---
title: Both the impostors begged him to be so kind as to step closer, and a… — The Yellow Fairy Book · tree and pragmatics
description: Both the impostors begged him to be so kind as to step closer, and asked him if it were not a beautiful texture and lovely colours. Who acts: impostors, neighbour. A sentence of «The Yellow Fairy Book» by Andrew Lang, Story of the Emperor’s New Clothes(4). (4) Andersen, with its dependency tree and 
---

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# The Yellow Fairy Book, Story of the Emperor’s New Clothes(4). (4) Andersen, sentence 22

<!-- .ven lang=en -->
Both the impostors begged him to be so kind as to step closer, and asked him if it were not a beautiful texture and lovely colours.

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**Who acts:** impostors, neighbour · **What happens:** beg, be, step, ask, not be · **To what, where:** minister, beautiful texture

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This is a sentence of «The Yellow Fairy Book» by Andrew Lang, Story of the Emperor’s New Clothes(4). (4) Andersen. The page gives its syntax tree — a dependency tree in the style of Universal Dependencies — and its pragmatics clause by clause: who acts (impostors, neighbour), 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:pg640:6:22
# text = Both the impostors begged him to be so kind as to step closer, and asked him if it were not a beautiful texture and lovely colours.
1	Both	both	CCONJ	CC	_	4	cc:preconj	_	_
2	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	3	det	_	_
3	impostors	impostor	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	4	nsubj	_	_
4	begged	beg	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Plur|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	0	root	_	_
5	him	he	PRON	PRP	Case=Acc|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	4	obj	_	_
6	to	to	PART	TO	_	9	mark	_	_
7	be	be	AUX	VB	VerbForm=Inf	9	cop	_	_
8	so	so	ADV	RB	_	9	advmod	_	_
9	kind	kind	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	4	advcl	_	_
10	as	as	SCONJ	IN	_	12	mark	_	_
11	to	to	PART	TO	_	12	mark	_	_
12	step	step	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	9	xcomp	_	_
13	closer	close	ADV	RBR	Degree=Cmp	12	advmod	_	SpaceAfter=No
14	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	16	punct	_	_
15	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	16	cc	_	_
16	asked	ask	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Plur|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	4	conj	_	_
17	him	he	PRON	PRP	Case=Acc|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	16	iobj	_	_
18	if	if	SCONJ	IN	_	24	mark	_	_
19	it	it	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Gender=Neut|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	24	nsubj	_	_
20	were	be	AUX	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	24	cop	_	_
21	not	not	PART	RB	Polarity=Neg	24	advmod	_	_
22	a	a	DET	DT	Definite=Ind|PronType=Art	24	det	_	_
23	beautiful	beautiful	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	24	amod	_	_
24	texture	texture	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	16	ccomp	_	_
25	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	27	cc	_	_
26	lovely	lovely	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	27	amod	_	_
27	colours	colour	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	24	conj	_	SpaceAfter=No
28	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	4	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

<!-- .fr -->
| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **beg** *speech: request* | past | the impostors |  | minister |  |  |  | vn beg-58.2-1-1 «NP V NP PP.Topic»: agent=Agent he=Recipient |
| 2 | **is** | to-infinitive | the impostors *not said here* |  |  |  |  | kind *property* | tree rules |
| 3 | **step** | to-infinitive | the impostors *not said here* |  |  |  |  | close *property* | vn run-51.3.2 «NP V»: agent=Theme |
| 4 | **ask** *speech: ask* | past | the impostors *not said here* |  | minister |  |  |  | vn inquire-37.1.2 «NP V NP.recipient»: agent=Agent he=Recipient |
| 5 | **not** **is a** *a condition, not said to happen* | past | neighbour | a beautiful texture and lovely colours |  |  |  |  | tree rules |

<!-- .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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