---
title: ‘Will you help me to hold him?’ begged the farmer, going towards the… — The Yellow Fairy Book · tree and pragmatics
description: ‘Will you help me to hold him?’ begged the farmer, going towards the chest where his wife had hidden the real sexton, who was sitting inside in a terrible fright. Who acts: you, me, real sexton. A sentence of «The Yellow Fairy Book» by Andrew Lang, The Story of Big Klaus and Little Klaus, with its d
---

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# The Yellow Fairy Book, The Story of Big Klaus and Little Klaus, sentence 85

<!-- .ven lang=en -->
‘Will you help me to hold him?’ begged the farmer, going towards the chest where his wife had hidden the real sexton, who was sitting inside in a terrible fright.

<!-- .vintro -->
**Who acts:** you, me, real sexton · **What happens:** help, hold, beg, go, hide, sit · **To what, where:** me, Klaus, farmer, chest, wife, terrible fright · **Speech:** someone speaks here

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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 (you, me, real sexton), 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:pg640:41:85
# text = ‘Will you help me to hold him?’ begged the farmer, going towards the chest where his wife had hidden the real sexton, who was sitting inside in a terrible fright.
1	‘	'	PUNCT	``	_	4	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
2	Will	will	AUX	MD	VerbForm=Fin	4	aux	_	_
3	you	you	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Person=2|PronType=Prs	4	nsubj	_	_
4	help	help	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	11	ccomp	_	_
5	me	I	PRON	PRP	Case=Acc|Number=Sing|Person=1|PronType=Prs	4	obj	_	_
6	to	to	PART	TO	_	7	mark	_	_
7	hold	hold	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	4	xcomp	_	_
8	him	he	PRON	PRP	Case=Acc|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	7	obj	_	SpaceAfter=No
9	?	?	PUNCT	.	_	4	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
10	’	'	PUNCT	''	_	4	punct	_	_
11	begged	beg	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=1|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	0	root	_	_
12	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	13	det	_	_
13	farmer	farmer	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	11	obj	_	SpaceAfter=No
14	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	15	punct	_	_
15	going	go	VERB	VBG	Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Part	11	advcl	_	_
16	towards	towards	ADP	IN	_	18	case	_	_
17	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	18	det	_	_
18	chest	chest	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	15	obl	_	_
19	where	where	ADV	WRB	PronType=Rel	23	advmod	_	_
20	his	his	PRON	PRP$	Case=Gen|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|Poss=Yes|PronType=Prs	21	nmod:poss	_	_
21	wife	wife	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	23	nsubj:pass	_	_
22	had	have	AUX	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	23	aux	_	_
23	hidden	hide	VERB	VBN	Tense=Past|VerbForm=Part|Voice=Pass	15	advcl	_	_
24	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	26	det	_	_
25	real	real	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	26	amod	_	_
26	sexton	sexton	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	23	obj	_	SpaceAfter=No
27	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	30	punct	_	_
28	who	who	PRON	WP	PronType=Rel	30	nsubj	_	_
29	was	be	AUX	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	30	aux	_	_
30	sitting	sit	VERB	VBG	Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Part	26	acl	_	_
31	inside	inside	ADV	RB	_	30	advmod	_	_
32	in	in	ADP	IN	_	35	case	_	_
33	a	a	DET	DT	Definite=Ind|PronType=Art	35	det	_	_
34	terrible	terrible	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	35	amod	_	_
35	fright	fright	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	30	obl	_	SpaceAfter=No
36	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	11	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

<!-- .fr -->
| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **help** | future | you | me |  |  |  |  | vn help-72.1-1-1 «NP V NP S\_INF»: agent=Agent i=Beneficiary clause=Theme |
| 2 | **hold** | to-infinitive | me *not said here* | Klaus |  |  |  |  | vn keep-15.2 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent he=Theme |
| 3 | **beg** *speech: request* | past |  |  | the farmer |  |  |  | vn beg-58.2-1-1 «NP V NP S\_INF»: agent=Agent farmer=Recipient clause=Topic |
| 4 | **go** | gerund |  |  |  | the chest |  |  | vn escape-51.1-1 «NP V PP.initial\_location»: agent=Theme towards chest=Initial\_Location |
| 5 | **hide** | past · perfect · passive |  | Klaus's wife |  |  |  |  | tree rules |
| 6 | **sit** | past · progressive | the real sexton |  |  | a terrible fright |  | inside *property* | vn assuming\_position-50 «NP V PP.location»: agent=Agent in fright=Location |

<!-- .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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