---
title: And he did not want to sell the house, because it had belonged to hi… — The Pink Fairy Book · tree and pragmatics
description: And he did not want to sell the house, because it had belonged to his family for generations; otherwise he could have divided the money equally amongst them. Who acts: father, house. A sentence of «The Pink Fairy Book» by Andrew Lang, The Pink Fairy Book, part 8, with its dependency tree and the pra
---

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# The Pink Fairy Book, The Pink Fairy Book, part 8, sentence 12

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And he did not want to sell the house, because it had belonged to his family for generations; otherwise he could have divided the money equally amongst them.

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**Who acts:** father, house · **What happens:** not want, sell, belong, divide · **To what, where:** house, father

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This is a sentence of «The Pink Fairy Book» by Andrew Lang, The Pink Fairy Book, part 8. The page gives its syntax tree — a dependency tree in the style of Universal Dependencies — and its pragmatics clause by clause: who acts (father, house), 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:pg5615:8:12
# text = And he did not want to sell the house, because it had belonged to his family for generations; otherwise he could have divided the money equally amongst them.
1	And	and	CCONJ	CC	_	5	cc	_	_
2	he	he	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	5	nsubj	_	_
3	did	do	AUX	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	5	aux	_	_
4	not	not	PART	RB	Polarity=Neg	5	advmod	_	_
5	want	want	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	0	root	_	_
6	to	to	PART	TO	_	7	mark	_	_
7	sell	sell	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	5	xcomp	_	_
8	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	9	det	_	_
9	house	house	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	7	obj	_	SpaceAfter=No
10	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	14	punct	_	_
11	because	because	SCONJ	IN	_	14	mark	_	_
12	it	it	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Gender=Neut|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	14	nsubj	_	_
13	had	have	AUX	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	14	aux	_	_
14	belonged	belong	VERB	VBN	Tense=Past|VerbForm=Part	5	parataxis	_	_
15	to	to	ADP	IN	_	17	case	_	_
16	his	his	PRON	PRP$	Case=Gen|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|Poss=Yes|PronType=Prs	17	nmod:poss	_	_
17	family	family	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	14	obl	_	_
18	for	for	ADP	IN	_	19	case	_	_
19	generations	generation	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	14	obl	_	SpaceAfter=No
20	;	;	PUNCT	:	_	25	punct	_	_
21	otherwise	otherwise	ADV	RB	_	25	advmod	_	_
22	he	he	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	25	nsubj:pass	_	_
23	could	could	AUX	MD	VerbForm=Fin	25	aux	_	_
24	have	have	AUX	VB	VerbForm=Inf	25	aux	_	_
25	divided	divide	VERB	VBN	Tense=Past|VerbForm=Part|Voice=Pass	5	parataxis	_	_
26	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	27	det	_	_
27	money	money	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	25	obj	_	_
28	equally	equally	ADV	RB	_	25	advmod	_	_
29	amongst	amongst	ADP	IN	_	30	case	_	_
30	them	they	PRON	PRP	Case=Acc|Number=Plur|Person=3|PronType=Prs	25	obl	_	SpaceAfter=No
31	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	5	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

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| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **not** **want** | past · do-support | father |  |  |  |  |  | vn want-32.1-1-1 «NP V NP S\_INF»: agent=Pivot clause=Theme |
| 2 | **sell** *not said to happen* | to-infinitive | father *not said here* | the house |  |  |  |  | vn give-13.1-1 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent house=Theme |
| 3 | **belong** | past · perfect | house |  |  |  | for generations | to father's family | vn attend-107.4-2 «NP V PP»: agent=Theme |
| 4 | **divide** | could · perfect · passive |  | father |  |  | amongst generations *= generation* | equally, otherwise *property* | tree rules |

<!-- .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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