---
title: If the father ever tried to come to his daughter’s help, his wife tu… — The Violet Fairy Book · tree and pragmatics
description: If the father ever tried to come to his daughter’s help, his wife turned upon him, and things were rather worse than before. Who acts: father, wife, things, daughter. A sentence of «The Violet Fairy Book» by Andrew Lang, A Tale of the Tontlawald, with its dependency tree and the pragmatics of every 
---

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# The Violet Fairy Book, A Tale of the Tontlawald, sentence 157

<!-- .ven lang=en -->
If the father ever tried to come to his daughter’s help, his wife turned upon him, and things were rather worse than before.

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**Who acts:** father, wife, things, daughter · **What happens:** try, come, turn, be, help · **To what, where:** help

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This is a sentence of «The Violet Fairy Book» by Andrew Lang, A Tale of the Tontlawald. The page gives its syntax tree — a dependency tree in the style of Universal Dependencies — and its pragmatics clause by clause: who acts (father, wife, things, daughter), 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:pg641:2:157
# text = If the father ever tried to come to his daughter’s help, his wife turned upon him, and things were rather worse than before.
1	If	if	SCONJ	IN	_	5	mark	_	_
2	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	3	det	_	_
3	father	father	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	5	nsubj	_	_
4	ever	ever	ADV	RB	PronType=Ind	5	advmod	_	_
5	tried	try	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	16	advcl	_	_
6	to	to	PART	TO	_	7	mark	_	_
7	come	come	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	5	xcomp	_	_
8	to	to	ADP	IN	_	12	case	_	_
9	his	his	PRON	PRP$	Case=Gen|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|Poss=Yes|PronType=Prs	10	nmod:poss	_	_
10	daughter	daughter	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	12	nmod:poss	_	SpaceAfter=No
11	’s	's	PART	POS	_	10	case	_	_
12	help	help	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	7	obl	_	SpaceAfter=No
13	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	5	punct	_	_
14	his	his	PRON	PRP$	Case=Gen|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|Poss=Yes|PronType=Prs	15	nmod:poss	_	_
15	wife	wife	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	16	nsubj	_	_
16	turned	turn	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	0	root	_	_
17	upon	upon	ADP	IN	_	18	case	_	_
18	him	he	PRON	PRP	Case=Acc|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	16	obl	_	SpaceAfter=No
19	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	24	punct	_	_
20	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	24	cc	_	_
21	things	thing	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	24	nsubj	_	_
22	were	be	AUX	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Plur|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	24	cop	_	_
23	rather	rather	ADV	RB	_	24	advmod	_	_
24	worse	bad	ADJ	JJR	Degree=Cmp	16	conj	_	_
25	than	than	ADP	IN	_	26	case	_	_
26	before	before	ADV	RB	_	24	obl	_	SpaceAfter=No
27	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	16	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

<!-- .fr -->
| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **try** *a condition, not said to happen* | past | the father |  |  |  | ever |  | vn try-61.1 «NP V S\_INF»: agent=Agent clause=Eventuality |
| 2 | **come** *not said to happen* | to-infinitive | the father *not said here* |  |  | father's daughter's help |  |  | vn escape-51.1-1 «NP V PP.initial\_location»: agent=Theme to help=Initial\_Location |
| 3 | **turn** | past | father's wife |  |  |  |  | upon father | vn roll-51.3.1 «NP V PP.trajectory»: agent=Theme upon he=Trajectory |
| 4 | **is** | past | things |  |  |  |  | bad *property* | tree rules |
| 5 | **help** |  | father's daughter |  |  |  |  |  | nom help «act transitive»: poss=agent |

<!-- .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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