---
title: The father was not much in favour of this, for he was now old and we… — The Pink Fairy Book · tree and pragmatics
description: The father was not much in favour of this, for he was now old and weak, and could not well spare them from helping him with his work, but in the long run he had to give in. Who acts: father, man. A sentence of «The Pink Fairy Book» by Andrew Lang, The Pink Fairy Book, part 28, with its dependency tr
---

<!-- md -->
[Mova](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/) · [this page in HTML](https://mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg5615/28/8/)

<!-- crumbs -->
[home](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/) / [corpora](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/) / [tales](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/) / [The Pink Fairy Book](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg5615/) / [The Pink Fairy Book, part 28](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg5615/28/) / 8

# The Pink Fairy Book, The Pink Fairy Book, part 28, sentence 8

<!-- .ven lang=en -->
The father was not much in favour of this, for he was now old and weak, and could not well spare them from helping him with his work, but in the long run he had to give in.

<!-- .vintro -->
**Who acts:** father, man · **What happens:** be, not spare, help, have, give in, work · **To what, where:** much favour, father, man, long run

<!-- .vabout -->
This is a sentence of «The Pink Fairy Book» by Andrew Lang, The Pink Fairy Book, part 28. The page gives its syntax tree — a dependency tree in the style of Universal Dependencies — and its pragmatics clause by clause: who acts (father, man), 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:pg5615:28:8
# text = The father was not much in favour of this, for he was now old and weak, and could not well spare them from helping him with his work, but in the long run he had to give in.
1	The	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	2	det	_	_
2	father	father	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	7	nsubj	_	_
3	was	be	AUX	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	7	cop	_	_
4	not	not	PART	RB	Polarity=Neg	5	advmod	_	_
5	much	much	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	7	amod	_	_
6	in	in	ADP	IN	_	7	case	_	_
7	favour	favour	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	0	root	_	_
8	of	of	ADP	IN	_	9	case	_	_
9	this	this	PRON	DT	Number=Sing|PronType=Dem	7	nmod	_	SpaceAfter=No
10	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	15	punct	_	_
11	for	for	ADP	IN	_	15	case	_	_
12	he	he	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	15	nsubj	_	_
13	was	be	AUX	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	15	cop	_	_
14	now	now	ADV	RB	PronType=Dem	15	advmod	_	_
15	old	old	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	7	parataxis	_	_
16	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	17	cc	_	_
17	weak	weak	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	15	conj	_	SpaceAfter=No
18	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	23	punct	_	_
19	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	23	cc	_	_
20	could	could	AUX	MD	VerbForm=Fin	23	aux	_	_
21	not	not	PART	RB	Polarity=Neg	23	advmod	_	_
22	well	well	ADV	RB	Degree=Pos	23	advmod	_	_
23	spare	spare	VERB	VB	Mood=Imp|VerbForm=Fin	7	parataxis	_	_
24	them	they	PRON	PRP	Case=Acc|Number=Plur|Person=3|PronType=Prs	23	obj	_	_
25	from	from	ADP	IN	_	26	case	_	_
26	helping	help	VERB	VBG	Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Part	23	obl	_	_
27	him	he	PRON	PRP	Case=Acc|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	26	obj	_	_
28	with	with	ADP	IN	_	30	case	_	_
29	his	his	PRON	PRP$	Case=Gen|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|Poss=Yes|PronType=Prs	30	nmod:poss	_	_
30	work	work	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	26	obl	_	SpaceAfter=No
31	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	38	punct	_	_
32	but	but	CCONJ	CC	_	38	cc	_	_
33	in	in	ADP	IN	_	36	case	_	_
34	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	36	det	_	_
35	long	long	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	36	amod	_	_
36	run	run	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	38	obl	_	_
37	he	he	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	38	nsubj	_	_
38	had	have	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	23	conj	_	_
39	to	to	PART	TO	_	40	mark	_	_
40	give	give	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	38	xcomp	_	_
41	in	in	ADP	RP	_	40	compound:prt	_	SpaceAfter=No
42	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	7	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

<!-- .fr -->
| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **is** | past | the father |  |  | much favour |  | of this | tree rules |
| 2 | **is** | past | man |  |  |  | now | old *property* | tree rules |
| 3 | **be** |  | man *not said here* |  |  |  |  |  | tree rules |
| 4 | **not** **spare** | could |  | father |  |  |  | well *property* | vn bill-54.5 «NP V NP NP.asset»: agent=Agent they=Asset |
| 5 | **help** | gerund |  |  | man |  |  | with man's work | vn help-72.1-1-1 «NP V NP PP.theme»: agent=Agent he=Beneficiary with work=Theme |
| 6 | **have** | past | man |  |  | the long run |  |  | tree rules |
| 7 | **give in** | to-infinitive | man *not said here* |  |  |  |  |  | vn acquiesce-95.1-1 «NP V»: agent=Agent |
| 8 | **work** |  | man |  |  |  |  |  | nom work «act intransitive»: poss=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.

<!-- div src -->

**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.

<!-- /div -->

<!-- pn -->
- ← previous: [sentence 7](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg5615/28/7/)
- next →: [sentence 9](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg5615/28/9/)
- ↑ back to [The Pink Fairy Book, part 28](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg5615/28/)