---
title: He was a very worthy man; but he had one great peculiarity--namely,… — The Yellow Fairy Book · tree and pragmatics
description: He was a very worthy man; but he had one great peculiarity--namely, that he could not bear to see a sexton. Who acts: Klaus. A sentence of «The Yellow Fairy Book» by Andrew Lang, The Story of Big Klaus and Little Klaus, with its dependency tree and the pragmatics of every clause.
---

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# The Yellow Fairy Book, The Story of Big Klaus and Little Klaus, sentence 39

<!-- .ven lang=en -->
He was a very worthy man; but he had one great peculiarity--namely, that he could not bear to see a sexton.

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**Who acts:** Klaus · **What happens:** be, have, not bear, see · **To what, where:** worthy man, one great peculiarity, sexton

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This is a sentence of «The Yellow Fairy Book» by Andrew Lang, The Story of Big Klaus and Little Klaus. The page gives its syntax tree — a dependency tree in the style of Universal Dependencies — and its pragmatics clause by clause: who acts (Klaus), 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:pg640:41:39
# text = He was a very worthy man; but he had one great peculiarity--namely, that he could not bear to see a sexton.
1	He	he	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	6	nsubj	_	_
2	was	be	AUX	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	6	cop	_	_
3	a	a	DET	DT	Definite=Ind|PronType=Art	6	det	_	_
4	very	very	ADV	RB	_	5	advmod	_	_
5	worthy	worthy	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	6	amod	_	_
6	man	man	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	0	root	_	SpaceAfter=No
7	;	;	PUNCT	,	_	10	punct	_	_
8	but	but	CCONJ	CC	_	10	cc	_	_
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	6	acl:relcl	_	_
11	one	one	NUM	CD	NumForm=Word|NumType=Card	13	nummod	_	_
12	great	great	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	13	amod	_	_
13	peculiarity	peculiarity	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	10	obj	_	SpaceAfter=No
14	--	--	PUNCT	,	_	15	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
15	namely	namely	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	13	conj	_	SpaceAfter=No
16	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	21	punct	_	_
17	that	that	SCONJ	IN	_	21	mark	_	_
18	he	he	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	21	nsubj	_	_
19	could	could	AUX	MD	VerbForm=Fin	21	aux	_	_
20	not	not	PART	RB	Polarity=Neg	21	advmod	_	_
21	bear	bear	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	10	conj	_	_
22	to	to	PART	TO	_	23	mark	_	_
23	see	see	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	21	xcomp	_	_
24	a	a	DET	DT	Definite=Ind|PronType=Art	25	det	_	_
25	sexton	sexton	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	23	obj	_	SpaceAfter=No
26	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	6	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

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| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **is a** | past | Klaus | a worthy man |  |  |  |  | tree rules |
| 2 | **have** | past | Klaus | one great peculiarity |  |  |  |  | vn birth-28.2-1 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent peculiarity=Patient |
| 3 | **not** **bear** | could | Klaus |  |  |  |  |  | vn admire-31.2 «NP V that S»: agent=Experiencer clause=Stimulus |
| 4 | **see** | to-infinitive | Klaus *not said here* | a sexton |  |  |  |  | vn comprehend-87.2-1-1 «NP V NP»: agent=Experiencer sexton=Stimulus |

<!-- .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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