---
title: The pearls, he thought, could only be brought by a very wealthy man,… — The Violet Fairy Book · tree and pragmatics
description: The pearls, he thought, could only be brought by a very wealthy man, and the tasks would require unusual talents to accomplish them. Who acts: pearls, wealthy man, tasks. A sentence of «The Violet Fairy Book» by Andrew Lang, Jesper Who Herded the Hares, with its dependency tree and the pragmatics of
---

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# The Violet Fairy Book, Jesper Who Herded the Hares, sentence 8

<!-- .ven lang=en -->
The pearls, he thought, could only be brought by a very wealthy man, and the tasks would require unusual talents to accomplish them.

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**Who acts:** pearls, wealthy man, tasks · **What happens:** think, bring, require, accomplish · **To what, where:** unusual talents, tasks · **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 (pearls, wealthy man, tasks), 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:pg641:24:8
# text = The pearls, he thought, could only be brought by a very wealthy man, and the tasks would require unusual talents to accomplish them.
1	The	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	2	det	_	_
2	pearls	pearl	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	5	nsubj	_	SpaceAfter=No
3	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	2	punct	_	_
4	he	he	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	5	nsubj	_	_
5	thought	think	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Plur|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	0	root	_	SpaceAfter=No
6	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	10	punct	_	_
7	could	could	AUX	MD	VerbForm=Fin	10	aux	_	_
8	only	only	ADV	RB	_	10	advmod	_	_
9	be	be	AUX	VB	VerbForm=Inf	10	aux:pass	_	_
10	brought	bring	VERB	VBN	Tense=Past|VerbForm=Part|Voice=Pass	5	ccomp	_	_
11	by	by	ADP	IN	_	15	case	_	_
12	a	a	DET	DT	Definite=Ind|PronType=Art	15	det	_	_
13	very	very	ADV	RB	_	14	advmod	_	_
14	wealthy	wealthy	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	15	amod	_	_
15	man	man	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	10	obl	_	SpaceAfter=No
16	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	21	punct	_	_
17	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	21	cc	_	_
18	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	19	det	_	_
19	tasks	task	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	21	nsubj	_	_
20	would	would	AUX	MD	VerbForm=Fin	21	aux	_	_
21	require	require	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	10	conj	_	_
22	unusual	unusual	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	23	amod	_	_
23	talents	talent	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	21	obj	_	_
24	to	to	PART	TO	_	25	mark	_	_
25	accomplish	accomplish	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	21	advcl	_	_
26	them	they	PRON	PRP	Case=Acc|Number=Plur|Person=3|PronType=Prs	25	obj	_	SpaceAfter=No
27	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	5	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

<!-- .fr -->
| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **think** *speech: other* | past | the pearls |  |  |  |  |  | vn consider-29.9-2 «NP V how S»: agent=Agent clause=Theme |
| 2 | **bring** | could · passive | a wealthy man |  |  |  |  |  | vn bring-11.3-1 «NP V NP together»: agent=Agent |
| 3 | **require** | would | the tasks | unusual talents |  |  |  |  | vn require-103-1 «NP V NP»: agent=Theme talent=Precondition |
| 4 | **accomplish** | to-infinitive | the tasks *not said here* | tasks *= task* |  |  |  |  | vn complete-55.2 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent they=Eventuality |

<!-- .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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