minnikin came, the Troll asked if it were true that he could brew a hundred lasts of malt at one brewing. Who acts: Minnikin, Troll, hundred. A sentence of «The Red Fairy Book» by Andrew Lang, Mother Holle, part 3, with its dependency tree and the pragmatics of every clause.
---

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# The Red Fairy Book, Mother Holle, part 3, sentence 36

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When Minnikin came, the Troll asked if it were true that he could brew a hundred lasts of malt at one brewing.

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**Who acts:** Minnikin, Troll, hundred · **What happens:** come, ask, be, brew, last · **To what, where:** one brewing

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This is a sentence of «The Red Fairy Book» by Andrew Lang, Mother Holle, part 3. The page gives its syntax tree — a dependency tree in the style of Universal Dependencies — and its pragmatics clause by clause: who acts (Minnikin, Troll, hundred), what happens, when and where, as Mova's frames read it from the tree.

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**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:pg540:46:36
# text = When Minnikin came, the Troll asked if it were true that he could brew a hundred lasts of malt at one brewing.
1	When	when	ADV	WRB	PronType=Int	3	advmod	_	_
2	Minnikin	Minnikin	PROPN	NNP	Number=Sing	3	nsubj	_	_
3	came	come	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	7	advcl	_	SpaceAfter=No
4	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	3	punct	_	_
5	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	6	det	_	_
6	Troll	Troll	PROPN	NNP	Number=Sing	7	nsubj	_	_
7	asked	ask	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	0	root	_	_
8	if	if	SCONJ	IN	_	11	mark	_	_
9	it	it	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Gender=Neut|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	11	nsubj	_	_
10	were	be	AUX	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	11	cop	_	_
11	true	true	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	7	ccomp	_	_
12	that	that	SCONJ	IN	_	15	mark	_	_
13	he	he	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	15	nsubj	_	_
14	could	could	AUX	MD	VerbForm=Fin	15	aux	_	_
15	brew	brew	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	11	advcl	_	_
16	a	a	DET	DT	Definite=Ind|PronType=Art	17	det	_	_
17	hundred	hundred	NUM	CD	NumForm=Word|NumType=Card	18	nsubj	_	_
18	lasts	last	VERB	VBZ	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Fin	15	ccomp	_	_
19	of	of	ADP	IN	_	20	case	_	_
20	malt	malt	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	18	obl	_	_
21	at	at	ADP	IN	_	23	case	_	_
22	one	one	NUM	CD	NumForm=Word|NumType=Card	23	nummod	_	_
23	brewing	brewing	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	18	obl	_	SpaceAfter=No
24	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	7	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

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| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **come** | past | Minnikin |  |  |  |  |  | vn escape-51.1-1 «NP V»: agent=Theme |
| 2 | **ask** *speech: ask* | past | the Troll |  |  |  |  |  | vn inquire-37.1.2 «NP V»: agent=Agent |
| 3 | **is** *a condition, not said to happen* | past | hundred |  |  |  |  | true *property* | tree rules |
| 4 | **brew** | could | Troll |  |  |  |  |  | tree rules |
| 5 | **last** | present | a hundred |  |  | one brewing |  | of malt | vn cost-54.2 «NP V NP.value»: agent=Theme |

<!-- .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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