---
title: Jesper again refused, but the old lady was so pressing, and would ta… — The Violet Fairy Book · tree and pragmatics
description: Jesper again refused, but the old lady was so pressing, and would take no refusal, that at last he said: Who acts: Jesper, old lady. A sentence of «The Violet Fairy Book» by Andrew Lang, Jesper Who Herded the Hares, with its dependency tree and the pragmatics of every clause.
---

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[Mova](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/) · [this page in HTML](https://mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg641/24/117/)

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# The Violet Fairy Book, Jesper Who Herded the Hares, sentence 117

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Jesper again refused, but the old lady was so pressing, and would take no refusal, that at last he said:

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**Who acts:** Jesper, old lady · **What happens:** refuse, press, take, say · **To what, where:** refusal, last · **Speech:** someone speaks here

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This is a sentence of «The Violet Fairy Book» by Andrew Lang, Jesper Who Herded the Hares. The page gives its syntax tree — a dependency tree in the style of Universal Dependencies — and its pragmatics clause by clause: who acts (Jesper, old lady), 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:pg641:24:117
# text = Jesper again refused, but the old lady was so pressing, and would take no refusal, that at last he said:
1	Jesper	Jesper	PROPN	NNP	Number=Sing	3	nsubj	_	_
2	again	again	ADV	RB	_	3	advmod	_	_
3	refused	refuse	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	0	root	_	SpaceAfter=No
4	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	11	punct	_	_
5	but	but	CCONJ	CC	_	11	cc	_	_
6	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	8	det	_	_
7	old	old	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	8	amod	_	_
8	lady	lady	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	11	nsubj	_	_
9	was	be	AUX	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	11	aux	_	_
10	so	so	ADV	RB	_	11	advmod	_	_
11	pressing	press	VERB	VBG	Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Part	3	advcl	_	SpaceAfter=No
12	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	15	punct	_	_
13	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	15	cc	_	_
14	would	would	AUX	MD	VerbForm=Fin	15	aux	_	_
15	take	take	VERB	VB	Mood=Imp|VerbForm=Fin	3	parataxis	_	_
16	no	no	DET	DT	PronType=Neg	17	det	_	_
17	refusal	refusal	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	15	obj	_	SpaceAfter=No
18	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	19	punct	_	_
19	that	that	PRON	DT	Number=Sing|PronType=Dem	15	obl	_	_
20	at	at	ADP	IN	_	21	case	_	_
21	last	last	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	15	obl	_	_
22	he	he	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	23	nsubj	_	_
23	said	say	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	21	acl:relcl	_	SpaceAfter=No
24	:	:	PUNCT	:	_	3	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

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| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **refuse** | past | Jesper |  |  |  | again |  | vn reject-77.2 «NP V S\_ING»: agent=Agent |
| 2 | **press** | past · progressive | the old lady |  |  |  |  |  | vn push-12-1-1 «NP V PP»: agent=Agent |
| 3 | **take** | would |  | no refusal |  | last |  | that *obl* | vn get-13.5.1 «NP V NP PP.source NP.asset»: agent=Agent refusal=Theme at last=Asset |
| 4 | **say** *speech: assert* | past | Jesper | last *not said here* |  |  |  |  | vn say-37.7-1-1 «NP V NP.topic»: agent=Agent last=Topic |

<!-- .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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