---
title: Should the cornfield refuse the plough, or a maiden refuse to be mar… — The descent of the sun: A cycle of birth · tree and pragmatics
description: Should the cornfield refuse the plough, or a maiden refuse to be married? Who acts: cornfield. A sentence of «The descent of the sun: A cycle of birth» by Unknown, A Sleep and a Dream., part 1, with its dependency tree and the pragmatics of every clause.
---

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# The descent of the sun: A cycle of birth, A Sleep and a Dream., part 1, sentence 27

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Should the cornfield refuse the plough, or a maiden refuse to be married?

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**Who acts:** cornfield · **What happens:** refuse, marry · **To what, where:** plough, maiden refuse

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This is a sentence of «The descent of the sun: A cycle of birth» by Unknown, A Sleep and a Dream., part 1. The page gives its syntax tree — a dependency tree in the style of Universal Dependencies — and its pragmatics clause by clause: who acts (cornfield), what happens, when and where, as Mova's frames read it from the tree.

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**Mova's own parse.** This tree may be wrong.

## The tree {#tree}

```conllu
# sent_id = book:pg68641:3:27
# text = Should the cornfield refuse the plough, or a maiden refuse to be married?
1	Should	should	AUX	MD	VerbForm=Fin	4	aux	_	_
2	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	3	det	_	_
3	cornfield	cornfield	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	4	nsubj	_	_
4	refuse	refuse	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	0	root	_	_
5	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	6	det	_	_
6	plough	plough	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	4	obj	_	SpaceAfter=No
7	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	14	punct	_	_
8	or	or	CCONJ	CC	_	14	cc	_	_
9	a	a	DET	DT	Definite=Ind|PronType=Art	11	det	_	_
10	maiden	maiden	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	11	amod	_	_
11	refuse	refuse	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	14	nsubj:pass	_	_
12	to	to	PART	TO	_	14	mark	_	_
13	be	be	AUX	VB	VerbForm=Inf	14	aux:pass	_	_
14	married	marry	VERB	VBN	Tense=Past|VerbForm=Part|Voice=Pass	4	conj	_	SpaceAfter=No
15	?	?	PUNCT	.	_	4	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

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| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **refuse** | should | the cornfield | the plough |  |  |  |  | vn reject-77.2 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent plough=Theme |
| 2 | **marry** | to-infinitive · passive |  | a maiden refuse |  |  |  |  | vn amalgamate-22.2-3-1-1 «NP V NP»: subject=Patient |

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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 descent of the sun: A cycle of birth» by Unknown, Project Gutenberg book 68641 (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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