---
title: For he had a wife who was so cross and ill-tempered that the time be… — The Red Fairy Book · tree and pragmatics
description: For he had a wife who was so cross and ill-tempered that the time between the beatings she gave him was very short. Who acts: fellow, wife, time. A sentence of «The Red Fairy Book» by Andrew Lang, The Master Thief, with its dependency tree and the pragmatics of every clause.
---

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# The Red Fairy Book, The Master Thief, sentence 40

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For he had a wife who was so cross and ill-tempered that the time between the beatings she gave him was very short.

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**Who acts:** fellow, wife, time · **What happens:** have, be, temper, give · **To what, where:** wife, time, fellow

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This is a sentence of «The Red Fairy Book» by Andrew Lang, The Master Thief. The page gives its syntax tree — a dependency tree in the style of Universal Dependencies — and its pragmatics clause by clause: who acts (fellow, wife, time), 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:pg540:9:40
# text = For he had a wife who was so cross and ill-tempered that the time between the beatings she gave him was very short.
1	For	for	ADP	IN	_	3	case	_	_
2	he	he	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	3	nsubj	_	_
3	had	have	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	0	root	_	_
4	a	a	DET	DT	Definite=Ind|PronType=Art	5	det	_	_
5	wife	wife	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	3	obj	_	_
6	who	who	PRON	WP	PronType=Rel	9	nsubj	_	_
7	was	be	AUX	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	9	cop	_	_
8	so	so	ADV	RB	_	9	advmod	_	_
9	cross	cross	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	5	acl:relcl	_	_
10	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	13	cc	_	_
11	ill	ill	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	13	amod	_	SpaceAfter=No
12	-	-	PUNCT	HYPH	_	11	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
13	tempered	temper	VERB	VBN	Tense=Past|VerbForm=Part|Voice=Pass	9	conj	_	_
14	that	that	SCONJ	IN	_	25	mark	_	_
15	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	16	det	_	_
16	time	time	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	25	nsubj	_	_
17	between	between	ADP	IN	_	19	case	_	_
18	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	19	det	_	_
19	beatings	beating	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	16	nmod	_	_
20	she	she	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Gender=Fem|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	21	nsubj	_	_
21	gave	give	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	16	acl:relcl	_	_
22	him	he	PRON	PRP	Case=Acc|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	21	iobj	_	_
23	was	be	AUX	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	25	cop	_	_
24	very	very	ADV	RB	_	25	advmod	_	_
25	short	short	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	13	advcl	_	SpaceAfter=No
26	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	3	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

<!-- .fr -->
| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **have** | past | fellow | a wife |  |  |  |  | vn birth-28.2-1 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent wife=Patient |
| 2 | **is** | past | a wife |  |  |  |  | cross *property* | tree rules |
| 3 | **temper** | participle | a wife *not said here* |  |  |  |  |  | tree rules |
| 4 | **give** | past | wife | the time between the beatings *not said here* | fellow |  |  |  | vn give-13.1-1 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent he=Theme |
| 5 | **is** | past | the time between the beatings |  |  |  |  | short *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.

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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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