---
title: After a couple of days the miller came and said that he must tell hi… — The Yellow Fairy Book · tree and pragmatics
description: After a couple of days the miller came and said that he must tell him that the old donkey which was to have three beatings and only one meal had died. Who acts: miller, old donkey, one meal. A sentence of «The Yellow Fairy Book» by Andrew Lang, The Donkey Cabbage, part 1, with its dependency tree an
---

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[Mova](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/) · [this page in HTML](https://mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg640/10/106/)

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# The Yellow Fairy Book, The Donkey Cabbage, part 1, sentence 106

<!-- .ven lang=en -->
After a couple of days the miller came and said that he must tell him that the old donkey which was to have three beatings and only one meal had died.

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**Who acts:** miller, old donkey, one meal · **What happens:** come, say, tell, have, die · **To what, where:** Hunter, three beatings · **Speech:** someone speaks here

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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 (miller, old donkey, one meal), 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:pg640:10:106
# text = After a couple of days the miller came and said that he must tell him that the old donkey which was to have three beatings and only one meal had died.
1	After	after	ADP	IN	_	3	case	_	_
2	a	a	DET	DT	Definite=Ind|PronType=Art	3	det	_	_
3	couple	couple	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	8	obl	_	_
4	of	of	ADP	IN	_	5	case	_	_
5	days	day	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	3	nmod	_	_
6	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	7	det	_	_
7	miller	miller	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	8	nsubj	_	_
8	came	come	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	0	root	_	_
9	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	10	cc	_	_
10	said	say	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	8	conj	_	_
11	that	that	SCONJ	IN	_	14	mark	_	_
12	he	he	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	14	nsubj	_	_
13	must	must	AUX	MD	VerbForm=Fin	14	aux	_	_
14	tell	tell	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	10	ccomp	_	_
15	him	he	PRON	PRP	Case=Acc|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	14	iobj	_	_
16	that	that	SCONJ	IN	_	19	mark	_	_
17	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	19	det	_	_
18	old	old	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	19	amod	_	_
19	donkey	donkey	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	14	ccomp	_	_
20	which	which	PRON	WDT	PronType=Rel	23	nsubj	_	_
21	was	be	AUX	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	23	aux	_	_
22	to	to	PART	TO	_	23	mark	_	_
23	have	have	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	19	acl:relcl	_	_
24	three	three	NUM	CD	NumForm=Word|NumType=Card	25	nummod	_	_
25	beatings	beating	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	23	obj	_	_
26	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	31	cc	_	_
27	only	only	ADV	RB	_	28	advmod	_	_
28	one	one	NUM	CD	NumForm=Word|NumType=Card	29	nummod	_	_
29	meal	meal	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	31	nsubj	_	_
30	had	have	AUX	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	31	aux	_	_
31	died	die	VERB	VBN	Tense=Past|VerbForm=Part|Voice=Pass	23	conj	_	SpaceAfter=No
32	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	8	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

<!-- .fr -->
| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **come** | past | the miller |  |  |  | after a couple of days |  | vn escape-51.1-1 «NP V»: agent=Theme |
| 2 | **say** *speech: assert* | past | the miller *not said here* |  |  |  |  |  | vn say-37.7-1-1 «NP V that S»: agent=Agent clause=Topic |
| 3 | **tell** *speech: assert* | must | miller |  | Hunter |  |  |  | vn transfer\_mesg-37.1.1-1-1 «NP V NP.recipient»: agent=Agent he=Recipient |
| 4 | **have** | past | the old donkey | three beatings |  |  |  |  | vn birth-28.2-1 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent beating=Patient |
| 5 | **die** | past · perfect | one meal |  |  |  |  |  | vn calibratable\_cos-45.6.1 «NP.attribute V»: agent=Attribute |

<!-- .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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