---
title: It certainly occurred to the servant who had to clean his boots that… — The Yellow Fairy Book · tree and pragmatics
description: It certainly occurred to the servant who had to clean his boots that they were astonishingly old boots for such a rich lord. Who acts: money, boots. A sentence of «The Yellow Fairy Book» by Andrew Lang, The Tinder-box, with its dependency tree and the pragmatics of every clause.
---

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# The Yellow Fairy Book, The Tinder-box, sentence 71

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It certainly occurred to the servant who had to clean his boots that they were astonishingly old boots for such a rich lord.

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**Who acts:** money, boots · **What happens:** occur, have, clean, be · **To what, where:** boots, old boots

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This is a sentence of «The Yellow Fairy Book» by Andrew Lang, The Tinder-box. The page gives its syntax tree — a dependency tree in the style of Universal Dependencies — and its pragmatics clause by clause: who acts (money, boots), 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:pg640:46:71
# text = It certainly occurred to the servant who had to clean his boots that they were astonishingly old boots for such a rich lord.
1	It	it	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Gender=Neut|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	3	nsubj	_	_
2	certainly	certainly	ADV	RB	_	3	advmod	_	_
3	occurred	occur	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	0	root	_	_
4	to	to	ADP	IN	_	6	case	_	_
5	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	6	det	_	_
6	servant	servant	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	3	obl	_	_
7	who	who	PRON	WP	PronType=Rel	8	nsubj	_	_
8	had	have	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	3	parataxis	_	_
9	to	to	PART	TO	_	10	mark	_	_
10	clean	clean	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	8	xcomp	_	_
11	his	his	PRON	PRP$	Case=Gen|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|Poss=Yes|PronType=Prs	12	nmod:poss	_	_
12	boots	boot	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	10	obj	_	_
13	that	that	SCONJ	IN	_	18	mark	_	_
14	they	they	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Number=Plur|Person=3|PronType=Prs	18	nsubj	_	_
15	were	be	AUX	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Plur|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	18	cop	_	_
16	astonishingly	astonishingly	ADV	RB	_	18	advmod	_	_
17	old	old	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	18	amod	_	_
18	boots	boot	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	10	advcl	_	_
19	for	for	ADP	IN	_	23	case	_	_
20	such	such	DET	PDT	PronType=Ind	23	det:predet	_	_
21	a	a	DET	DT	Definite=Ind|PronType=Art	23	det	_	_
22	rich	rich	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	23	amod	_	_
23	lord	lord	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	18	nmod	_	SpaceAfter=No
24	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	3	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

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| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **occur** | past | money |  |  |  |  | to the servant; certainly *property* | vn occur-48.3-1 «NP V»: agent=Theme |
| 2 | **have** | past |  |  |  |  |  |  | tree rules |
| 3 | **clean** | to-infinitive |  | soldier's boots |  |  |  |  | vn other\_cos-45.4 «NP V NP.patient»: agent=Agent boot=Patient |
| 4 | **is a** | past | boots *= boot* | old boots |  |  |  | for such rich lord; astonishingly *property* | tree rules |

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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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