---
title: He had a merry and light heart, and as he went whistling along there… — The Yellow Fairy Book · tree and pragmatics
description: He had a merry and light heart, and as he went whistling along there came an ugly old woman, who said to him, ‘Good-day, dear hunter! Who acts: Hunter, ugly old woman. A sentence of «The Yellow Fairy Book» by Andrew Lang, The Donkey Cabbage, part 1, with its dependency tree and the pragmatics of eve
---

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# The Yellow Fairy Book, The Donkey Cabbage, part 1, sentence 2

<!-- .ven lang=en -->
He had a merry and light heart, and as he went whistling along there came an ugly old woman, who said to him, ‘Good-day, dear hunter!

<!-- .vintro -->
**Who acts:** Hunter, ugly old woman · **What happens:** have, go, whistle, come, say · **To what, where:** merry heart, Hunter · **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, ugly old woman), 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:pg640:10:2
# text = He had a merry and light heart, and as he went whistling along there came an ugly old woman, who said to him, ‘Good-day, dear hunter!
1	He	he	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	2	nsubj	_	_
2	had	have	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	0	root	_	_
3	a	a	DET	DT	Definite=Ind|PronType=Art	7	det	_	_
4	merry	merry	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	7	amod	_	_
5	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	6	cc	_	_
6	light	light	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	4	conj	_	_
7	heart	heart	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	2	obj	_	SpaceAfter=No
8	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	12	punct	_	_
9	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	12	cc	_	_
10	as	as	SCONJ	IN	_	12	mark	_	_
11	he	he	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	12	nsubj	_	_
12	went	go	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	2	parataxis	_	_
13	whistling	whistle	VERB	VBG	VerbForm=Ger	16	csubj	_	_
14	along	along	ADV	RB	_	13	advmod	_	_
15	there	there	ADV	RB	PronType=Dem	13	advmod	_	_
16	came	come	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	12	conj	_	_
17	an	a	DET	DT	Definite=Ind|PronType=Art	20	det	_	_
18	ugly	ugly	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	20	amod	_	_
19	old	old	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	20	amod	_	_
20	woman	woman	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	16	nsubj	_	SpaceAfter=No
21	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	23	punct	_	_
22	who	who	PRON	WP	PronType=Rel	23	nsubj	_	_
23	said	say	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	20	acl:relcl	_	_
24	to	to	ADP	IN	_	25	case	_	_
25	him	he	PRON	PRP	Case=Acc|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	23	obl	_	SpaceAfter=No
26	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	30	punct	_	_
27	‘	'	PUNCT	``	_	30	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
28	Good	good	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	30	amod	_	SpaceAfter=No
29	-	-	PUNCT	HYPH	_	28	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
30	day	day	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	23	obl:unmarked	_	SpaceAfter=No
31	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	33	punct	_	_
32	dear	dear	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	33	amod	_	_
33	hunter	hunter	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	30	conj	_	SpaceAfter=No
34	!	!	PUNCT	.	_	2	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

<!-- .fr -->
| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **have** | past | Hunter | a merry heart |  |  |  |  | vn birth-28.2-1 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent heart=Patient |
| 2 | **go** | past | Hunter |  |  |  |  |  | vn disappearance-48.2-1 «NP V»: agent=Theme |
| 3 | **whistle** | gerund |  |  |  | there |  | along *property* | vn manner\_speaking-37.3 «NP V»: agent=Agent |
| 4 | **come** | past | a ugly old woman |  |  |  |  |  | vn escape-51.1-1 «NP V»: agent=Theme |
| 5 | **say** *speech: assert* | past | a ugly old woman |  | Hunter |  | day |  | vn say-37.7-1-1 «NP V PP.recipient S-Quote»: agent=Agent to he=Recipient |

<!-- .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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