---
title: A sergeant-major cried for mercy, saying he had nine wounds, and was… — The Yellow Fairy Book · tree and pragmatics
description: A sergeant-major cried for mercy, saying he had nine wounds, and was a brave fellow, and did not deserve this disgrace. Who acts: major cried mercy, blower. A sentence of «The Yellow Fairy Book» by Andrew Lang, How Six Men Travelled Through the Wide World, part 1, with its dependency tree and the pr
---

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# The Yellow Fairy Book, How Six Men Travelled Through the Wide World, part 1, sentence 78

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A sergeant-major cried for mercy, saying he had nine wounds, and was a brave fellow, and did not deserve this disgrace.

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**Who acts:** major cried mercy, blower · **What happens:** cry, say, have, be, not deserve · **To what, where:** nine wounds, brave fellow, disgrace · **Speech:** someone speaks here

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This is a sentence of «The Yellow Fairy Book» by Andrew Lang, How Six Men Travelled Through the Wide World, 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 (major cried mercy, blower), 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:pg640:19:78
# text = A sergeant-major cried for mercy, saying he had nine wounds, and was a brave fellow, and did not deserve this disgrace.
1	A	a	DET	DT	Definite=Ind|PronType=Art	7	det	_	_
2	sergeant	sergeant	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	4	compound	_	SpaceAfter=No
3	-	-	PUNCT	HYPH	_	2	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
4	major	major	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	7	amod	_	_
5	cried	cry	VERB	VBN	Tense=Past|VerbForm=Part|Voice=Pass	7	amod	_	_
6	for	for	ADP	IN	_	7	case	_	_
7	mercy	mercy	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	0	root	_	SpaceAfter=No
8	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	9	punct	_	_
9	saying	say	VERB	VBG	VerbForm=Ger	7	acl	_	_
10	he	he	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	11	nsubj	_	_
11	had	have	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	9	ccomp	_	_
12	nine	nine	NUM	CD	NumForm=Word|NumType=Card	13	nummod	_	_
13	wounds	wound	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	11	obj	_	SpaceAfter=No
14	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	19	punct	_	_
15	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	19	cc	_	_
16	was	be	AUX	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	19	cop	_	_
17	a	a	DET	DT	Definite=Ind|PronType=Art	19	det	_	_
18	brave	brave	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	19	amod	_	_
19	fellow	fellow	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	11	obl	_	SpaceAfter=No
20	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	24	punct	_	_
21	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	24	cc	_	_
22	did	do	AUX	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	24	aux	_	_
23	not	not	PART	RB	Polarity=Neg	24	advmod	_	_
24	deserve	deserve	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	11	conj	_	_
25	this	this	DET	DT	Number=Sing|PronType=Dem	26	det	_	_
26	disgrace	disgrace	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	24	obj	_	SpaceAfter=No
27	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	7	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

<!-- .fr -->
| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **cry** *speech: express* | participle |  |  |  |  |  |  | vn manner\_speaking-37.3 «NP V»: agent=Agent |
| 2 | **say** *speech: assert* | gerund | a major cried mercy *not said here* |  |  |  |  |  | vn say-37.7-1-1 «NP V that S»: agent=Agent clause=Topic |
| 3 | **have** | past | blower | nine wounds |  |  |  |  | vn birth-28.2-1 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent wound=Patient |
| 4 | **is a** | past |  | a brave fellow |  |  |  |  | tree rules |
| 5 | **not** **deserve** | past · do-support | blower *not said here* | this disgrace |  |  |  |  | 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 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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