--- title: ‘Most certainly not,’ answered Stan, going on with his digging, and… — The Violet Fairy Book · tree and pragmatics description: ‘Most certainly not,’ answered Stan, going on with his digging, and the dragon, in dread lest he should fulfil his threat, tried what bribes would do, and in the end had again to promise seven sacks of ducats before Stan would agree to leave the brook alone and let him carry the water into the house --- [Mova](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/) · [this page in HTML](https://mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg641/13/137/) [home](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/) / [corpora](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/) / [tales](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/) / [The Violet Fairy Book](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg641/) / [Stan Bolovan](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg641/13/) / 137 # The Violet Fairy Book, Stan Bolovan, sentence 137 ‘Most certainly not,’ answered Stan, going on with his digging, and the dragon, in dread lest he should fulfil his threat, tried what bribes would do, and in the end had again to promise seven sacks of ducats before Stan would agree to leave the brook alone and let him carry the water into the house. **Who acts:** Most, Stan, dragon, bribes · **What happens:** answer, go on, fulfil, try, do, have · **To what, where:** Stan, threat, end, seven sacks, brook, water 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 (Most, Stan, dragon, bribes), what happens, when and where, as Mova's frames read it from the tree. **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:pg641:13:137 # text = ‘Most certainly not,’ answered Stan, going on with his digging, and the dragon, in dread lest he should fulfil his threat, tried what bribes would do, and in the end had again to promise seven sacks of ducats before Stan would agree to leave the brook alone and let him carry the water into the house. 1 ‘ ' PUNCT `` _ 2 punct _ SpaceAfter=No 2 Most most ADJ JJS Degree=Sup 7 nsubj _ _ 3 certainly certainly ADV RB _ 4 advmod _ _ 4 not not PART RB Polarity=Neg 2 advmod _ SpaceAfter=No 5 , , PUNCT , _ 2 punct _ SpaceAfter=No 6 ’ ' PUNCT '' _ 2 punct _ _ 7 answered answer VERB VBD Mood=Ind|Number=Plur|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin 0 root _ _ 8 Stan Stan PROPN NNP Number=Sing 7 obj _ SpaceAfter=No 9 , , PUNCT , _ 10 punct _ _ 10 going go VERB VBG Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Part 7 advcl _ _ 11 on on ADP RP _ 10 compound:prt _ _ 12 with with ADP IN _ 14 case _ _ 13 his his PRON PRP$ Case=Gen|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|Poss=Yes|PronType=Prs 14 nmod:poss _ _ 14 digging digging NOUN NN Number=Sing 10 obl _ SpaceAfter=No 15 , , PUNCT , _ 29 punct _ _ 16 and and CCONJ CC _ 29 cc _ _ 17 the the DET DT Definite=Def|PronType=Art 18 det _ _ 18 dragon dragon NOUN NN Number=Sing 29 nsubj _ SpaceAfter=No 19 , , PUNCT , _ 21 punct _ _ 20 in in ADP IN _ 21 case _ _ 21 dread dread NOUN NN Number=Sing 18 conj _ _ 22 lest lest SCONJ IN _ 25 mark _ _ 23 he he PRON PRP Case=Nom|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs 25 nsubj _ _ 24 should should AUX MD VerbForm=Fin 25 aux _ _ 25 fulfil fulfil VERB VB VerbForm=Inf 21 acl _ _ 26 his his PRON PRP$ Case=Gen|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|Poss=Yes|PronType=Prs 27 nmod:poss _ _ 27 threat threat NOUN NN Number=Sing 25 obj _ SpaceAfter=No 28 , , PUNCT , _ 18 punct _ _ 29 tried try VERB VBD Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin 7 parataxis _ _ 30 what what PRON WP PronType=Int 29 obj _ _ 31 bribes bribe NOUN NNS Number=Plur 33 nsubj _ _ 32 would would AUX MD VerbForm=Fin 33 aux _ _ 33 do do VERB VB VerbForm=Inf 30 acl:relcl _ SpaceAfter=No 34 , , PUNCT , _ 39 punct _ _ 35 and and CCONJ CC _ 39 cc _ _ 36 in in ADP IN _ 38 case _ _ 37 the the DET DT Definite=Def|PronType=Art 38 det _ _ 38 end end NOUN NN Number=Sing 39 obl _ _ 39 had have VERB VBD Mood=Ind|Number=Plur|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin 29 conj _ _ 40 again again ADV RB _ 39 advmod _ _ 41 to to PART TO _ 42 mark _ _ 42 promise promise VERB VB VerbForm=Inf 39 xcomp _ _ 43 seven seven NUM CD NumForm=Word|NumType=Card 44 nummod _ _ 44 sacks sack NOUN NNS Number=Plur 42 obj _ _ 45 of of ADP IN _ 46 case _ _ 46 ducats ducat NOUN NNS Number=Plur 44 nmod _ _ 47 before before SCONJ IN _ 50 mark _ _ 48 Stan Stan PROPN NNP Number=Sing 50 nsubj _ _ 49 would would AUX MD VerbForm=Fin 50 aux _ _ 50 agree agree VERB VB VerbForm=Inf 42 advcl _ _ 51 to to PART TO _ 52 mark _ _ 52 leave leave VERB VB VerbForm=Inf 50 xcomp _ _ 53 the the DET DT Definite=Def|PronType=Art 54 det _ _ 54 brook brook NOUN NN Number=Sing 52 obj _ _ 55 alone alone ADV RB _ 52 advmod _ _ 56 and and CCONJ CC _ 57 cc _ _ 57 let let VERB VB VerbForm=Inf 52 conj _ _ 58 him he PRON PRP Case=Acc|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs 57 obj _ _ 59 carry carry VERB VB VerbForm=Inf 57 xcomp _ _ 60 the the DET DT Definite=Def|PronType=Art 61 det _ _ 61 water water NOUN NN Number=Sing 59 obj _ _ 62 into into ADP IN _ 64 case _ _ 63 the the DET DT Definite=Def|PronType=Art 64 det _ _ 64 house house NOUN NN Number=Sing 59 obl _ SpaceAfter=No 65 . . PUNCT . _ 7 punct _ _ ``` ## Pragmatics {#pragmatics} | # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by | | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | | 1 | **answer** *speech: assert* | past | Most | | Stan | | | | vn reciprocate-112-1 «NP V PP»: agent=Agent stan=Eventuality | | 2 | **go on** | gerund | Most *not said here* | | | | | with Stan's digging | vn function-105.2.1 «NP V»: agent=Theme | | 3 | **fulfil** | should | Stan | Stan's threat | | | | | tree rules | | 4 | **try** | past | the dragon and dread | | | | | | vn try-61.1 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent what=Eventuality | | 5 | **do** | would | bribes | | | | | | vn act-114-1 «NP V»: agent=Agent | | 6 | **have** | past | the dragon and dread *not said here* | | | | in the end; again | | tree rules | | 7 | **promise** *speech: promise* | to-infinitive | the dragon and dread *not said here* | seven sacks of ducats | | | | | vn future\_having-13.3 «NP V NP.theme (PP)»: agent=Agent sack=Theme | | 8 | **agree** *speech: agree* | would | Stan | | | | | | vn correspond-36.1-1 «NP V what S\_INF»: agent=Agent clause=Topic | | 9 | **leave** *not said to happen* | to-infinitive | Stan *not said here* | the brook | | | | alone *property* | vn keep-15.2 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent brook=Theme | | 10 | **let** | infinitive | Stan *not said here* | Stan | | | | | tree rules | | 11 | **carry** | infinitive | Stan *not said here* | the water | | the house | | | vn carry-11.4 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent water=Theme | | 12 | **dig** | | Stan | | | | | | nom digging «act transitive»: poss=agent | 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. **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. - ← previous: [sentence 136](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg641/13/136/) - next →: [sentence 138](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg641/13/138/) - ↑ back to [Stan Bolovan](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg641/13/)