---
title: ‘Yesterday,’ he said, ‘when I was herding the hares, there came to m… — The Violet Fairy Book · tree and pragmatics
description: ‘Yesterday,’ he said, ‘when I was herding the hares, there came to me a girl, in a shabby dress, and begged me to give her one of them. Who acts: Jesper, I, girl. A sentence of «The Violet Fairy Book» by Andrew Lang, Jesper Who Herded the Hares, with its dependency tree and the pragmatics of every c
---

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# The Violet Fairy Book, Jesper Who Herded the Hares, sentence 143

<!-- .ven lang=en -->
‘Yesterday,’ he said, ‘when I was herding the hares, there came to me a girl, in a shabby dress, and begged me to give her one of them.

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**Who acts:** Jesper, I, girl · **What happens:** say, herd, come, beg, give · **To what, where:** hares, me, one, girl · **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, I, girl), 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:pg641:24:143
# text = ‘Yesterday,’ he said, ‘when I was herding the hares, there came to me a girl, in a shabby dress, and begged me to give her one of them.
1	‘	'	PUNCT	``	_	2	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
2	Yesterday	yesterday	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	6	ccomp	_	SpaceAfter=No
3	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	2	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
4	’	'	PUNCT	''	_	2	punct	_	_
5	he	he	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	6	nsubj	_	_
6	said	say	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	0	root	_	SpaceAfter=No
7	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	12	punct	_	_
8	‘	'	PUNCT	``	_	12	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
9	when	when	ADV	WRB	PronType=Int	12	advmod	_	_
10	I	I	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Number=Sing|Person=1|PronType=Prs	12	nsubj	_	_
11	was	be	AUX	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=1|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	12	aux	_	_
12	herding	herd	VERB	VBG	Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Part	6	ccomp	_	_
13	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	14	det	_	_
14	hares	hare	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	12	obj	_	SpaceAfter=No
15	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	17	punct	_	_
16	there	there	PRON	EX	PronType=Dem	17	expl	_	_
17	came	come	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	6	conj	_	_
18	to	to	ADP	IN	_	19	case	_	_
19	me	I	PRON	PRP	Case=Acc|Number=Sing|Person=1|PronType=Prs	17	obl	_	_
20	a	a	DET	DT	Definite=Ind|PronType=Art	21	det	_	_
21	girl	girl	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	17	nsubj	_	SpaceAfter=No
22	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	26	punct	_	_
23	in	in	ADP	IN	_	26	case	_	_
24	a	a	DET	DT	Definite=Ind|PronType=Art	26	det	_	_
25	shabby	shabby	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	26	amod	_	_
26	dress	dress	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	17	conj	_	SpaceAfter=No
27	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	29	punct	_	_
28	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	29	cc	_	_
29	begged	beg	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	6	conj	_	_
30	me	I	PRON	PRP	Case=Acc|Number=Sing|Person=1|PronType=Prs	29	obj	_	_
31	to	to	PART	TO	_	32	mark	_	_
32	give	give	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	29	xcomp	_	_
33	her	she	PRON	PRP	Case=Acc|Gender=Fem|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	32	iobj	_	_
34	one	one	NUM	CD	NumForm=Word|NumType=Card	32	obj	_	_
35	of	of	ADP	IN	_	36	case	_	_
36	them	they	PRON	PRP	Case=Acc|Number=Plur|Person=3|PronType=Prs	34	nmod	_	SpaceAfter=No
37	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	6	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

<!-- .fr -->
| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **say** *speech: assert* | past | Jesper |  |  |  |  |  | vn say-37.7-1-1 «NP V how S»: agent=Agent clause=Topic |
| 2 | **herd** | past · progressive | I | the hares |  |  |  |  | vn shake-22.3-2 «NP V NP together»: agent=Agent hare=Patient |
| 3 | **come** | past | a girl |  | me | there |  |  | vn escape-51.1-1 «NP V PP.initial\_location»: agent=Theme to i=Initial\_Location |
| 4 | **beg** *speech: request* | past | Jesper *not said here* |  | me |  |  |  | vn beg-58.2-1-1 «NP V NP S\_INF»: agent=Agent i=Recipient clause=Topic |
| 5 | **give** *not said to happen* | to-infinitive | Jesper *not said here* | one of hares | girl |  |  |  | vn give-13.1-1 «NP V NP-Dative NP»: agent=Agent she=Recipient one=Theme |

<!-- .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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