---
title: He wept and he raged, but at last he took comfort and told himself t… — The Red Fairy Book · tree and pragmatics
description: He wept and he raged, but at last he took comfort and told himself that the best thing to do was to go home and take the third ox, without letting his wife know anything about it, and then try to sell it so well that he got a good sum of money for it. Who acts: man, best thing, wife. A sentence of «
---

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# The Red Fairy Book, The Master Thief, sentence 69

<!-- .ven lang=en -->
He wept and he raged, but at last he took comfort and told himself that the best thing to do was to go home and take the third ox, without letting his wife know anything about it, and then try to sell it so well that he got a good sum of money for it.

<!-- .vintro -->
**Who acts:** man, best thing, wife · **What happens:** weep, rage, take, tell, do, be · **To what, where:** comfort, last, man, third ox, anything, good sum · **Speech:** someone speaks here

<!-- .vabout -->
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 (man, best thing, 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:pg540:9:69
# text = He wept and he raged, but at last he took comfort and told himself that the best thing to do was to go home and take the third ox, without letting his wife know anything about it, and then try to sell it so well that he got a good sum of money for it.
1	He	he	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	2	nsubj	_	_
2	wept	weep	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	0	root	_	_
3	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	5	cc	_	_
4	he	he	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	5	nsubj	_	_
5	raged	rage	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	2	conj	_	SpaceAfter=No
6	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	11	punct	_	_
7	but	but	CCONJ	CC	_	11	cc	_	_
8	at	at	ADP	IN	_	9	case	_	_
9	last	last	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	11	obl	_	_
10	he	he	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	11	nsubj	_	_
11	took	take	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	2	parataxis	_	_
12	comfort	comfort	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	11	obj	_	_
13	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	14	cc	_	_
14	told	tell	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	11	conj	_	_
15	himself	himself	PRON	PRP	Case=Acc|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs|Reflex=Yes	14	iobj	_	_
16	that	that	SCONJ	IN	_	24	mark	_	_
17	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	19	det	_	_
18	best	good	ADJ	JJS	Degree=Sup	19	amod	_	_
19	thing	thing	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	24	nsubj:outer	_	_
20	to	to	PART	TO	_	21	mark	_	_
21	do	do	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	19	acl	_	_
22	was	be	AUX	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	24	cop	_	_
23	to	to	PART	TO	_	24	mark	_	_
24	go	go	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	14	ccomp	_	_
25	home	home	ADV	RB	_	24	advmod	_	_
26	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	27	cc	_	_
27	take	take	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	24	conj	_	_
28	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	30	det	_	_
29	third	third	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos|NumForm=Word|NumType=Ord	30	amod	_	_
30	ox	ox	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	27	obj	_	SpaceAfter=No
31	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	33	punct	_	_
32	without	without	SCONJ	IN	_	33	mark	_	_
33	letting	let	VERB	VBG	Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Part	14	advcl	_	_
34	his	his	PRON	PRP$	Case=Gen|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|Poss=Yes|PronType=Prs	35	nmod:poss	_	_
35	wife	wife	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	36	nsubj	_	_
36	know	know	VERB	VBP	Mood=Ind|Number=Plur|Person=3|Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Fin	33	ccomp	_	_
37	anything	anything	PRON	NN	Number=Sing|PronType=Ind	36	obj	_	_
38	about	about	ADP	IN	_	39	case	_	_
39	it	it	PRON	PRP	Case=Acc|Gender=Neut|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	37	nmod	_	SpaceAfter=No
40	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	43	punct	_	_
41	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	43	cc	_	_
42	then	then	ADV	RB	PronType=Dem	43	advmod	_	_
43	try	try	VERB	VB	Mood=Imp|VerbForm=Fin	2	parataxis	_	_
44	to	to	PART	TO	_	45	mark	_	_
45	sell	sell	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	43	xcomp	_	_
46	it	it	PRON	PRP	Case=Acc|Gender=Neut|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	45	obj	_	_
47	so	so	ADV	RB	_	48	advmod	_	_
48	well	well	ADV	RB	Degree=Pos	45	advmod	_	_
49	that	that	SCONJ	IN	_	51	mark	_	_
50	he	he	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	51	nsubj	_	_
51	got	get	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	45	advcl	_	_
52	a	a	DET	DT	Definite=Ind|PronType=Art	54	det	_	_
53	good	good	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	54	amod	_	_
54	sum	sum	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	51	obj	_	_
55	of	of	ADP	IN	_	56	case	_	_
56	money	money	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	54	nmod	_	_
57	for	for	ADP	IN	_	58	case	_	_
58	it	it	PRON	PRP	Case=Acc|Gender=Neut|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	56	nmod	_	SpaceAfter=No
59	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	2	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

<!-- .fr -->
| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **weep** | past | man |  |  |  |  |  | vn breathe-40.1.2 «NP V»: agent=Agent |
| 2 | **rage** | past | man |  |  |  |  |  | vn entity\_specific\_modes\_being-47.2 «NP V»: agent=Theme |
| 3 | **take** | past | man | comfort |  | last |  |  | vn get-13.5.1 «NP V NP PP.source NP.asset»: agent=Agent comfort=Theme at last=Asset |
| 4 | **tell** *speech: assert* | past | man *not said here* |  | man |  |  |  | vn transfer\_mesg-37.1.1-1-1 «NP V NP S\_INF»: agent=Agent himself=Recipient clause=Topic |
| 5 | **do** | to-infinitive | the best thing *not said here* |  |  |  |  |  | vn act-114-1 «NP V»: agent=Agent |
| 6 | **is** *not said to happen* | past | the best thing |  |  |  |  | go, home *property* | tree rules |
| 7 | **take** | infinitive | the best thing *not said here* | the third ox |  |  |  |  | vn bring-11.3 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent ox=Theme |
| 8 | **let** | gerund | man *not said here* |  |  |  |  |  | tree rules |
| 9 | **know** | present | man's wife | anything |  |  |  | about comfort | vn comprehend-87.2-1-1-1 «NP V NP PP.attribute»: agent=Experiencer anything=Stimulus |
| 10 | **try** | infinitive |  |  |  |  | then |  | vn try-61.1 «NP V S\_INF»: agent=Agent clause=Eventuality |
| 11 | **sell** *not said to happen* | to-infinitive |  | comfort |  |  |  | well *property* | vn give-13.1-1 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent it=Theme |
| 12 | **get** | past | man | a good sum of money for money |  |  |  |  | vn comprehend-87.2-1 «NP V NP»: agent=Experiencer sum=Stimulus |
| 13 | **sum** |  |  | money for money |  |  |  |  | nom sum «possession 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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