---
title: They told him that a messenger had come from the squire at Devilmoss… — The Pink Fairy Book · tree and pragmatics
description: They told him that a messenger had come from the squire at Devilmoss to demand three years’ tribute. Who acts: compliments, messenger. 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.
---

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# The Pink Fairy Book, The Pink Fairy Book, part 13, sentence 96

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They told him that a messenger had come from the squire at Devilmoss to demand three years’ tribute.

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**Who acts:** compliments, messenger · **What happens:** tell, come, demand · **To what, where:** Hans, tribute · **Speech:** someone speaks here

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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 (compliments, messenger), 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:pg5615:13:96
# text = They told him that a messenger had come from the squire at Devilmoss to demand three years’ tribute.
1	They	they	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Number=Plur|Person=3|PronType=Prs	2	nsubj	_	_
2	told	tell	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Plur|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	0	root	_	_
3	him	he	PRON	PRP	Case=Acc|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	2	iobj	_	_
4	that	that	SCONJ	IN	_	8	mark	_	_
5	a	a	DET	DT	Definite=Ind|PronType=Art	6	det	_	_
6	messenger	messenger	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	8	nsubj	_	_
7	had	have	AUX	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	8	aux	_	_
8	come	come	VERB	VBN	Tense=Past|VerbForm=Part	2	ccomp	_	_
9	from	from	ADP	IN	_	11	case	_	_
10	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	11	det	_	_
11	squire	squire	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	8	obl	_	_
12	at	at	ADP	IN	_	13	case	_	_
13	Devilmoss	Devilmoss	PROPN	NNP	Number=Sing	11	nmod	_	_
14	to	to	PART	TO	_	15	mark	_	_
15	demand	demand	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	8	advcl	_	_
16	three	three	NUM	CD	NumForm=Word|NumType=Card	17	nummod	_	_
17	years	year	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	19	nmod:poss	_	SpaceAfter=No
18	’	's	PART	POS	_	17	case	_	_
19	tribute	tribute	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	15	obj	_	SpaceAfter=No
20	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	2	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

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| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **tell** *speech: assert* | past | compliments *= compliment* |  | Hans |  |  |  | vn transfer\_mesg-37.1.1-1-1 «NP V NP S\_INF»: agent=Agent he=Recipient clause=Topic |
| 2 | **come** | past · perfect | a messenger |  |  |  |  | from the squire at Devilmoss | vn escape-51.1-1 «NP V PP.initial\_location»: agent=Theme from squire=Initial\_Location |
| 3 | **demand** *speech: request* | to-infinitive | a messenger *not said here* | three years's tribute |  |  |  |  | vn require-103-1 «NP V NP»: agent=Theme tribute=Precondition |

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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 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.

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