---
title: The sons, who could not understand why he did this, asked him the re… — The Yellow Fairy Book · tree and pragmatics
description: The sons, who could not understand why he did this, asked him the reason of his dejection, and the King told them as follows: Who acts: sons, King. A sentence of «The Yellow Fairy Book» by Andrew Lang, The Witch and Her Servants(22), part 1, with its dependency tree and the pragmatics of every claus
---

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# The Yellow Fairy Book, The Witch and Her Servants(22), part 1, sentence 7

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The sons, who could not understand why he did this, asked him the reason of his dejection, and the King told them as follows:

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**Who acts:** sons, King · **What happens:** not understand, do, ask, tell, follow, deject · **To what, where:** this, reason, King, sons · **Speech:** someone speaks here

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This is a sentence of «The Yellow Fairy Book» by Andrew Lang, The Witch and Her Servants(22), 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 (sons, King), 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:pg640:30:7
# text = The sons, who could not understand why he did this, asked him the reason of his dejection, and the King told them as follows:
1	The	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	2	det	_	_
2	sons	son	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	13	nsubj	_	SpaceAfter=No
3	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	7	punct	_	_
4	who	who	PRON	WP	PronType=Rel	7	nsubj	_	_
5	could	could	AUX	MD	VerbForm=Fin	7	aux	_	_
6	not	not	PART	RB	Polarity=Neg	7	advmod	_	_
7	understand	understand	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	2	parataxis	_	_
8	why	why	ADV	WRB	PronType=Int	10	advmod	_	_
9	he	he	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	10	nsubj	_	_
10	did	do	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	7	advcl	_	_
11	this	this	PRON	DT	Number=Sing|PronType=Dem	10	obj	_	SpaceAfter=No
12	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	2	punct	_	_
13	asked	ask	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Plur|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	0	root	_	_
14	him	he	PRON	PRP	Case=Acc|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	13	iobj	_	_
15	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	16	det	_	_
16	reason	reason	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	13	obj	_	_
17	of	of	ADP	IN	_	19	case	_	_
18	his	his	PRON	PRP$	Case=Gen|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|Poss=Yes|PronType=Prs	19	nmod:poss	_	_
19	dejection	dejection	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	16	nmod	_	SpaceAfter=No
20	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	24	punct	_	_
21	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	24	cc	_	_
22	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	23	det	_	_
23	King	King	PROPN	NNP	Number=Sing	24	nsubj	_	_
24	told	tell	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	13	parataxis	_	_
25	them	they	PRON	PRP	Case=Acc|Number=Plur|Person=3|PronType=Prs	24	iobj	_	_
26	as	as	SCONJ	IN	_	27	mark	_	_
27	follows	follow	VERB	VBZ	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Fin	24	ccomp	_	SpaceAfter=No
28	:	:	PUNCT	:	_	13	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

<!-- .fr -->
| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **not** **understand** | could | the sons |  |  |  |  |  | vn comprehend-87.2-1-1-1 «NP V»: agent=Experiencer |
| 2 | **do** | past | King | this |  |  |  |  | vn act-114-1 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent this=Eventuality |
| 3 | **ask** *speech: ask* | past | the sons | the reason of King's dejection | King |  |  |  | tree rules |
| 4 | **tell** *speech: assert* | past | the King |  | sons *= son* |  |  |  | vn transfer\_mesg-37.1.1-1-1 «NP V NP S\_INF»: agent=Agent they=Recipient clause=Topic |
| 5 | **follow** | present |  |  |  |  |  |  | vn occur-48.3-1 «NP V»: agent=Theme |
| 6 | **deject** |  | King |  |  |  |  |  | nom dejection «state transitive»: poss=agent |

<!-- .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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