---
title: They took them both in their arms, and asked him to tell about his s… — The Pink Fairy Book · tree and pragmatics
description: They took them both in their arms, and asked him to tell about his sorrowful lot during the twenty years he had lived in the forest as a hideous lindorm. Who acts: women, king. A sentence of «The Pink Fairy Book» by Andrew Lang, The Pink Fairy Book, part 33, with its dependency tree and the pragmati
---

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# The Pink Fairy Book, The Pink Fairy Book, part 33, sentence 41

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They took them both in their arms, and asked him to tell about his sorrowful lot during the twenty years he had lived in the forest as a hideous lindorm.

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**Who acts:** women, king · **What happens:** take, ask, tell, live · **To what, where:** instructions, arms, king, forest · **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 33. The page gives its syntax tree — a dependency tree in the style of Universal Dependencies — and its pragmatics clause by clause: who acts (women, king), 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:pg5615:33:41
# text = They took them both in their arms, and asked him to tell about his sorrowful lot during the twenty years he had lived in the forest as a hideous lindorm.
1	They	they	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Number=Plur|Person=3|PronType=Prs	2	nsubj	_	_
2	took	take	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Plur|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	0	root	_	_
3	them	they	PRON	PRP	Case=Acc|Number=Plur|Person=3|PronType=Prs	2	obj	_	_
4	both	both	ADV	RB	_	2	advmod	_	_
5	in	in	ADP	IN	_	7	case	_	_
6	their	their	PRON	PRP$	Case=Gen|Number=Plur|Person=3|Poss=Yes|PronType=Prs	7	nmod:poss	_	_
7	arms	arm	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	2	obl	_	SpaceAfter=No
8	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	10	punct	_	_
9	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	10	cc	_	_
10	asked	ask	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Plur|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	2	conj	_	_
11	him	he	PRON	PRP	Case=Acc|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	10	iobj	_	_
12	to	to	PART	TO	_	13	mark	_	_
13	tell	tell	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	10	xcomp	_	_
14	about	about	ADP	IN	_	17	case	_	_
15	his	his	PRON	PRP$	Case=Gen|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|Poss=Yes|PronType=Prs	17	nmod:poss	_	_
16	sorrowful	sorrowful	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	17	amod	_	_
17	lot	lot	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	13	obl	_	_
18	during	during	ADP	IN	_	21	case	_	_
19	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	21	det	_	_
20	twenty	twenty	NUM	CD	NumForm=Word|NumType=Card	21	nummod	_	_
21	years	year	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	13	obl	_	_
22	he	he	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	24	nsubj	_	_
23	had	have	AUX	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	24	aux	_	_
24	lived	live	VERB	VBN	Tense=Past|VerbForm=Part	10	parataxis	_	_
25	in	in	ADP	IN	_	27	case	_	_
26	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	27	det	_	_
27	forest	forest	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	24	obl	_	_
28	as	as	ADP	IN	_	31	case	_	_
29	a	a	DET	DT	Definite=Ind|PronType=Art	31	det	_	_
30	hideous	hideous	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	31	amod	_	_
31	lindorm	lindorm	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	24	obl	_	SpaceAfter=No
32	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	2	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

<!-- .fr -->
| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **take** | past | women *= woman* | instructions *= instruction* |  | women's arms |  | both *property* | vn fit-54.3 «NP V NP PP.location»: agent=Agent they=Value in arm=Location |
| 2 | **ask** *speech: ask* | past | women *= woman* *not said here* |  | king |  |  |  | vn inquire-37.1.2 «NP V NP whether S\_INF»: agent=Agent he=Recipient clause=Topic |
| 3 | **tell** *speech: assert* *not said to happen* | to-infinitive | women *= woman* *not said here* |  |  |  | year | about king's sorrowful lot | vn transfer\_mesg-37.1.1-1-1 «NP V NP S\_ING»: agent=Agent about lot=Topic |
| 4 | **live** | past · perfect | king |  |  | the forest |  | as a hideous lindorm | vn lodge-46 «NP V PP.location»: agent=Theme in forest=Location |

<!-- .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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