---
title: Only a few days after this the merchant heard the news that all his… — The Pink Fairy Book · tree and pragmatics
description: Only a few days after this the merchant heard the news that all his finest ships, laden with the richest merchandise, had been sunk in a storm, and he was left a beggar. Who acts: merchant. A sentence of «The Pink Fairy Book» by Andrew Lang, The Pink Fairy Book, part 18, with its dependency tree and
---

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# The Pink Fairy Book, The Pink Fairy Book, part 18, sentence 78

<!-- .ven lang=en -->
Only a few days after this the merchant heard the news that all his finest ships, laden with the richest merchandise, had been sunk in a storm, and he was left a beggar.

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**Who acts:** merchant · **What happens:** hear, lade, sink, leave · **To what, where:** news, finest ships, storm, merchant · **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 18. The page gives its syntax tree — a dependency tree in the style of Universal Dependencies — and its pragmatics clause by clause: who acts (merchant), 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:pg5615:18:78
# text = Only a few days after this the merchant heard the news that all his finest ships, laden with the richest merchandise, had been sunk in a storm, and he was left a beggar.
1	Only	only	ADV	RB	_	4	advmod	_	_
2	a	a	DET	DT	Definite=Ind|PronType=Art	4	det	_	_
3	few	few	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	4	amod	_	_
4	days	day	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	9	obl:unmarked	_	_
5	after	after	ADP	IN	_	6	case	_	_
6	this	this	PRON	DT	Number=Sing|PronType=Dem	4	nmod	_	_
7	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	8	det	_	_
8	merchant	merchant	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	9	nsubj	_	_
9	heard	hear	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	0	root	_	_
10	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	11	det	_	_
11	news	news	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	9	obj	_	_
12	that	that	SCONJ	IN	_	26	mark	_	_
13	all	all	DET	PDT	PronType=Tot	16	det:predet	_	_
14	his	his	PRON	PRP$	Case=Gen|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|Poss=Yes|PronType=Prs	16	nmod:poss	_	_
15	finest	fine	ADJ	JJS	Degree=Sup	16	amod	_	_
16	ships	ship	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	26	nsubj:pass	_	SpaceAfter=No
17	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	18	punct	_	_
18	laden	lade	VERB	VBN	Tense=Past|VerbForm=Part|Voice=Pass	16	acl	_	_
19	with	with	ADP	IN	_	22	case	_	_
20	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	22	det	_	_
21	richest	rich	ADJ	JJS	Degree=Sup	22	amod	_	_
22	merchandise	merchandise	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	18	obl	_	SpaceAfter=No
23	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	16	punct	_	_
24	had	have	AUX	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Plur|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	26	aux	_	_
25	been	be	AUX	VBN	Tense=Past|VerbForm=Part	26	aux:pass	_	_
26	sunk	sink	VERB	VBN	Tense=Past|VerbForm=Part|Voice=Pass	9	ccomp	_	_
27	in	in	ADP	IN	_	29	case	_	_
28	a	a	DET	DT	Definite=Ind|PronType=Art	29	det	_	_
29	storm	storm	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	26	obl	_	SpaceAfter=No
30	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	34	punct	_	_
31	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	34	cc	_	_
32	he	he	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	34	nsubj	_	_
33	was	be	AUX	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	34	aux:pass	_	_
34	left	leave	VERB	VBN	Tense=Past|VerbForm=Part|Voice=Pass	9	conj	_	_
35	a	a	DET	DT	Definite=Ind|PronType=Art	36	det	_	_
36	beggar	beggar	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	34	obj	_	SpaceAfter=No
37	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	9	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

<!-- .fr -->
| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **hear** | past | the merchant | the news |  |  | day |  | tree rules |
| 2 | **lade** | participle |  | merchant's finest ships *not said here* |  |  |  | with the richest merchandise | tree rules |
| 3 | **sink** | past · perfect · passive |  | merchant's finest ships |  | a storm |  |  | vn other\_cos-45.4 «NP V NP.patient»: subject=Patient |
| 4 | **leave** | past · passive |  | merchant |  |  |  |  | vn sustain-55.6-1 «NP V NP ADJ»: subject=Theme beggar=Attribute |

<!-- .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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