---
title: But the dragon, in dread lest Stan should fulfil his threats, tried… — The Violet Fairy Book · tree and pragmatics
description: But the dragon, in dread lest Stan should fulfil his threats, tried what bribes could do, and in the end had to promise Stan seven sacks of ducats before he was suffered to throw back the club himself. Who acts: dragon, bribes. A sentence of «The Violet Fairy Book» by Andrew Lang, Stan Bolovan, with
---

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# The Violet Fairy Book, Stan Bolovan, sentence 117

<!-- .ven lang=en -->
But the dragon, in dread lest Stan should fulfil his threats, tried what bribes could do, and in the end had to promise Stan seven sacks of ducats before he was suffered to throw back the club himself.

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**Who acts:** dragon, bribes · **What happens:** fulfil, try, do, have, promise, suffer · **To what, where:** threats, end, seven sacks, Stan, club

<!-- .vabout -->
This is a sentence of «The Violet Fairy Book» by Andrew Lang, Stan Bolovan. The page gives its syntax tree — a dependency tree in the style of Universal Dependencies — and its pragmatics clause by clause: who acts (dragon, bribes), 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:pg641:13:117
# text = But the dragon, in dread lest Stan should fulfil his threats, tried what bribes could do, and in the end had to promise Stan seven sacks of ducats before he was suffered to throw back the club himself.
1	But	but	CCONJ	CC	_	10	cc	_	_
2	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	3	det	_	_
3	dragon	dragon	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	10	nsubj	_	SpaceAfter=No
4	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	6	punct	_	_
5	in	in	ADP	IN	_	6	case	_	_
6	dread	dread	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	3	conj	_	_
7	lest	lest	SCONJ	IN	_	8	case	_	_
8	Stan	Stan	PROPN	NNP	Number=Sing	6	nmod	_	_
9	should	should	AUX	MD	VerbForm=Fin	10	aux	_	_
10	fulfil	fulfil	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	0	root	_	_
11	his	his	PRON	PRP$	Case=Gen|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|Poss=Yes|PronType=Prs	12	nmod:poss	_	_
12	threats	threat	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	10	obj	_	SpaceAfter=No
13	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	14	punct	_	_
14	tried	try	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	10	parataxis	_	_
15	what	what	PRON	WP	PronType=Int	14	obj	_	_
16	bribes	bribe	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	18	nsubj	_	_
17	could	could	AUX	MD	VerbForm=Fin	18	aux	_	_
18	do	do	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	15	acl:relcl	_	SpaceAfter=No
19	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	24	punct	_	_
20	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	24	cc	_	_
21	in	in	ADP	IN	_	23	case	_	_
22	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	23	det	_	_
23	end	end	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	24	obl	_	_
24	had	have	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=1|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	14	conj	_	_
25	to	to	PART	TO	_	26	mark	_	_
26	promise	promise	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	24	xcomp	_	_
27	Stan	Stan	PROPN	NNP	Number=Sing	26	obj	_	_
28	seven	seven	NUM	CD	NumForm=Word|NumType=Card	29	nummod	_	_
29	sacks	sack	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	26	obj	_	_
30	of	of	ADP	IN	_	31	case	_	_
31	ducats	ducat	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	29	nmod	_	_
32	before	before	SCONJ	IN	_	35	mark	_	_
33	he	he	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	35	nsubj	_	_
34	was	be	AUX	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	35	aux:pass	_	_
35	suffered	suffer	VERB	VBN	Tense=Past|VerbForm=Part|Voice=Pass	26	advcl	_	_
36	to	to	PART	TO	_	37	mark	_	_
37	throw	throw	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	35	xcomp	_	_
38	back	back	ADV	RB	_	37	advmod	_	_
39	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	40	det	_	_
40	club	club	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	37	obj	_	_
41	himself	himself	PRON	PRP	Case=Acc|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs|Reflex=Yes	37	obl	_	SpaceAfter=No
42	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	10	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

<!-- .fr -->
| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **fulfil** | should | the dragon and dread lest Stan | Stan's threats |  |  |  |  | tree rules |
| 2 | **try** | past |  |  |  |  |  |  | vn try-61.1 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent what=Eventuality |
| 3 | **do** | could | bribes |  |  |  |  |  | vn act-114-1 «NP V»: agent=Agent |
| 4 | **have** | past |  |  |  |  | in the end |  | tree rules |
| 5 | **promise** *speech: promise* | to-infinitive |  | seven sacks of ducats | Stan |  |  |  | vn future\_having-13.3 «NP V NP.goal NP»: agent=Agent stan=Goal sack=Theme |
| 6 | **suffer** | past · passive |  | Stan |  |  |  |  | tree rules |
| 7 | **throw back** | to-infinitive |  | the club |  |  |  | Stan *obl* | vn throw-17.1-1-1 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent club=Theme |

<!-- .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 Violet Fairy Book» by Andrew Lang, Project Gutenberg book 641 (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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