--- title: There was no help for it, and a pretty figure the old lady made in c… — The Violet Fairy Book · tree and pragmatics description: There was no help for it, and a pretty figure the old lady made in carrying out her task; the cackling wasn’t very well done, but Jesper said it would do, and gave her the hare. Who acts: help, pretty figure, Jesper, cackling. A sentence of «The Violet Fairy Book» by Andrew Lang, Jesper Who Herded t --- [Mova](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/) · [this page in HTML](https://mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg641/24/122/) [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/) / [Jesper Who Herded the Hares](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg641/24/) / 122 # The Violet Fairy Book, Jesper Who Herded the Hares, sentence 122 There was no help for it, and a pretty figure the old lady made in carrying out her task; the cackling wasn’t very well done, but Jesper said it would do, and gave her the hare. **Who acts:** help, pretty figure, Jesper, cackling, lady · **What happens:** be, lady, make, carry out, not do, say · **To what, where:** old lady, task, cackling, hare, lady · **Speech:** someone speaks here 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 (help, pretty figure, Jesper, cackling), 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:pg641:24:122 # text = There was no help for it, and a pretty figure the old lady made in carrying out her task; the cackling wasn’t very well done, but Jesper said it would do, and gave her the hare. 1 There there PRON EX PronType=Dem 2 expl _ _ 2 was be VERB VBD Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin 32 conj _ _ 3 no no DET DT PronType=Neg 4 det _ _ 4 help help NOUN NN Number=Sing 2 nsubj _ _ 5 for for ADP IN _ 6 case _ _ 6 it it PRON PRP Case=Acc|Gender=Neut|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs 4 nmod _ SpaceAfter=No 7 , , PUNCT , _ 14 punct _ _ 8 and and CCONJ CC _ 14 cc _ _ 9 a a DET DT Definite=Ind|PronType=Art 11 det _ _ 10 pretty pretty ADJ JJ Degree=Pos 11 amod _ _ 11 figure figure NOUN NN Number=Sing 14 nsubj _ _ 12 the the DET DT Definite=Def|PronType=Art 14 det _ _ 13 old old ADJ JJ Degree=Pos 14 amod _ _ 14 lady lady NOUN NN Number=Sing 2 nsubj _ _ 15 made make VERB VBN Tense=Past|VerbForm=Part|Voice=Pass 14 acl _ _ 16 in in SCONJ IN _ 17 mark _ _ 17 carrying carry VERB VBG Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Part 15 advcl _ _ 18 out out ADP RP _ 17 compound:prt _ _ 19 her her PRON PRP$ Case=Gen|Gender=Fem|Number=Sing|Person=3|Poss=Yes|PronType=Prs 20 nmod:poss _ _ 20 task task NOUN NN Number=Sing 17 obj _ SpaceAfter=No 21 ; ; PUNCT , _ 28 punct _ _ 22 the the DET DT Definite=Def|PronType=Art 23 det _ _ 23 cackling cackling NOUN NN Number=Sing 28 nsubj _ _ 24 was be AUX VBD Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin 28 aux:pass _ SpaceAfter=No 25 n’t not PART RB Polarity=Neg 28 advmod _ _ 26 very very ADV RB _ 27 advmod _ _ 27 well well ADV RB Degree=Pos 28 advmod _ _ 28 done do VERB VBN Tense=Past|VerbForm=Part|Voice=Pass 2 parataxis _ SpaceAfter=No 29 , , PUNCT , _ 32 punct _ _ 30 but but CCONJ CC _ 32 cc _ _ 31 Jesper Jesper PROPN NNP Number=Sing 32 nsubj _ _ 32 said say VERB VBD Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin 0 root _ _ 33 it it PRON PRP Case=Nom|Gender=Neut|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs 35 nsubj _ _ 34 would would AUX MD VerbForm=Fin 35 aux _ _ 35 do do VERB VB VerbForm=Inf 32 ccomp _ SpaceAfter=No 36 , , PUNCT , _ 38 punct _ _ 37 and and CCONJ CC _ 38 cc _ _ 38 gave give VERB VBD Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin 32 conj _ _ 39 her she PRON PRP Case=Acc|Gender=Fem|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs 38 iobj _ _ 40 the the DET DT Definite=Def|PronType=Art 41 det _ _ 41 hare hare NOUN NN Number=Sing 38 obj _ SpaceAfter=No 42 . . PUNCT . _ 32 punct _ _ ``` ## Pragmatics {#pragmatics} | # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by | | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | | 1 | **be** | past | no help for leave | | | there | | | vn exist-47.1 «NP V»: agent=Theme | | 2 | **lady** | | a pretty figure | | | | | | tree rules | | 3 | **make** | participle | | the old lady *not said here* | | | | | vn build-26.1-1 «NP.asset V NP»: agent=Asset | | 4 | **carry out** | gerund | | lady's task | | | | | vn act-114 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent task=Eventuality | | 5 | **not** **do** | past · passive | | the cackling | | | | well *property* | vn act-114-1 «NP V NP»: subject=Eventuality | | 6 | **say** *speech: assert* | past | Jesper | | | | | | vn say-37.7-1-1 «NP V that S»: agent=Agent clause=Topic | | 7 | **do** | would | cackling | | | | | | vn act-114-1 «NP V»: agent=Agent | | 8 | **give** | past | Jesper *not said here* | the hare | lady | | | | vn give-13.1-1 «NP V NP-Dative NP»: agent=Agent she=Recipient hare=Theme | | 9 | **task** | | lady | | | | | | nom task «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 121](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg641/24/121/) - next →: [sentence 123](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg641/24/123/) - ↑ back to [Jesper Who Herded the Hares](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg641/24/)