---
title: The farmer said he wanted a cowherd, as his own had left him, and if… — The Pink Fairy Book · tree and pragmatics
description: The farmer said he wanted a cowherd, as his own had left him, and if the girl liked the place she might take it. Who acts: farmer, girl. A sentence of «The Pink Fairy Book» by Andrew Lang, The Pink Fairy Book, part 21, with its dependency tree and the pragmatics of every clause.
---

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# The Pink Fairy Book, The Pink Fairy Book, part 21, sentence 12

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The farmer said he wanted a cowherd, as his own had left him, and if the girl liked the place she might take it.

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**Who acts:** farmer, girl · **What happens:** say, want, leave, like, take · **To what, where:** cowherd, own, place · **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 21. The page gives its syntax tree — a dependency tree in the style of Universal Dependencies — and its pragmatics clause by clause: who acts (farmer, girl), 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:pg5615:21:12
# text = The farmer said he wanted a cowherd, as his own had left him, and if the girl liked the place she might take it.
1	The	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	2	det	_	_
2	farmer	farmer	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	3	nsubj	_	_
3	said	say	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	0	root	_	_
4	he	he	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	5	nsubj	_	_
5	wanted	want	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	3	ccomp	_	_
6	a	a	DET	DT	Definite=Ind|PronType=Art	7	det	_	_
7	cowherd	cowherd	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	5	obj	_	SpaceAfter=No
8	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	13	punct	_	_
9	as	as	SCONJ	IN	_	13	mark	_	_
10	his	his	PRON	PRP$	Case=Gen|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|Poss=Yes|PronType=Prs	11	nmod:poss	_	_
11	own	own	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	13	obl	_	_
12	had	have	AUX	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	13	aux	_	_
13	left	leave	VERB	VBN	Tense=Past|VerbForm=Part	5	conj	_	_
14	him	he	PRON	PRP	Case=Acc|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	13	obj	_	SpaceAfter=No
15	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	20	punct	_	_
16	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	20	cc	_	_
17	if	if	SCONJ	IN	_	20	mark	_	_
18	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	19	det	_	_
19	girl	girl	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	20	nsubj	_	_
20	liked	like	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	3	conj	_	_
21	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	22	det	_	_
22	place	place	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	20	obj	_	_
23	she	she	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Gender=Fem|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	25	nsubj	_	_
24	might	might	AUX	MD	VerbForm=Fin	25	aux	_	_
25	take	take	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	20	ccomp	_	_
26	it	it	PRON	PRP	Case=Acc|Gender=Neut|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	25	obj	_	SpaceAfter=No
27	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	3	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

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| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **say** *speech: assert* | past | the farmer |  |  |  |  |  | vn say-37.7-1-1 «NP V that S»: agent=Agent clause=Topic |
| 2 | **want** | past | farmer | a cowherd |  |  |  |  | vn want-32.1-1-1 «NP V NP ADV»: agent=Pivot cowherd=Theme |
| 3 | **leave** | past · perfect | farmer *not said here* | farmer's own |  |  |  |  | vn keep-15.2 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent he=Theme |
| 4 | **like** *a condition, not said to happen* | past | the girl | the place |  |  |  |  | tree rules |
| 5 | **take** | might | girl | place |  |  |  |  | vn bring-11.3 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent it=Theme |

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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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