---
title: Then came some boys and prayed him, “master, give us work,’ but he a… — The Pink Fairy Book · tree and pragmatics
description: Then came some boys and prayed him, “master, give us work,’ but he answered them, ‘Of what use can you be, weaklings as you are! Who acts: boys, man, you. A sentence of «The Pink Fairy Book» by Andrew Lang, The Pink Fairy Book, part 19, 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/pg5615/19/29/)

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# The Pink Fairy Book, The Pink Fairy Book, part 19, sentence 29

<!-- .ven lang=en -->
Then came some boys and prayed him, “master, give us work,’ but he answered them, ‘Of what use can you be, weaklings as you are!

<!-- .vintro -->
**Who acts:** boys, man, you · **What happens:** come, pray, give, answer, use, be · **To what, where:** man, work, us, boys, weaklings · **Speech:** someone speaks here

<!-- .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 (boys, man, you), 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:pg5615:19:29
# text = Then came some boys and prayed him, “master, give us work,’ but he answered them, ‘Of what use can you be, weaklings as you are!
1	Then	then	ADV	RB	PronType=Dem	2	advmod	_	_
2	came	come	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Plur|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	0	root	_	_
3	some	some	DET	DT	PronType=Ind	4	det	_	_
4	boys	boy	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	2	nsubj	_	_
5	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	6	cc	_	_
6	prayed	pray	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Plur|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	2	conj	_	_
7	him	he	PRON	PRP	Case=Acc|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	6	obj	_	SpaceAfter=No
8	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	10	punct	_	_
9	“	"	PUNCT	``	_	10	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
10	master	master	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	6	obl	_	SpaceAfter=No
11	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	12	punct	_	_
12	give	give	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	2	parataxis	_	_
13	us	we	PRON	PRP	Case=Acc|Number=Plur|Person=1|PronType=Prs	12	iobj	_	_
14	work	work	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	12	obj	_	SpaceAfter=No
15	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	12	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
16	’	'	PUNCT	''	_	12	punct	_	_
17	but	but	CCONJ	CC	_	19	cc	_	_
18	he	he	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	19	nsubj	_	_
19	answered	answer	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	2	conj	_	_
20	them	they	PRON	PRP	Case=Acc|Number=Plur|Person=3|PronType=Prs	19	obj	_	SpaceAfter=No
21	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	25	punct	_	_
22	‘	'	PUNCT	``	_	25	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
23	Of	of	ADP	IN	_	25	case	_	_
24	what	what	PRON	WP	PronType=Int	25	nsubj	_	_
25	use	use	VERB	VBP	Mood=Ind|Number=Plur|Person=3|Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Fin	19	conj	_	_
26	can	can	AUX	MD	VerbForm=Fin	30	aux	_	_
27	you	you	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Person=2|PronType=Prs	30	nsubj	_	_
28	be	be	AUX	VB	VerbForm=Inf	30	cop	_	SpaceAfter=No
29	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	30	punct	_	_
30	weaklings	weakling	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	25	obj	_	_
31	as	as	SCONJ	IN	_	33	mark	_	_
32	you	you	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Person=2|PronType=Prs	33	nsubj	_	_
33	are	be	VERB	VBP	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=2|Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Fin	25	advcl	_	SpaceAfter=No
34	!	!	PUNCT	.	_	2	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

<!-- .fr -->
| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **come** | past | some boys |  |  |  | then |  | tree rules |
| 2 | **pray** | past | some boys *not said here* | man |  |  |  | master *obl* | tree rules |
| 3 | **give** *in a quote* | infinitive |  | work | us |  |  |  | vn give-13.1-1 «NP V NP-Dative NP»: agent=Agent we=Recipient work=Theme |
| 4 | **answer** *speech: assert* *in a quote* | past | man |  | boys *= boy* |  |  |  | vn reciprocate-112-1 «NP V PP»: agent=Agent they=Eventuality |
| 5 | **use** *in a quote* | present |  |  |  |  |  |  | vn eat-39.1 «NP V»: agent=Agent |
| 6 | **is a** *in a quote* | can | you | weaklings |  |  |  |  | tree rules |
| 7 | **does** *in a quote* | present | you |  |  |  |  |  | vn exist-47.1 «NP V»: agent=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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