---
title: The king had no choice but to give the man the letter, and he strode… — The Pink Fairy Book · tree and pragmatics
description: The king had no choice but to give the man the letter, and he strode off, making short work of the distance that lay between the palace and the Underworld. Who acts: king, distance. A sentence of «The Pink Fairy Book» by Andrew Lang, The Pink Fairy Book, part 19, with its dependency tree and the pra
---

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# The Pink Fairy Book, The Pink Fairy Book, part 19, sentence 117

<!-- .ven lang=en -->
The king had no choice but to give the man the letter, and he strode off, making short work of the distance that lay between the palace and the Underworld.

<!-- .vintro -->
**Who acts:** king, distance · **What happens:** have, give, stride off, make, lie, work · **To what, where:** choice, letter, man, short work, palace

<!-- .vabout -->
This is a sentence of «The Pink Fairy Book» by Andrew Lang, The Pink Fairy Book, part 19. The page gives its syntax tree — a dependency tree in the style of Universal Dependencies — and its pragmatics clause by clause: who acts (king, distance), 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:pg5615:19:117
# text = The king had no choice but to give the man the letter, and he strode off, making short work of the distance that lay between the palace and the Underworld.
1	The	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	2	det	_	_
2	king	king	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	3	nsubj	_	_
3	had	have	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	0	root	_	_
4	no	no	DET	DT	PronType=Neg	5	det	_	_
5	choice	choice	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	3	obj	_	_
6	but	but	CCONJ	CC	_	8	cc	_	_
7	to	to	PART	TO	_	8	mark	_	_
8	give	give	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	3	conj	_	_
9	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	10	det	_	_
10	man	man	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	8	iobj	_	_
11	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	12	det	_	_
12	letter	letter	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	8	obj	_	SpaceAfter=No
13	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	16	punct	_	_
14	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	16	cc	_	_
15	he	he	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	16	nsubj	_	_
16	strode	stride	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	3	conj	_	_
17	off	off	ADP	RP	_	16	compound:prt	_	SpaceAfter=No
18	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	19	punct	_	_
19	making	make	VERB	VBG	Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Part	16	advcl	_	_
20	short	short	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	21	amod	_	_
21	work	work	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	19	obj	_	_
22	of	of	ADP	IN	_	24	case	_	_
23	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	24	det	_	_
24	distance	distance	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	21	nmod	_	_
25	that	that	PRON	WDT	PronType=Rel	26	nsubj	_	_
26	lay	lie	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	24	acl:relcl	_	_
27	between	between	ADP	IN	_	29	case	_	_
28	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	29	det	_	_
29	palace	palace	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	26	obl	_	_
30	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	32	cc	_	_
31	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	32	det	_	_
32	Underworld	Underworld	PROPN	NNP	Number=Sing	29	conj	_	SpaceAfter=No
33	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	3	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

<!-- .fr -->
| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **have** | past | the king | no choice |  |  |  |  | vn birth-28.2-1 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent choice=Patient |
| 2 | **give** | to-infinitive | the king *not said here* | the letter | the man |  |  |  | vn give-13.1-1 «NP V NP-Dative NP»: agent=Agent man=Recipient letter=Theme |
| 3 | **stride off** | past | king |  |  |  |  |  | vn run-51.3.2-1 «NP V»: agent=Theme |
| 4 | **make** | gerund | king *not said here* | short work of the distance |  |  |  |  | vn build-26.1-1 «NP.asset V NP»: agent=Asset work=Product |
| 5 | **lie** | past | the distance |  |  | the palace and the Underworld |  |  | vn assuming\_position-50 «NP V PP.location»: agent=Agent between palace=Location |
| 6 | **work** |  | the distance |  |  |  |  |  | nom work «act intransitive»: of=agent |

<!-- .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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