---
title: He soon began to ask for money for the mere pleasure of it, and ther… — The Pink Fairy Book · tree and pragmatics
description: He soon began to ask for money for the mere pleasure of it, and there was always as much as he needed. Who acts: Don. A sentence of «The Pink Fairy Book» by Andrew Lang, The Pink Fairy Book, part 39, 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/pg5615/39/24/)

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# The Pink Fairy Book, The Pink Fairy Book, part 39, sentence 24

<!-- .ven lang=en -->
He soon began to ask for money for the mere pleasure of it, and there was always as much as he needed.

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**Who acts:** Don · **What happens:** begin, ask, be, need, please · **To what, where:** pleasure

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This is a sentence of «The Pink Fairy Book» by Andrew Lang, The Pink Fairy Book, part 39. The page gives its syntax tree — a dependency tree in the style of Universal Dependencies — and its pragmatics clause by clause: who acts (Don), 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:pg5615:39:24
# text = He soon began to ask for money for the mere pleasure of it, and there was always as much as he needed.
1	He	he	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	3	nsubj	_	_
2	soon	soon	ADV	RB	Degree=Pos	3	advmod	_	_
3	began	begin	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	0	root	_	_
4	to	to	PART	TO	_	5	mark	_	_
5	ask	ask	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	3	xcomp	_	_
6	for	for	ADP	IN	_	7	case	_	_
7	money	money	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	5	obl	_	_
8	for	for	ADP	IN	_	11	case	_	_
9	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	11	det	_	_
10	mere	mere	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	11	amod	_	_
11	pleasure	pleasure	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	5	obl	_	_
12	of	of	ADP	IN	_	13	case	_	_
13	it	it	PRON	PRP	Case=Acc|Gender=Neut|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	11	nmod	_	SpaceAfter=No
14	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	20	punct	_	_
15	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	20	cc	_	_
16	there	there	PRON	EX	PronType=Dem	20	expl	_	_
17	was	be	AUX	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	20	cop	_	_
18	always	always	ADV	RB	PronType=Tot	20	advmod	_	_
19	as	as	ADV	RB	_	20	advmod	_	_
20	much	much	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	3	conj	_	_
21	as	as	SCONJ	IN	_	23	mark	_	_
22	he	he	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	23	nsubj	_	_
23	needed	need	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	20	advcl	_	SpaceAfter=No
24	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	3	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

<!-- .fr -->
| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **begin** | past | Don |  |  |  |  | soon *property* | vn begin-55.1-1-1 «NP V S\_INF»: agent=Agent clause=Eventuality |
| 2 | **ask** *speech: ask* | to-infinitive | Don *not said here* |  |  |  |  | for money; for the mere pleasure of pleasure | vn inquire-37.1.2 «NP V»: agent=Agent |
| 3 | **is** | past | Don *not said here* |  |  | there |  | always, much *property* | tree rules |
| 4 | **need** | past | Don |  |  |  |  |  | vn want-32.1-1-1 «NP V NP S\_INF»: agent=Pivot |
| 5 | **please** |  |  | pleasure |  |  |  |  | nom pleasure «feeling transitive»: of=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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