---
title: By this time Esben was tired of staying in the dark hole, so he told… — The Pink Fairy Book · tree and pragmatics
description: By this time Esben was tired of staying in the dark hole, so he told her to go and cut a teat off a cow, and give it to the witch to bite at. Who acts: Esben, property. A sentence of «The Pink Fairy Book» by Andrew Lang, The Pink Fairy Book, part 29, with its dependency tree and the pragmatics of ev
---

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# The Pink Fairy Book, The Pink Fairy Book, part 29, sentence 63

<!-- .ven lang=en -->
By this time Esben was tired of staying in the dark hole, so he told her to go and cut a teat off a cow, and give it to the witch to bite at.

<!-- .vintro -->
**Who acts:** Esben, property · **What happens:** be, stay, tell, go, cut, give · **To what, where:** dark hole, Esben, teat, witch · **Speech:** someone speaks here

<!-- .vabout -->
This is a sentence of «The Pink Fairy Book» by Andrew Lang, The Pink Fairy Book, part 29. The page gives its syntax tree — a dependency tree in the style of Universal Dependencies — and its pragmatics clause by clause: who acts (Esben, property), 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:pg5615:29:63
# text = By this time Esben was tired of staying in the dark hole, so he told her to go and cut a teat off a cow, and give it to the witch to bite at.
1	By	by	ADP	IN	_	3	case	_	_
2	this	this	DET	DT	Number=Sing|PronType=Dem	3	det	_	_
3	time	time	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	6	obl	_	_
4	Esben	Esben	PROPN	NNP	Number=Sing	6	nsubj	_	_
5	was	be	AUX	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	6	cop	_	_
6	tired	tired	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	0	root	_	_
7	of	of	SCONJ	IN	_	8	mark	_	_
8	staying	stay	VERB	VBG	Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Part	6	advcl	_	_
9	in	in	ADP	IN	_	12	case	_	_
10	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	12	det	_	_
11	dark	dark	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	12	amod	_	_
12	hole	hole	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	8	obl	_	SpaceAfter=No
13	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	16	punct	_	_
14	so	so	ADV	RB	_	16	advmod	_	_
15	he	he	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	16	nsubj	_	_
16	told	tell	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	6	parataxis	_	_
17	her	she	PRON	PRP	Case=Acc|Gender=Fem|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	16	iobj	_	_
18	to	to	PART	TO	_	19	mark	_	_
19	go	go	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	16	xcomp	_	_
20	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	21	cc	_	_
21	cut	cut	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	19	conj	_	_
22	a	a	DET	DT	Definite=Ind|PronType=Art	23	det	_	_
23	teat	teat	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	21	obj	_	_
24	off	off	ADP	IN	_	26	case	_	_
25	a	a	DET	DT	Definite=Ind|PronType=Art	26	det	_	_
26	cow	cow	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	21	obl	_	SpaceAfter=No
27	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	29	punct	_	_
28	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	29	cc	_	_
29	give	give	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	19	conj	_	_
30	it	it	PRON	PRP	Case=Acc|Gender=Neut|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	29	obj	_	_
31	to	to	ADP	IN	_	33	case	_	_
32	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	33	det	_	_
33	witch	witch	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	29	obl	_	_
34	to	to	PART	TO	_	35	mark	_	_
35	bite	bite	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	33	acl	_	_
36	at	at	ADP	IN	_	35	obl	_	SpaceAfter=No
37	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	6	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

<!-- .fr -->
| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **is** | past | Esben |  |  |  | time | tired *property* | tree rules |
| 2 | **stay** | gerund | Esben *not said here* |  |  | the dark hole |  |  | vn exist-47.1 «NP V PP.location»: agent=Theme in hole=Location |
| 3 | **tell** *speech: assert* | past | property |  | Esben |  |  |  | vn transfer\_mesg-37.1.1-1-1 «NP V NP S\_INF»: agent=Agent she=Recipient clause=Topic |
| 4 | **go** *not said to happen* | to-infinitive | property *not said here* |  |  |  |  |  | vn disappearance-48.2-1 «NP V»: agent=Theme |
| 5 | **cut** | infinitive | property *not said here* | a teat |  |  |  | off a cow | vn split-23.2 «NP V NP PP.co-patient»: agent=Agent teat=Patient off cow=Co-Patient |
| 6 | **give** | infinitive | property *not said here* | teat | the witch |  |  |  | vn give-13.1-1 «NP V NP PP.recipient»: agent=Agent it=Theme to witch=Recipient |
| 7 | **bite** | to-infinitive | property *not said here* |  |  |  |  |  | vn swat-18.2 «NP V PP»: agent=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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