---
title: When the latter saw the golden lamb, he asked the herd: ‘Will you se… — The Violet Fairy Book · tree and pragmatics
description: When the latter saw the golden lamb, he asked the herd: ‘Will you sell me this lamb?’ Who acts: latter, lamb, you. A sentence of «The Violet Fairy Book» by Andrew Lang, The Princess Who Was Hidden Underground, with its dependency tree and the pragmatics of every clause.
---

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# The Violet Fairy Book, The Princess Who Was Hidden Underground, sentence 11

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When the latter saw the golden lamb, he asked the herd: ‘Will you sell me this lamb?’

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**Who acts:** latter, lamb, you · **What happens:** see, ask, sell · **To what, where:** golden lamb, herd, lamb, me · **Speech:** someone speaks here

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This is a sentence of «The Violet Fairy Book» by Andrew Lang, The Princess Who Was Hidden Underground. The page gives its syntax tree — a dependency tree in the style of Universal Dependencies — and its pragmatics clause by clause: who acts (latter, lamb, you), 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:pg641:37:11
# text = When the latter saw the golden lamb, he asked the herd: ‘Will you sell me this lamb?’
1	When	when	ADV	WRB	PronType=Int	4	advmod	_	_
2	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	3	det	_	_
3	latter	latter	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	4	nsubj	_	_
4	saw	see	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	10	advcl	_	_
5	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	7	det	_	_
6	golden	golden	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	7	amod	_	_
7	lamb	lamb	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	4	obj	_	SpaceAfter=No
8	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	4	punct	_	_
9	he	he	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	10	nsubj	_	_
10	asked	ask	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	0	root	_	_
11	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	12	det	_	_
12	herd	herd	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	10	obj	_	SpaceAfter=No
13	:	:	PUNCT	:	_	17	punct	_	_
14	‘	'	PUNCT	``	_	17	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
15	Will	will	AUX	MD	VerbForm=Fin	17	aux	_	_
16	you	you	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Person=2|PronType=Prs	17	nsubj	_	_
17	sell	sell	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	10	ccomp	_	_
18	me	I	PRON	PRP	Case=Acc|Number=Sing|Person=1|PronType=Prs	17	iobj	_	_
19	this	this	DET	DT	Number=Sing|PronType=Dem	20	det	_	_
20	lamb	lamb	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	17	obj	_	SpaceAfter=No
21	?	?	PUNCT	.	_	17	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
22	’	'	PUNCT	''	_	17	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

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| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **see** | past | the latter | the golden lamb |  |  |  |  | vn comprehend-87.2-1-1 «NP V NP»: agent=Experiencer lamb=Stimulus |
| 2 | **ask** *speech: ask* | past | lamb | the herd |  |  |  |  | vn inquire-37.1.2 «NP V NP whether S»: agent=Agent herd=Recipient clause=Topic |
| 3 | **sell** | future | you | this lamb | me |  |  |  | vn give-13.1-1 «NP V NP-Dative NP»: agent=Agent i=Recipient lamb=Theme |

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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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