---
title: The shepherd bewailed himself in vain: the dragon only laughed, and… — The Violet Fairy Book · tree and pragmatics
description: The shepherd bewailed himself in vain: the dragon only laughed, and Stan saw that this was not the place to get food for his family. Who acts: shepherd, dragon, Stan, this. A sentence of «The Violet Fairy Book» by Andrew Lang, Stan Bolovan, with its dependency tree and the pragmatics of every clause
---

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# The Violet Fairy Book, Stan Bolovan, sentence 50

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The shepherd bewailed himself in vain: the dragon only laughed, and Stan saw that this was not the place to get food for his family.

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**Who acts:** shepherd, dragon, Stan, this · **What happens:** bewail, laugh, see, not be, get · **To what, where:** shepherd, vain, place, food · **Speech:** someone speaks here

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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 (shepherd, dragon, Stan, this), 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:pg641:13:50
# text = The shepherd bewailed himself in vain: the dragon only laughed, and Stan saw that this was not the place to get food for his family.
1	The	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	2	det	_	_
2	shepherd	shepherd	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	3	nsubj	_	_
3	bewailed	bewail	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	0	root	_	_
4	himself	himself	PRON	PRP	Case=Acc|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs|Reflex=Yes	3	obj	_	_
5	in	in	ADP	IN	_	6	case	_	_
6	vain	vain	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	3	obl	_	SpaceAfter=No
7	:	:	PUNCT	:	_	11	punct	_	_
8	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	9	det	_	_
9	dragon	dragon	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	11	nsubj	_	_
10	only	only	ADV	RB	_	11	advmod	_	_
11	laughed	laugh	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	3	parataxis	_	SpaceAfter=No
12	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	15	punct	_	_
13	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	15	cc	_	_
14	Stan	Stan	PROPN	NNP	Number=Sing	15	nsubj	_	_
15	saw	see	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	11	conj	_	_
16	that	that	SCONJ	IN	_	21	mark	_	_
17	this	this	PRON	DT	Number=Sing|PronType=Dem	21	nsubj	_	_
18	was	be	AUX	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	21	cop	_	_
19	not	not	PART	RB	Polarity=Neg	21	advmod	_	_
20	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	21	det	_	_
21	place	place	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	15	ccomp	_	_
22	to	to	PART	TO	_	23	mark	_	_
23	get	get	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	21	acl	_	_
24	food	food	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	23	obj	_	_
25	for	for	ADP	IN	_	27	case	_	_
26	his	his	PRON	PRP$	Case=Gen|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|Poss=Yes|PronType=Prs	27	nmod:poss	_	_
27	family	family	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	23	obl	_	SpaceAfter=No
28	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	3	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

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| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **bewail** | past | the shepherd | shepherd |  | vain |  |  | vn admire-31.2 «NP V NP»: agent=Experiencer himself=Stimulus |
| 2 | **laugh** | past | the dragon |  |  |  |  |  | vn nonverbal\_expression-40.2 «NP V»: agent=Agent |
| 3 | **see** | past | Stan |  |  |  |  |  | vn comprehend-87.2-1-1 «NP V»: agent=Experiencer |
| 4 | **not** **is a** | past | this | the place |  |  |  |  | tree rules |
| 5 | **get** | to-infinitive | Stan *not said here* | food |  |  |  | for Stan's family | vn get-13.5.1-1 «NP V NP PP.source»: agent=Agent food=Theme for family=Source |

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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 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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