---
title: But the girl would have nothing to say to them, and only bade them b… — The Violet Fairy Book · tree and pragmatics
description: But the girl would have nothing to say to them, and only bade them be off; then they began to talk to her, but she never answered them, and went on with what she was doing, though her wages were low and food not very plentiful. Who acts: girl, man, wages, food. A sentence of «The Violet Fairy Book» 
---

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# The Violet Fairy Book, The Maiden With the Wooden Helmet, sentence 20

<!-- .ven lang=en -->
But the girl would have nothing to say to them, and only bade them be off; then they began to talk to her, but she never answered them, and went on with what she was doing, though her wages were low and food not very plentiful.

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**Who acts:** girl, man, wages, food · **What happens:** have, say, begin, talk, not answer, go on · **To what, where:** nothing, man, girl · **Speech:** someone speaks here

<!-- .vabout -->
This is a sentence of «The Violet Fairy Book» by Andrew Lang, The Maiden With the Wooden Helmet. The page gives its syntax tree — a dependency tree in the style of Universal Dependencies — and its pragmatics clause by clause: who acts (girl, man, wages, food), 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:pg641:31:20
# text = But the girl would have nothing to say to them, and only bade them be off; then they began to talk to her, but she never answered them, and went on with what she was doing, though her wages were low and food not very plentiful.
1	But	but	CCONJ	CC	_	5	cc	_	_
2	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	3	det	_	_
3	girl	girl	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	5	nsubj	_	_
4	would	would	AUX	MD	VerbForm=Fin	5	aux	_	_
5	have	have	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	0	root	_	_
6	nothing	nothing	PRON	NN	Number=Sing|PronType=Neg	5	obj	_	_
7	to	to	PART	TO	_	8	mark	_	_
8	say	say	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	6	acl	_	_
9	to	to	ADP	IN	_	10	case	_	_
10	them	they	PRON	PRP	Case=Acc|Number=Plur|Person=3|PronType=Prs	8	obl	_	SpaceAfter=No
11	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	14	punct	_	_
12	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	14	cc	_	_
13	only	only	ADV	RB	_	14	advmod	_	_
14	bade	bade	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	5	parataxis	_	_
15	them	they	PRON	PRP	Case=Acc|Number=Plur|Person=3|PronType=Prs	14	obj	_	_
16	be	be	AUX	VB	VerbForm=Inf	17	cop	_	_
17	off	off	ADP	RP	_	14	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
18	;	;	PUNCT	:	_	21	punct	_	_
19	then	then	ADV	RB	PronType=Dem	21	advmod	_	_
20	they	they	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Number=Plur|Person=3|PronType=Prs	21	nsubj	_	_
21	began	begin	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Plur|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	5	parataxis	_	_
22	to	to	PART	TO	_	23	mark	_	_
23	talk	talk	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	21	xcomp	_	_
24	to	to	ADP	IN	_	25	case	_	_
25	her	she	PRON	PRP	Case=Acc|Gender=Fem|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	23	obl	_	SpaceAfter=No
26	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	30	punct	_	_
27	but	but	CCONJ	CC	_	30	cc	_	_
28	she	she	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Gender=Fem|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	30	nsubj	_	_
29	never	never	ADV	RB	PronType=Neg	30	advmod	_	_
30	answered	answer	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	21	conj	_	_
31	them	they	PRON	PRP	Case=Acc|Number=Plur|Person=3|PronType=Prs	30	obj	_	SpaceAfter=No
32	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	34	punct	_	_
33	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	34	cc	_	_
34	went	go	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Plur|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	21	conj	_	_
35	on	on	ADV	RB	_	34	advmod	_	_
36	with	with	ADP	IN	_	37	case	_	_
37	what	what	PRON	WP	PronType=Rel	34	obl	_	_
38	she	she	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Gender=Fem|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	40	nsubj	_	_
39	was	be	AUX	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	40	aux	_	_
40	doing	do	VERB	VBG	Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Part	37	acl:relcl	_	SpaceAfter=No
41	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	46	punct	_	_
42	though	though	SCONJ	IN	_	46	mark	_	_
43	her	her	PRON	PRP$	Case=Gen|Gender=Fem|Number=Sing|Person=3|Poss=Yes|PronType=Prs	44	nmod:poss	_	_
44	wages	wage	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	46	nsubj	_	_
45	were	be	AUX	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Plur|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	46	cop	_	_
46	low	low	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	34	parataxis	_	_
47	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	51	cc	_	_
48	food	food	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	51	nsubj	_	_
49	not	not	PART	RB	Polarity=Neg	51	advmod	_	_
50	very	very	ADV	RB	_	51	advmod	_	_
51	plentiful	plentiful	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	46	conj	_	SpaceAfter=No
52	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	5	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

<!-- .fr -->
| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **have** | would | the girl | nothing |  |  |  |  | vn birth-28.2-1 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent nothing=Patient |
| 2 | **say** *speech: assert* | to-infinitive | the girl *not said here* | nothing *not said here* | man |  |  |  | vn say-37.7-1-1 «NP V PP.recipient S-Quote»: agent=Agent to they=Recipient |
| 3 | **begin** | past | man |  |  |  | then |  | vn begin-55.1-1-1 «NP V S\_INF»: agent=Agent clause=Eventuality |
| 4 | **talk** | to-infinitive | man *not said here* |  | girl |  |  |  | vn talk-37.5 «NP V PP.co-agent»: agent=Agent to she=Co-Agent |
| 5 | **not** **answer** *speech: assert* | past | girl |  | man |  |  |  | vn reciprocate-112-1 «NP V PP»: agent=Agent they=Eventuality |
| 6 | **go on** | past | man *not said here* |  |  |  |  |  | vn function-105.2.1 «NP V»: agent=Theme |
| 7 | **do** | past · progressive | girl |  |  |  |  |  | vn act-114-1 «NP V»: agent=Agent |
| 8 | **is** | past | girl's wages |  |  |  |  | low *property* | tree rules |
| 9 | **not** **be** |  | food |  |  |  |  |  | tree rules |

<!-- .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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