---
title: Hans stared at these words, and at last he begged that his host woul… — The Violet Fairy Book · tree and pragmatics
description: Hans stared at these words, and at last he begged that his host would tell him what use it was to anybody that this gold and silver should lie mouldering there, and the owner of it be continually trying to increase his treasure, which already overflowed his store rooms. Who acts: Hans, man, host, wo
---

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# The Violet Fairy Book, The Underground Workers, sentence 52

<!-- .ven lang=en -->
Hans stared at these words, and at last he begged that his host would tell him what use it was to anybody that this gold and silver should lie mouldering there, and the owner of it be continually trying to increase his treasure, which already overflowed his store rooms.

<!-- .vintro -->
**Who acts:** Hans, man, host, world, gold, owner · **What happens:** stare, beg, tell, use, be, lie · **To what, where:** last, man, treasure, store rooms · **Speech:** someone speaks here

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This is a sentence of «The Violet Fairy Book» by Andrew Lang, The Underground Workers. The page gives its syntax tree — a dependency tree in the style of Universal Dependencies — and its pragmatics clause by clause: who acts (Hans, man, host, world), 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:pg641:25:52
# text = Hans stared at these words, and at last he begged that his host would tell him what use it was to anybody that this gold and silver should lie mouldering there, and the owner of it be continually trying to increase his treasure, which already overflowed his store rooms.
1	Hans	han	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	2	nsubj	_	_
2	stared	stare	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Plur|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	0	root	_	_
3	at	at	ADP	IN	_	5	case	_	_
4	these	this	DET	DT	Number=Plur|PronType=Dem	5	det	_	_
5	words	word	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	2	obl	_	SpaceAfter=No
6	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	11	punct	_	_
7	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	11	cc	_	_
8	at	at	ADP	IN	_	9	case	_	_
9	last	last	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	11	obl	_	_
10	he	he	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	11	nsubj	_	_
11	begged	beg	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	2	conj	_	_
12	that	that	SCONJ	IN	_	16	mark	_	_
13	his	his	PRON	PRP$	Case=Gen|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|Poss=Yes|PronType=Prs	14	nmod:poss	_	_
14	host	host	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	16	nsubj	_	_
15	would	would	AUX	MD	VerbForm=Fin	16	aux	_	_
16	tell	tell	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	11	ccomp	_	_
17	him	he	PRON	PRP	Case=Acc|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	16	iobj	_	_
18	what	what	PRON	WP	PronType=Int	19	nsubj	_	_
19	use	use	VERB	VBP	Mood=Ind|Number=Plur|Person=3|Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Fin	16	ccomp	_	_
20	it	it	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Gender=Neut|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	23	nsubj	_	_
21	was	be	AUX	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	23	cop	_	_
22	to	to	ADP	IN	_	23	case	_	_
23	anybody	anybody	PRON	NN	Number=Sing|PronType=Ind	19	obj	_	_
24	that	that	SCONJ	IN	_	30	mark	_	_
25	this	this	DET	DT	Number=Sing|PronType=Dem	26	det	_	_
26	gold	gold	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	30	nsubj	_	_
27	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	28	cc	_	_
28	silver	silver	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	26	conj	_	_
29	should	should	AUX	MD	VerbForm=Fin	30	aux	_	_
30	lie	lie	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	23	acl	_	_
31	mouldering	moulder	VERB	VBG	VerbForm=Ger	30	xcomp	_	_
32	there	there	ADV	RB	PronType=Dem	31	advmod	_	SpaceAfter=No
33	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	41	punct	_	_
34	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	41	cc	_	_
35	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	36	det	_	_
36	owner	owner	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	41	nsubj	_	_
37	of	of	ADP	IN	_	38	case	_	_
38	it	it	PRON	PRP	Case=Acc|Gender=Neut|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	36	nmod	_	_
39	be	be	AUX	VB	VerbForm=Inf	41	cop	_	_
40	continually	continually	ADV	RB	_	41	advmod	_	_
41	trying	try	VERB	VBG	Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Part	2	advcl	_	_
42	to	to	PART	TO	_	43	mark	_	_
43	increase	increase	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	41	xcomp	_	_
44	his	his	PRON	PRP$	Case=Gen|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|Poss=Yes|PronType=Prs	45	nmod:poss	_	_
45	treasure	treasure	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	43	obj	_	SpaceAfter=No
46	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	49	punct	_	_
47	which	which	PRON	WDT	PronType=Rel	49	nsubj	_	_
48	already	already	ADV	RB	_	49	advmod	_	_
49	overflowed	overflow	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	45	acl:relcl	_	_
50	his	his	PRON	PRP$	Case=Gen|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|Poss=Yes|PronType=Prs	52	nmod:poss	_	_
51	store	store	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	52	compound	_	_
52	rooms	room	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	49	obj	_	SpaceAfter=No
53	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	2	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

<!-- .fr -->
| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **stare** | past | Hans |  |  |  |  | at this words | vn peer-30.3 «NP V PP.theme»: agent=Agent at word=Theme |
| 2 | **beg** *speech: request* | past | man |  |  | last |  |  | vn beg-58.2-1-1 «NP V S\_INF»: agent=Agent clause=Topic |
| 3 | **tell** *speech: assert* | would | man's host |  | man |  |  |  | vn transfer\_mesg-37.1.1-1-1 «NP V NP what S»: agent=Agent he=Recipient clause=Topic |
| 4 | **use** | present |  |  |  |  |  |  | vn eat-39.1 «NP V»: agent=Agent |
| 5 | **is** | past | world |  |  |  |  | to anybody | tree rules |
| 6 | **lie** | should | this gold and silver |  |  |  |  |  | tree rules |
| 7 | **moulder** | gerund | this gold and silver *not said here* |  |  | there |  |  | tree rules |
| 8 | **is** | infinitive | the owner of world |  |  |  |  | continually, try *property* | tree rules |
| 9 | **increase** *not said to happen* | to-infinitive | the owner of world *not said here* | man's treasure |  |  |  |  | vn caused\_calibratable\_cos-45.6.2-1 «NP V NP.patient»: agent=Causer treasure=Patient |
| 10 | **overflow** | past | man's treasure | man's store rooms |  |  |  |  | tree rules |
| 11 | **treasure** |  | man |  |  |  |  |  | nom treasure «possession transitive»: poss=agent |

<!-- .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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