---
title: Then the Hunter said that to the old donkey, which was the witch, th… — The Yellow Fairy Book · tree and pragmatics
description: Then the Hunter said that to the old donkey, which was the witch, three beatings and one meal; to the younger one, which was the servant, one beating and three meals; and to the youngest one, which was the maiden, no beating and three meals; for he could not find it in his heart to let the maiden be
---

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[Mova](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/) · [this page in HTML](https://mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg640/10/104/)

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# The Yellow Fairy Book, The Donkey Cabbage, part 1, sentence 104

<!-- .ven lang=en -->
Then the Hunter said that to the old donkey, which was the witch, three beatings and one meal; to the younger one, which was the servant, one beating and three meals; and to the youngest one, which was the maiden, no beating and three meals; for he could not find it in his heart to let the maiden be beaten.

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**Who acts:** Hunter, old donkey, younger one, youngest one · **What happens:** say, be, not find, let, beat · **To what, where:** witch, servant, meal, heart, maiden · **Speech:** someone speaks here

<!-- .vabout -->
This is a sentence of «The Yellow Fairy Book» by Andrew Lang, The Donkey Cabbage, part 1. The page gives its syntax tree — a dependency tree in the style of Universal Dependencies — and its pragmatics clause by clause: who acts (Hunter, old donkey, younger one, youngest one), what happens, when and where, as Mova's frames read it from the tree.

<!-- .note-en -->
**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:pg640:10:104
# text = Then the Hunter said that to the old donkey, which was the witch, three beatings and one meal; to the younger one, which was the servant, one beating and three meals; and to the youngest one, which was the maiden, no beating and three meals; for he could not find it in his heart to let the maiden be beaten.
1	Then	then	ADV	RB	PronType=Dem	4	advmod	_	_
2	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	3	det	_	_
3	Hunter	Hunter	PROPN	NNP	Number=Sing	4	nsubj	_	_
4	said	say	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	0	root	_	_
5	that	that	SCONJ	IN	_	9	mark	_	_
6	to	to	ADP	IN	_	9	case	_	_
7	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	9	det	_	_
8	old	old	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	9	amod	_	_
9	donkey	donkey	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	4	ccomp	_	SpaceAfter=No
10	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	14	punct	_	_
11	which	which	PRON	WDT	PronType=Rel	14	nsubj	_	_
12	was	be	AUX	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	14	cop	_	_
13	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	14	det	_	_
14	witch	witch	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	9	conj	_	SpaceAfter=No
15	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	17	punct	_	_
16	three	three	NUM	CD	NumForm=Word|NumType=Card	17	nummod	_	_
17	beatings	beating	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	14	appos	_	_
18	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	20	cc	_	_
19	one	one	NUM	CD	NumForm=Word|NumType=Card	20	nummod	_	_
20	meal	meal	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	17	conj	_	SpaceAfter=No
21	;	;	PUNCT	,	_	25	punct	_	_
22	to	to	ADP	IN	_	25	case	_	_
23	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	25	det	_	_
24	younger	young	ADJ	JJR	Degree=Cmp	25	amod	_	_
25	one	one	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	4	ccomp	_	SpaceAfter=No
26	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	30	punct	_	_
27	which	which	PRON	WDT	PronType=Rel	30	nsubj	_	_
28	was	be	AUX	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	30	cop	_	_
29	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	30	det	_	_
30	servant	servant	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	25	appos	_	SpaceAfter=No
31	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	33	punct	_	_
32	one	one	NUM	CD	NumForm=Word|NumType=Card	33	nummod	_	_
33	beating	beating	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	30	conj	_	_
34	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	36	cc	_	_
35	three	three	NUM	CD	NumForm=Word|NumType=Card	36	nummod	_	_
36	meals	meal	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	33	conj	_	SpaceAfter=No
37	;	;	PUNCT	:	_	38	punct	_	_
38	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	4	cc	_	_
39	to	to	ADP	IN	_	42	case	_	_
40	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	42	det	_	_
41	youngest	young	ADJ	JJS	Degree=Sup	42	amod	_	_
42	one	one	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	38	nmod	_	SpaceAfter=No
43	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	47	punct	_	_
44	which	which	PRON	WDT	PronType=Rel	47	nsubj	_	_
45	was	be	AUX	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	47	cop	_	_
46	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	47	det	_	_
47	maiden	maiden	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	42	acl:relcl	_	SpaceAfter=No
48	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	50	punct	_	_
49	no	no	DET	DT	PronType=Neg	50	det	_	_
50	beating	beating	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	47	conj	_	_
51	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	53	cc	_	_
52	three	three	NUM	CD	NumForm=Word|NumType=Card	53	nummod	_	_
53	meals	meal	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	50	conj	_	SpaceAfter=No
54	;	;	PUNCT	:	_	59	punct	_	_
55	for	for	SCONJ	IN	_	59	mark	_	_
56	he	he	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	59	nsubj	_	_
57	could	could	AUX	MD	VerbForm=Fin	59	aux	_	_
58	not	not	PART	RB	Polarity=Neg	59	advmod	_	_
59	find	find	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	47	parataxis	_	_
60	it	it	PRON	PRP	Case=Acc|Gender=Neut|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	59	obj	_	_
61	in	in	ADP	IN	_	63	case	_	_
62	his	his	PRON	PRP$	Case=Gen|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|Poss=Yes|PronType=Prs	63	nmod:poss	_	_
63	heart	heart	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	59	obl	_	_
64	to	to	PART	TO	_	65	mark	_	_
65	let	let	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	59	advcl	_	_
66	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	69	det	_	_
67	maiden	maiden	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	69	nsubj:pass	_	_
68	be	be	AUX	VB	VerbForm=Inf	69	aux:pass	_	_
69	beaten	beat	VERB	VBN	Tense=Past|VerbForm=Part|Voice=Pass	65	xcomp	_	SpaceAfter=No
70	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	4	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

<!-- .fr -->
| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **say** *speech: assert* | past | the Hunter |  |  |  | then |  | vn say-37.7-1-1 «NP V that S»: agent=Agent |
| 2 | **is a** | past | the old donkey and the witch | the witch |  |  |  |  | tree rules |
| 3 | **is a** | past | the younger one | the servant and one beating and three meals |  |  |  |  | tree rules |
| 4 | **is** | past | the youngest one |  |  |  |  | maiden *property* | tree rules |
| 5 | **not** **find** | could | Hunter | meal |  | Hunter's heart |  |  | vn discover-84 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent it=Topic |
| 6 | **let** | to-infinitive | Hunter *not said here* |  |  |  |  |  | tree rules |
| 7 | **beat** | infinitive · passive |  | maiden |  |  |  |  | vn sound\_emission-43.2 «PP.location V NP»: subject=Theme |

<!-- .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 Yellow Fairy Book» by Andrew Lang, Project Gutenberg book 640 (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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