---
title: And the whale begged: ‘Think of me and say to the king: “The poor wh… — The Violet Fairy Book · tree and pragmatics
description: And the whale begged: ‘Think of me and say to the king: “The poor whale has been lying three years across the strait, and men and horses have nearly trampled his back into his ribs. Who acts: whale, poor whale, men. A sentence of «The Violet Fairy Book» by Andrew Lang, The Story of Three Wonderful B
---

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# The Violet Fairy Book, The Story of Three Wonderful Beggars, sentence 104

<!-- .ven lang=en -->
And the whale begged: ‘Think of me and say to the king: “The poor whale has been lying three years across the strait, and men and horses have nearly trampled his back into his ribs.

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**Who acts:** whale, poor whale, men · **What happens:** beg, think, say, lie, trample · **To what, where:** king, strait, back, ribs · **Speech:** someone speaks here

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This is a sentence of «The Violet Fairy Book» by Andrew Lang, The Story of Three Wonderful Beggars. The page gives its syntax tree — a dependency tree in the style of Universal Dependencies — and its pragmatics clause by clause: who acts (whale, poor whale, men), 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:pg641:4:104
# text = And the whale begged: ‘Think of me and say to the king: “The poor whale has been lying three years across the strait, and men and horses have nearly trampled his back into his ribs.
1	And	and	CCONJ	CC	_	4	cc	_	_
2	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	3	det	_	_
3	whale	whale	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	4	nsubj	_	_
4	begged	beg	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	0	root	_	SpaceAfter=No
5	:	:	PUNCT	:	_	7	punct	_	_
6	‘	'	PUNCT	``	_	7	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
7	Think	think	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	4	ccomp	_	_
8	of	of	ADP	IN	_	9	case	_	_
9	me	I	PRON	PRP	Case=Acc|Number=Sing|Person=1|PronType=Prs	7	obl	_	_
10	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	11	cc	_	_
11	say	say	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	7	conj	_	_
12	to	to	ADP	IN	_	14	case	_	_
13	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	14	det	_	_
14	king	king	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	11	obl	_	SpaceAfter=No
15	:	:	PUNCT	:	_	22	punct	_	_
16	“	"	PUNCT	``	_	22	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
17	The	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	19	det	_	_
18	poor	poor	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	19	amod	_	_
19	whale	whale	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	22	nsubj	_	_
20	has	have	AUX	VBZ	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Fin	22	aux	_	_
21	been	be	AUX	VBN	Tense=Past|VerbForm=Part	22	aux	_	_
22	lying	lie	VERB	VBG	Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Part	4	advcl	_	_
23	three	three	NUM	CD	NumForm=Word|NumType=Card	24	nummod	_	_
24	years	year	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	22	obj	_	_
25	across	across	ADP	IN	_	27	case	_	_
26	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	27	det	_	_
27	strait	strait	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	22	obl	_	SpaceAfter=No
28	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	35	punct	_	_
29	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	35	cc	_	_
30	men	man	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	35	nsubj	_	_
31	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	32	cc	_	_
32	horses	horse	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	30	conj	_	_
33	have	have	AUX	VBP	Mood=Ind|Number=Plur|Person=3|Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Fin	35	aux	_	_
34	nearly	nearly	ADV	RB	_	35	advmod	_	_
35	trampled	trample	VERB	VBN	Tense=Past|VerbForm=Part	4	conj	_	_
36	his	his	PRON	PRP$	Case=Gen|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|Poss=Yes|PronType=Prs	37	nmod:poss	_	_
37	back	back	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	35	obj	_	_
38	into	into	ADP	IN	_	40	case	_	_
39	his	his	PRON	PRP$	Case=Gen|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|Poss=Yes|PronType=Prs	40	nmod:poss	_	_
40	ribs	rib	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	35	obl	_	SpaceAfter=No
41	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	4	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

<!-- .fr -->
| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **beg** *speech: request* | past | the whale |  |  |  |  |  | vn beg-58.2-1-1 «NP V S\_INF»: agent=Agent clause=Topic |
| 2 | **think** *speech: other* | infinitive |  |  |  |  |  | of me | vn focus-87.1-1 «NP V»: agent=Agent |
| 3 | **say** *speech: assert* | infinitive |  |  | the king |  |  |  | vn say-37.7-1-1 «NP V PP.recipient S-Quote»: agent=Agent to king=Recipient |
| 4 | **lie** *in a quote* | present · perfect · progressive | the poor whale |  |  | the strait | year |  | vn assuming\_position-50 «NP V»: agent=Agent |
| 5 | **trample** *in a quote* | present · perfect | men and horses | man's back |  | man's ribs |  | nearly *property* | 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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