---
title: At first he refused to tell her, but she then related to him her own… — The Pink Fairy Book · tree and pragmatics
description: At first he refused to tell her, but she then related to him her own story, and how she had succeeded in delivering the lindorm. Who acts: man, queen. A sentence of «The Pink Fairy Book» by Andrew Lang, The Pink Fairy Book, part 33, with its dependency tree and the pragmatics of every clause.
---

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# The Pink Fairy Book, The Pink Fairy Book, part 33, sentence 81

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At first he refused to tell her, but she then related to him her own story, and how she had succeeded in delivering the lindorm.

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**Who acts:** man, queen · **What happens:** refuse, not tell, relate, succeed, deliver · **To what, where:** queen, own story, man, lindorm · **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 (man, queen), 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:pg5615:33:81
# text = At first he refused to tell her, but she then related to him her own story, and how she had succeeded in delivering the lindorm.
1	At	at	ADP	IN	_	2	case	_	_
2	first	first	ADV	RB	NumForm=Word|NumType=Ord	4	obl	_	_
3	he	he	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	4	nsubj	_	_
4	refused	refuse	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	0	root	_	_
5	to	to	PART	TO	_	6	mark	_	_
6	tell	tell	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	4	xcomp	_	_
7	her	she	PRON	PRP	Case=Acc|Gender=Fem|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	6	iobj	_	SpaceAfter=No
8	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	12	punct	_	_
9	but	but	CCONJ	CC	_	12	cc	_	_
10	she	she	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Gender=Fem|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	12	nsubj	_	_
11	then	then	ADV	RB	PronType=Dem	12	advmod	_	_
12	related	relate	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	4	conj	_	_
13	to	to	ADP	IN	_	14	case	_	_
14	him	he	PRON	PRP	Case=Acc|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	12	obl	_	_
15	her	her	PRON	PRP$	Case=Gen|Gender=Fem|Number=Sing|Person=3|Poss=Yes|PronType=Prs	17	nmod:poss	_	_
16	own	own	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	17	amod	_	_
17	story	story	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	12	obj	_	SpaceAfter=No
18	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	23	punct	_	_
19	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	23	cc	_	_
20	how	how	ADV	WRB	PronType=Int	23	advmod	_	_
21	she	she	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Gender=Fem|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	23	nsubj	_	_
22	had	have	AUX	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	23	aux	_	_
23	succeeded	succeed	VERB	VBN	Tense=Past|VerbForm=Part	4	conj	_	_
24	in	in	SCONJ	IN	_	25	mark	_	_
25	delivering	deliver	VERB	VBG	Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Part	23	advcl	_	_
26	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	27	det	_	_
27	lindorm	lindorm	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	25	obj	_	SpaceAfter=No
28	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	4	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

<!-- .fr -->
| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **refuse** | past | man |  |  |  |  |  | vn reject-77.2 «NP V S\_ING»: agent=Agent clause=Theme |
| 2 | **not** **tell** *speech: assert* | to-infinitive | man *not said here* |  | queen |  |  |  | vn transfer\_mesg-37.1.1-1-1 «NP V NP.recipient»: agent=Agent she=Recipient |
| 3 | **relate** | past | queen | queen's own story | man |  | then |  | vn say-37.7-1-1 «NP V NP PP.recipient»: agent=Agent story=Topic to he=Recipient |
| 4 | **succeed** | past · perfect | queen |  |  |  |  |  | vn succeed-74-1 «NP V»: agent=Agent |
| 5 | **deliver** | gerund | queen *not said here* | the lindorm |  |  |  |  | vn birth-28.2-1-1 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent lindorm=Patient |

<!-- .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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