---
title: He bade his sons fetch a lawyer, so that he might make his will, and… — The Pink Fairy Book · tree and pragmatics
description: He bade his sons fetch a lawyer, so that he might make his will, and when the man arrived he explained his wishes. Who acts: father, sons, man. A sentence of «The Pink Fairy Book» by Andrew Lang, The Pink Fairy Book, part 37, with its dependency tree and the pragmatics of every clause.
---

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[Mova](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/) · [this page in HTML](https://mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg5615/37/16/)

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# The Pink Fairy Book, The Pink Fairy Book, part 37, sentence 16

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He bade his sons fetch a lawyer, so that he might make his will, and when the man arrived he explained his wishes.

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**Who acts:** father, sons, man · **What happens:** bade, fetch, make, arrive, explain, wish · **To what, where:** lawyer, wishes

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This is a sentence of «The Pink Fairy Book» by Andrew Lang, The Pink Fairy Book, part 37. The page gives its syntax tree — a dependency tree in the style of Universal Dependencies — and its pragmatics clause by clause: who acts (father, sons, man), 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:pg5615:37:16
# text = He bade his sons fetch a lawyer, so that he might make his will, and when the man arrived he explained his wishes.
1	He	he	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	2	nsubj	_	_
2	bade	bade	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	0	root	_	_
3	his	his	PRON	PRP$	Case=Gen|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|Poss=Yes|PronType=Prs	4	nmod:poss	_	_
4	sons	son	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	5	nsubj	_	_
5	fetch	fetch	VERB	VBP	Mood=Ind|Number=Plur|Person=3|Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Fin	2	ccomp	_	_
6	a	a	DET	DT	Definite=Ind|PronType=Art	7	det	_	_
7	lawyer	lawyer	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	5	obj	_	SpaceAfter=No
8	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	13	punct	_	_
9	so	so	SCONJ	IN	ExtPos=SCONJ	13	mark	_	_
10	that	that	SCONJ	IN	_	9	fixed	_	_
11	he	he	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	13	nsubj	_	_
12	might	might	AUX	MD	VerbForm=Fin	13	aux	_	_
13	make	make	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	2	parataxis	_	_
14	his	his	PRON	PRP$	Case=Gen|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|Poss=Yes|PronType=Prs	15	nmod:poss	_	_
15	will	will	AUX	MD	VerbForm=Fin	13	conj	_	SpaceAfter=No
16	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	23	punct	_	_
17	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	23	cc	_	_
18	when	when	SCONJ	WRB	_	21	mark	_	_
19	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	20	det	_	_
20	man	man	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	21	nsubj	_	_
21	arrived	arrive	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	23	advcl	_	_
22	he	he	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	23	nsubj	_	_
23	explained	explain	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	2	parataxis	_	_
24	his	his	PRON	PRP$	Case=Gen|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|Poss=Yes|PronType=Prs	25	nmod:poss	_	_
25	wishes	wish	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	23	obj	_	SpaceAfter=No
26	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	2	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

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| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **bade** | past | father |  |  |  |  |  | tree rules |
| 2 | **fetch** | present | father's sons | a lawyer |  |  |  |  | vn get-13.5.1-1 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent lawyer=Theme |
| 3 | **make** | might | father |  |  |  |  |  | vn build-26.1-1 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent |
| 4 | **arrive** | past | the man |  |  |  |  |  | vn escape-51.1-1 «NP V»: agent=Theme |
| 5 | **explain** *speech: assert* | past | father | father's wishes |  |  |  |  | vn transfer\_mesg-37.1.1 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent wish=Topic |
| 6 | **wish** |  | father |  |  |  |  |  | nom wish «feeling intransitive»: poss=agent |

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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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