---
title: When he had got better again his wife one day wanted fish, and asked… — The Pink Fairy Book · tree and pragmatics
description: When he had got better again his wife one day wanted fish, and asked him to go and buy some. Who acts: man, one day. A sentence of «The Pink Fairy Book» by Andrew Lang, The Pink Fairy Book, part 16, with its dependency tree and the pragmatics of every clause.
---

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[Mova](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/) · [this page in HTML](https://mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg5615/16/163/)

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# The Pink Fairy Book, The Pink Fairy Book, part 16, sentence 163

<!-- .ven lang=en -->
When he had got better again his wife one day wanted fish, and asked him to go and buy some.

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**Who acts:** man, one day · **What happens:** get, want, ask, go, buy · **To what, where:** wife, fish, man, some

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This is a sentence of «The Pink Fairy Book» by Andrew Lang, The Pink Fairy Book, part 16. The page gives its syntax tree — a dependency tree in the style of Universal Dependencies — and its pragmatics clause by clause: who acts (man, one day), 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:pg5615:16:163
# text = When he had got better again his wife one day wanted fish, and asked him to go and buy some.
1	When	when	ADV	WRB	PronType=Int	4	advmod	_	_
2	he	he	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	4	nsubj	_	_
3	had	have	AUX	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	4	aux	_	_
4	got	get	VERB	VBN	Tense=Past|VerbForm=Part	11	parataxis	_	_
5	better	well	ADV	RBR	Degree=Cmp	4	advmod	_	_
6	again	again	ADV	RB	_	4	advmod	_	_
7	his	his	PRON	PRP$	Case=Gen|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|Poss=Yes|PronType=Prs	8	nmod:poss	_	_
8	wife	wife	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	4	obj	_	_
9	one	one	NUM	CD	NumForm=Word|NumType=Card	10	nummod	_	_
10	day	day	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	11	nsubj	_	_
11	wanted	want	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	0	root	_	_
12	fish	fish	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	11	obj	_	SpaceAfter=No
13	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	15	punct	_	_
14	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	15	cc	_	_
15	asked	ask	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	11	conj	_	_
16	him	he	PRON	PRP	Case=Acc|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	15	iobj	_	_
17	to	to	PART	TO	_	18	mark	_	_
18	go	go	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	15	xcomp	_	_
19	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	20	cc	_	_
20	buy	buy	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	18	conj	_	_
21	some	some	DET	DT	PronType=Ind	20	obj	_	SpaceAfter=No
22	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	11	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

<!-- .fr -->
| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **get** | past · perfect | man | man's wife |  |  | again | well *property* | vn comprehend-87.2-1 «NP V NP»: agent=Experiencer wife=Stimulus |
| 2 | **want** | past | one day | fish |  |  |  |  | vn want-32.1-1-1 «NP V NP ADV»: agent=Pivot fish=Theme |
| 3 | **ask** *speech: ask* | past | one day *not said here* |  | man |  |  |  | vn inquire-37.1.2 «NP V NP whether S\_INF»: agent=Agent he=Recipient clause=Topic |
| 4 | **go** *not said to happen* | to-infinitive | one day *not said here* |  |  |  |  |  | vn disappearance-48.2-1 «NP V»: agent=Theme |
| 5 | **buy** | infinitive | one day *not said here* | some |  |  |  |  | vn accept-77.1 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent some=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 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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