---
title: But he was very busy now, for he had to cook and mend, besides getti… — The Yellow Fairy Book · tree and pragmatics
description: But he was very busy now, for he had to cook and mend, besides getting food, for there was no one to help him. Who acts: husband, one. A sentence of «The Yellow Fairy Book» by Andrew Lang, The Dead Wife(20), with its dependency tree and the pragmatics of every clause.
---

<!-- md -->
[Mova](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/) · [this page in HTML](https://mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg640/27/8/)

<!-- crumbs -->
[home](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/) / [corpora](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/) / [tales](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/) / [The Yellow Fairy Book](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg640/) / [The Dead Wife(20)](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg640/27/) / 8

# The Yellow Fairy Book, The Dead Wife(20), sentence 8

<!-- .ven lang=en -->
But he was very busy now, for he had to cook and mend, besides getting food, for there was no one to help him.

<!-- .vintro -->
**Who acts:** husband, one · **What happens:** be, have, cook, mend, get, help · **To what, where:** food, husband

<!-- .vabout -->
This is a sentence of «The Yellow Fairy Book» by Andrew Lang, The Dead Wife(20). The page gives its syntax tree — a dependency tree in the style of Universal Dependencies — and its pragmatics clause by clause: who acts (husband, 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:pg640:27:8
# text = But he was very busy now, for he had to cook and mend, besides getting food, for there was no one to help him.
1	But	but	CCONJ	CC	_	5	cc	_	_
2	he	he	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	5	nsubj	_	_
3	was	be	AUX	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	5	cop	_	_
4	very	very	ADV	RB	_	5	advmod	_	_
5	busy	busy	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	0	root	_	_
6	now	now	ADV	RB	PronType=Dem	5	advmod	_	SpaceAfter=No
7	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	10	punct	_	_
8	for	for	ADP	IN	_	10	case	_	_
9	he	he	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	10	nsubj	_	_
10	had	have	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	5	parataxis	_	_
11	to	to	PART	TO	_	12	mark	_	_
12	cook	cook	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	10	xcomp	_	_
13	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	14	cc	_	_
14	mend	mend	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	12	conj	_	SpaceAfter=No
15	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	17	punct	_	_
16	besides	besides	ADP	IN	_	17	mark	_	_
17	getting	get	VERB	VBG	Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Part	10	conj	_	_
18	food	food	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	17	obj	_	SpaceAfter=No
19	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	22	punct	_	_
20	for	for	SCONJ	IN	_	22	mark	_	_
21	there	there	PRON	EX	PronType=Dem	22	expl	_	_
22	was	be	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	17	conj	_	_
23	no	no	DET	DT	PronType=Neg	24	det	_	_
24	one	one	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	22	nsubj	_	_
25	to	to	PART	TO	_	26	mark	_	_
26	help	help	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	24	acl	_	_
27	him	he	PRON	PRP	Case=Acc|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	26	obj	_	SpaceAfter=No
28	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	5	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

<!-- .fr -->
| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **is** | past | husband |  |  |  | now | busy *property* | tree rules |
| 2 | **have** | past | husband |  |  |  |  |  | tree rules |
| 3 | **cook** | to-infinitive | husband *not said here* |  |  |  |  |  | vn cooking-45.3 «NP.patient V»: agent=Patient |
| 4 | **mend** | infinitive | husband *not said here* |  |  |  |  |  | tree rules |
| 5 | **get** | gerund | husband *not said here* | food |  |  |  |  | vn comprehend-87.2-1 «NP V NP»: agent=Experiencer food=Stimulus |
| 6 | **be** | past | no one |  |  | there |  |  | vn exist-47.1 «NP V»: agent=Theme |
| 7 | **help** | to-infinitive | no one *not said here* |  | husband |  |  |  | vn help-72.1-1-1 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent he=Beneficiary |

<!-- .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.

<!-- div src -->

**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.

<!-- /div -->

<!-- pn -->
- ← previous: [sentence 7](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg640/27/7/)
- next →: [sentence 9](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg640/27/9/)
- ↑ back to [The Dead Wife(20)](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg640/27/)