---
title: He said, therefore, to the fisherman’s wife, ‘Go, old woman, and tel… — The Yellow Fairy Book · tree and pragmatics
description: He said, therefore, to the fisherman’s wife, ‘Go, old woman, and tell the Crab I will give him my daughter if by to-morrow morning he can build a wall in front of my castle much higher than my tower, upon which all the flowers of the world must grow and bloom.’ Who acts: King, I, flowers. A sentence
---

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# The Yellow Fairy Book, The Golden Crab(5), sentence 18

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He said, therefore, to the fisherman’s wife, ‘Go, old woman, and tell the Crab I will give him my daughter if by to-morrow morning he can build a wall in front of my castle much higher than my tower, upon which all the flowers of the world must grow and bloom.’

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**Who acts:** King, I, flowers · **What happens:** say, tell, give, build, grow, bloom · **To what, where:** Crab, daughter, King, wall, front · **Speech:** someone speaks here

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This is a sentence of «The Yellow Fairy Book» by Andrew Lang, The Golden Crab(5). The page gives its syntax tree — a dependency tree in the style of Universal Dependencies — and its pragmatics clause by clause: who acts (King, I, flowers), 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:pg640:7:18
# text = He said, therefore, to the fisherman’s wife, ‘Go, old woman, and tell the Crab I will give him my daughter if by to-morrow morning he can build a wall in front of my castle much higher than my tower, upon which all the flowers of the world must grow and bloom.’
1	He	he	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	2	nsubj	_	_
2	said	say	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	0	root	_	SpaceAfter=No
3	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	4	punct	_	_
4	therefore	therefore	ADV	RB	_	2	advmod	_	SpaceAfter=No
5	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	10	punct	_	_
6	to	to	ADP	IN	_	10	case	_	_
7	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	8	det	_	_
8	fisherman	fisherman	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	10	nmod:poss	_	SpaceAfter=No
9	’s	's	PART	POS	_	8	case	_	_
10	wife	wife	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	2	parataxis	_	SpaceAfter=No
11	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	13	punct	_	_
12	‘	'	PUNCT	``	_	13	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
13	Go	Go	PROPN	NNP	_	10	appos	_	SpaceAfter=No
14	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	16	punct	_	_
15	old	old	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	16	amod	_	_
16	woman	woman	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	10	conj	_	SpaceAfter=No
17	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	19	punct	_	_
18	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	19	cc	_	_
19	tell	tell	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	2	parataxis	_	_
20	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	21	det	_	_
21	Crab	crab	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	19	obj	_	_
22	I	I	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Number=Sing|Person=1|PronType=Prs	24	nsubj	_	_
23	will	will	AUX	MD	VerbForm=Fin	24	aux	_	_
24	give	give	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	19	conj	_	_
25	him	he	PRON	PRP	Case=Acc|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	24	iobj	_	_
26	my	my	PRON	PRP$	Case=Gen|Number=Sing|Person=1|Poss=Yes|PronType=Prs	27	nmod:poss	_	_
27	daughter	daughter	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	24	obj	_	_
28	if	if	SCONJ	IN	_	36	mark	_	_
29	by	by	ADP	IN	_	33	case	_	_
30	to	to	ADP	IN	_	33	case	_	SpaceAfter=No
31	-	-	PUNCT	HYPH	_	30	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
32	morrow	morrow	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	33	compound	_	_
33	morning	morning	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	36	obl	_	_
34	he	he	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	36	nsubj	_	_
35	can	can	AUX	MD	VerbForm=Fin	36	aux	_	_
36	build	build	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	24	advcl	_	_
37	a	a	DET	DT	Definite=Ind|PronType=Art	38	det	_	_
38	wall	wall	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	36	obj	_	_
39	in	in	ADP	IN	_	40	case	_	_
40	front	front	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	36	obl	_	_
41	of	of	ADP	IN	_	43	case	_	_
42	my	my	PRON	PRP$	Case=Gen|Number=Sing|Person=1|Poss=Yes|PronType=Prs	43	nmod:poss	_	_
43	castle	castle	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	40	nmod	_	_
44	much	much	ADV	RB	_	45	advmod	_	_
45	higher	high	ADJ	JJR	Degree=Cmp	43	amod	_	_
46	than	than	ADP	IN	_	48	case	_	_
47	my	my	PRON	PRP$	Case=Gen|Number=Sing|Person=1|Poss=Yes|PronType=Prs	48	nmod:poss	_	_
48	tower	tower	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	45	obl	_	SpaceAfter=No
49	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	59	punct	_	_
50	upon	upon	ADP	IN	_	51	case	_	_
51	which	which	PRON	WDT	PronType=Rel	59	obl	_	_
52	all	all	DET	PDT	PronType=Tot	54	det:predet	_	_
53	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	54	det	_	_
54	flowers	flower	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	59	nsubj	_	_
55	of	of	ADP	IN	_	57	case	_	_
56	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	57	det	_	_
57	world	world	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	54	nmod	_	_
58	must	must	AUX	MD	VerbForm=Fin	59	aux	_	_
59	grow	grow	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	36	conj	_	_
60	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	61	cc	_	_
61	bloom	bloom	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	59	conj	_	SpaceAfter=No
62	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	19	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
63	’	'	PUNCT	''	_	19	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

<!-- .fr -->
| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **say** *speech: assert* | past | King |  |  |  |  | therefore *property* | vn say-37.7-1-1 «NP V that S»: agent=Agent |
| 2 | **tell** *speech: assert* | infinitive |  |  | the Crab |  |  |  | vn transfer\_mesg-37.1.1-1-1 «NP V NP.recipient»: agent=Agent crab=Recipient |
| 3 | **give** | future | I | my daughter | King |  |  |  | vn give-13.1-1 «NP V NP-Dative NP»: agent=Agent he=Recipient daughter=Theme |
| 4 | **build** *a condition, not said to happen* | can | King | a wall |  | front of my castle | morning |  | vn build-26.1-1 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent wall=Product |
| 5 | **grow** | must | all flowers of the world |  |  |  |  |  | vn appear-48.1.1 «NP V PP.location»: agent=Theme upon which=Location |
| 6 | **bloom** | infinitive | all flowers of the world *not said here* |  |  |  |  |  | vn entity\_specific\_modes\_being-47.2 «NP V»: agent=Theme |

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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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