---
title: ‘But haven’t you a son who could learn your trade by degrees?’ asked… — The Violet Fairy Book · tree and pragmatics
description: ‘But haven’t you a son who could learn your trade by degrees?’ asked Jem. Who acts: son, your. A sentence of «The Violet Fairy Book» by Andrew Lang, The History of Dwarf Long Nose, part 2, with its dependency tree and the pragmatics of every clause.
---

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# The Violet Fairy Book, The History of Dwarf Long Nose, part 2, sentence 10

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‘But haven’t you a son who could learn your trade by degrees?’ asked Jem.

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**Who acts:** son, your · **What happens:** have, learn, ask, trade · **To what, where:** you, trade, Jem · **Speech:** someone speaks here

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This is a sentence of «The Violet Fairy Book» by Andrew Lang, The History of Dwarf Long Nose, part 2. The page gives its syntax tree — a dependency tree in the style of Universal Dependencies — and its pragmatics clause by clause: who acts (son, your), 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:pg641:27:10
# text = ‘But haven’t you a son who could learn your trade by degrees?’ asked Jem.
1	‘	'	PUNCT	``	_	3	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
2	But	but	CCONJ	CC	_	3	cc	_	_
3	have	have	VERB	VBP	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=1|Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Fin	17	ccomp	_	SpaceAfter=No
4	n’t	not	PART	RB	Polarity=Neg	5	advmod	_	_
5	you	you	PRON	PRP	Case=Acc|Person=2|PronType=Prs	3	obl	_	_
6	a	a	DET	DT	Definite=Ind|PronType=Art	7	det	_	_
7	son	son	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	3	obj	_	_
8	who	who	PRON	WP	PronType=Rel	10	nsubj	_	_
9	could	could	AUX	MD	VerbForm=Fin	10	aux	_	_
10	learn	learn	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	7	acl:relcl	_	_
11	your	your	PRON	PRP$	Case=Gen|Person=2|Poss=Yes|PronType=Prs	12	nmod:poss	_	_
12	trade	trade	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	10	obj	_	_
13	by	by	ADP	IN	_	14	case	_	_
14	degrees	degree	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	10	obl	_	SpaceAfter=No
15	?	?	PUNCT	.	_	3	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
16	’	'	PUNCT	''	_	3	punct	_	_
17	asked	ask	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=1|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	0	root	_	_
18	Jem	Jem	PROPN	NNP	Number=Sing	17	iobj	_	SpaceAfter=No
19	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	17	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

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| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **have** | present |  | you |  |  |  |  | vn birth-28.2-1 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent son=Patient |
| 2 | **learn** | could | a son | your trade |  |  |  | by degrees | vn learn-14-2-1 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent trade=Topic |
| 3 | **ask** *speech: ask* | past |  |  | Jem |  |  |  | vn inquire-37.1.2 «NP V NP whether S»: agent=Agent jem=Recipient clause=Topic |
| 4 | **trade** |  | your |  |  |  |  |  | nom trade «act transitive»: poss=agent |

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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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