---
title: His mother answered that it was a whim, and nobody could persuade he… — The Violet Fairy Book · tree and pragmatics
description: His mother answered that it was a whim, and nobody could persuade her to lay it aside; whereat the young man laughed, but kept his thoughts to himself. Who acts: mother, sight, nobody, young man. A sentence of «The Violet Fairy Book» by Andrew Lang, The Maiden With the Wooden Helmet, with its depend
---

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# The Violet Fairy Book, The Maiden With the Wooden Helmet, sentence 28

<!-- .ven lang=en -->
His mother answered that it was a whim, and nobody could persuade her to lay it aside; whereat the young man laughed, but kept his thoughts to himself.

<!-- .vintro -->
**Who acts:** mother, sight, nobody, young man, Hatschihime · **What happens:** answer, be, persuade, lay, laugh, keep · **To what, where:** whim, girl, sight, thoughts, Hatschihime · **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 (mother, sight, nobody, young man), 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:pg641:31:28
# text = His mother answered that it was a whim, and nobody could persuade her to lay it aside; whereat the young man laughed, but kept his thoughts to himself.
1	His	his	PRON	PRP$	Case=Gen|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|Poss=Yes|PronType=Prs	2	nmod:poss	_	_
2	mother	mother	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	3	nsubj	_	_
3	answered	answer	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	0	root	_	_
4	that	that	SCONJ	IN	_	8	mark	_	_
5	it	it	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Gender=Neut|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	8	nsubj	_	_
6	was	be	AUX	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	8	cop	_	_
7	a	a	DET	DT	Definite=Ind|PronType=Art	8	det	_	_
8	whim	whim	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	3	ccomp	_	SpaceAfter=No
9	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	13	punct	_	_
10	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	13	cc	_	_
11	nobody	nobody	PRON	NN	Number=Sing|PronType=Neg	13	nsubj	_	_
12	could	could	AUX	MD	VerbForm=Fin	13	aux	_	_
13	persuade	persuade	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	3	conj	_	_
14	her	she	PRON	PRP	Case=Acc|Gender=Fem|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	13	obj	_	_
15	to	to	PART	TO	_	16	mark	_	_
16	lay	lay	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	13	advcl	_	_
17	it	it	PRON	PRP	Case=Acc|Gender=Neut|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	16	obj	_	_
18	aside	aside	ADV	RB	_	16	advmod	_	SpaceAfter=No
19	;	;	PUNCT	,	_	24	punct	_	_
20	whereat	whereat	ADV	WRB	PronType=Int	24	advmod	_	_
21	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	23	det	_	_
22	young	young	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	23	amod	_	_
23	man	man	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	24	nsubj	_	_
24	laughed	laugh	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	3	conj	_	SpaceAfter=No
25	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	27	punct	_	_
26	but	but	CCONJ	CC	_	27	cc	_	_
27	kept	keep	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	24	conj	_	_
28	his	his	PRON	PRP$	Case=Gen|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|Poss=Yes|PronType=Prs	29	nmod:poss	_	_
29	thoughts	thought	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	27	obj	_	_
30	to	to	ADP	IN	_	31	case	_	_
31	himself	himself	PRON	PRP	Case=Acc|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs|Reflex=Yes	27	obl	_	SpaceAfter=No
32	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	3	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

<!-- .fr -->
| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **answer** *speech: assert* | past | Hatschihime's mother |  |  |  |  |  | vn reciprocate-112-1 «NP V»: agent=Agent |
| 2 | **is a** | past | sight | a whim |  |  |  |  | tree rules |
| 3 | **persuade** | could | nobody | girl |  |  |  |  | vn compel-59.1-1 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent she=Patient |
| 4 | **lay** | to-infinitive | nobody *not said here* | sight |  |  |  | aside *property* | vn create-26.4 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent it=Result |
| 5 | **laugh** | past | the young man |  |  |  |  | whereat *property* | vn nonverbal\_expression-40.2 «NP V»: agent=Agent |
| 6 | **keep** | past | the young man *not said here* | Hatschihime's thoughts | Hatschihime |  |  |  | vn keep-15.2 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent thought=Theme |
| 7 | **think** |  | Hatschihime |  |  |  |  |  | nom thought «cognition 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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