---
title: Old Eric then began to lament and howl, begging him just to let him… — The Pink Fairy Book · tree and pragmatics
description: Old Eric then began to lament and howl, begging him just to let him go, and he would never come back to the lake again. Who acts: Old Eric, Eric. A sentence of «The Pink Fairy Book» by Andrew Lang, The Pink Fairy Book, part 13, with its dependency tree and the pragmatics of every clause.
---

<!-- md -->
[Mova](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/) · [this page in HTML](https://mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg5615/13/60/)

<!-- 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 Pink Fairy Book](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg5615/) / [The Pink Fairy Book, part 13](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg5615/13/) / 60

# The Pink Fairy Book, The Pink Fairy Book, part 13, sentence 60

<!-- .ven lang=en -->
Old Eric then began to lament and howl, begging him just to let him go, and he would never come back to the lake again.

<!-- .vintro -->
**Who acts:** Old Eric, Eric · **What happens:** begin, lament, howl, beg, let, go · **To what, where:** Eric, lake

<!-- .vabout -->
This is a sentence of «The Pink Fairy Book» by Andrew Lang, The Pink Fairy Book, part 13. The page gives its syntax tree — a dependency tree in the style of Universal Dependencies — and its pragmatics clause by clause: who acts (Old Eric, Eric), 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:pg5615:13:60
# text = Old Eric then began to lament and howl, begging him just to let him go, and he would never come back to the lake again.
1	Old	old	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	2	amod	_	_
2	Eric	Eric	PROPN	NNP	Number=Sing	4	nsubj	_	_
3	then	then	ADV	RB	PronType=Dem	4	advmod	_	_
4	began	begin	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	0	root	_	_
5	to	to	PART	TO	_	6	mark	_	_
6	lament	lament	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	4	xcomp	_	_
7	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	8	cc	_	_
8	howl	howl	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	6	conj	_	SpaceAfter=No
9	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	10	punct	_	_
10	begging	beg	VERB	VBG	Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Part	4	advcl	_	_
11	him	he	PRON	PRP	Case=Acc|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	10	obj	_	_
12	just	just	ADV	RB	_	14	advmod	_	_
13	to	to	PART	TO	_	14	mark	_	_
14	let	let	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	10	xcomp	_	_
15	him	he	PRON	PRP	Case=Acc|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	14	obj	_	_
16	go	go	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	14	xcomp	_	SpaceAfter=No
17	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	22	punct	_	_
18	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	22	cc	_	_
19	he	he	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	22	nsubj	_	_
20	would	would	AUX	MD	VerbForm=Fin	22	aux	_	_
21	never	never	ADV	RB	PronType=Neg	22	advmod	_	_
22	come	come	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	4	parataxis	_	_
23	back	back	ADV	RB	_	22	advmod	_	_
24	to	to	ADP	IN	_	26	case	_	_
25	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	26	det	_	_
26	lake	lake	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	22	obl	_	_
27	again	again	ADV	RB	_	22	advmod	_	SpaceAfter=No
28	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	4	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

<!-- .fr -->
| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **begin** | past | Old Eric |  |  |  | then |  | vn begin-55.1-1-1 «NP V S\_INF»: agent=Agent clause=Eventuality |
| 2 | **lament** | to-infinitive | Old Eric *not said here* |  |  |  |  |  | vn admire-31.2 «NP V that S»: agent=Experiencer |
| 3 | **howl** | infinitive | Old Eric *not said here* |  |  |  |  |  | vn animal\_sounds-38 «NP V»: agent=Agent |
| 4 | **beg** *speech: request* | gerund | Old Eric *not said here* |  | Eric |  |  |  | vn beg-58.2-1-1 «NP V NP S\_INF»: agent=Agent he=Recipient clause=Topic |
| 5 | **let** *not said to happen* | to-infinitive | Old Eric *not said here* | Eric |  |  |  |  | tree rules |
| 6 | **go** | infinitive | Eric *not said here* |  |  |  |  |  | vn disappearance-48.2-1 «NP V»: agent=Theme |
| 7 | **not** **come back** | would | Eric |  |  | the lake | again |  | vn escape-51.1-1 «NP V PP.initial\_location»: agent=Theme to lake=Initial\_Location |

<!-- .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 Pink Fairy Book» by Andrew Lang, Project Gutenberg book 5615 (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 59](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg5615/13/59/)
- next →: [sentence 61](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg5615/13/61/)
- ↑ back to [The Pink Fairy Book, part 13](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg5615/13/)