---
title: Jesper was inclined to laugh at this, but he kept a grave face, said… — The Violet Fairy Book · tree and pragmatics
description: Jesper was inclined to laugh at this, but he kept a grave face, said he would remember the offer, and walked on. Who acts: Jesper. 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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# The Violet Fairy Book, Jesper Who Herded the Hares, sentence 58

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Jesper was inclined to laugh at this, but he kept a grave face, said he would remember the offer, and walked on.

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**Who acts:** Jesper · **What happens:** incline, laugh, keep, say, remember, walk on · **To what, where:** Jesper, this, grave face, offer · **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), 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:pg641:24:58
# text = Jesper was inclined to laugh at this, but he kept a grave face, said he would remember the offer, and walked on.
1	Jesper	Jesper	PROPN	NNP	Number=Sing	3	nsubj	_	_
2	was	be	AUX	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	3	aux:pass	_	_
3	inclined	incline	VERB	VBN	Tense=Past|VerbForm=Part|Voice=Pass	0	root	_	_
4	to	to	PART	TO	_	5	mark	_	_
5	laugh	laugh	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	3	xcomp	_	_
6	at	at	ADP	IN	_	7	case	_	_
7	this	this	PRON	DT	Number=Sing|PronType=Dem	5	obl	_	SpaceAfter=No
8	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	11	punct	_	_
9	but	but	CCONJ	CC	_	11	cc	_	_
10	he	he	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	11	nsubj	_	_
11	kept	keep	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	3	parataxis	_	_
12	a	a	DET	DT	Definite=Ind|PronType=Art	14	det	_	_
13	grave	grave	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	14	amod	_	_
14	face	face	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	11	obj	_	SpaceAfter=No
15	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	16	punct	_	_
16	said	say	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	11	conj	_	_
17	he	he	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	19	nsubj	_	_
18	would	would	AUX	MD	VerbForm=Fin	19	aux	_	_
19	remember	remember	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	16	ccomp	_	_
20	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	21	det	_	_
21	offer	offer	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	19	obj	_	SpaceAfter=No
22	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	24	punct	_	_
23	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	24	cc	_	_
24	walked	walk	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	11	conj	_	_
25	on	on	ADV	RB	_	24	advmod	_	SpaceAfter=No
26	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	3	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

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| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **incline** | past · passive |  | Jesper |  |  |  |  | tree rules |
| 2 | **laugh** | to-infinitive |  |  |  | this |  |  | vn nonverbal\_expression-40.2 «NP V»: agent=Agent |
| 3 | **keep** | past | Jesper | a grave face |  |  |  |  | vn keep-15.2 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent face=Theme |
| 4 | **say** *speech: assert* | past | Jesper *not said here* |  |  |  |  |  | vn say-37.7-1-1 «NP V that S»: agent=Agent clause=Topic |
| 5 | **remember** | would | Jesper | the offer |  |  |  |  | vn characterize-29.2-1-1 «NP V NP S\_ING»: agent=Agent offer=Theme |
| 6 | **walk on** | past | Jesper *not said here* |  |  |  |  |  | vn run-51.3.2-2-1 «NP V»: agent=Theme |

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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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