---
title: For five months he laboured indefatigably to find a reason for the l… — Indian Fairy Tales · tree and pragmatics
description: For five months he laboured indefatigably to find a reason for the laughter of the fish. Who acts: vizier. A sentence of «Indian Fairy Tales» by Joseph Jacobs, Demon With Matted Hair " 196, part 19, with its dependency tree and the pragmatics of every clause.
---

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# Indian Fairy Tales, Demon With Matted Hair " 196, part 19, sentence 116

<!-- .ven lang=en -->
For five months he laboured indefatigably to find a reason for the laughter of the fish.

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**Who acts:** vizier · **What happens:** labour, find · **To what, where:** reason

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This is a sentence of «Indian Fairy Tales» by Joseph Jacobs, Demon With Matted Hair " 196, part 19. The page gives its syntax tree — a dependency tree in the style of Universal Dependencies — and its pragmatics clause by clause: who acts (vizier), 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:pg7128:25:116
# text = For five months he laboured indefatigably to find a reason for the laughter of the fish.
1	For	for	ADP	IN	_	3	case	_	_
2	five	five	NUM	CD	NumForm=Word|NumType=Card	3	nummod	_	_
3	months	month	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	5	obl	_	_
4	he	he	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	5	nsubj	_	_
5	laboured	labour	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	0	root	_	_
6	indefatigably	indefatigably	ADV	RB	_	5	advmod	_	_
7	to	to	PART	TO	_	8	mark	_	_
8	find	find	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	5	advcl	_	_
9	a	a	DET	DT	Definite=Ind|PronType=Art	10	det	_	_
10	reason	reason	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	8	obj	_	_
11	for	for	ADP	IN	_	13	case	_	_
12	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	13	det	_	_
13	laughter	laughter	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	10	nmod	_	_
14	of	of	ADP	IN	_	16	case	_	_
15	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	16	det	_	_
16	fish	fish	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	13	nmod	_	SpaceAfter=No
17	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	5	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

<!-- .fr -->
| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **labour** | past | vizier |  |  |  | month | indefatigably *property* | vn work-73.2 «NP V»: agent=Agent |
| 2 | **find** | to-infinitive | vizier *not said here* | a reason |  |  |  | for the laughter of the fish | vn get-13.5.1 «NP V NP PP.beneficiary»: agent=Agent reason=Theme for laughter=Beneficiary |

<!-- .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:** «Indian Fairy Tales» by Joseph Jacobs, Project Gutenberg book 7128 (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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