---
title: At length he told them everything--about the laughing of the fish, h… — Indian Fairy Tales · tree and pragmatics
description: At length he told them everything--about the laughing of the fish, his father's threatened execution, and his own banishment--and asked their advice as to what he should do. Who acts: host, father. A sentence of «Indian Fairy Tales» by Joseph Jacobs, Demon With Matted Hair " 196, part 20, with its d
---

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# Indian Fairy Tales, Demon With Matted Hair " 196, part 20, sentence 56

<!-- .ven lang=en -->
At length he told them everything--about the laughing of the fish, his father's threatened execution, and his own banishment--and asked their advice as to what he should do.

<!-- .vintro -->
**Who acts:** host, father · **What happens:** tell, threaten, ask, do, execute, banish · **To what, where:** everything, rest, length, advice · **Speech:** someone speaks here

<!-- .vabout -->
This is a sentence of «Indian Fairy Tales» by Joseph Jacobs, Demon With Matted Hair " 196, part 20. The page gives its syntax tree — a dependency tree in the style of Universal Dependencies — and its pragmatics clause by clause: who acts (host, father), 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:pg7128:26:56
# text = At length he told them everything--about the laughing of the fish, his father's threatened execution, and his own banishment--and asked their advice as to what he should do.
1	At	at	ADP	IN	_	2	case	_	_
2	length	length	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	4	obl	_	_
3	he	he	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	4	nsubj	_	_
4	told	tell	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	0	root	_	_
5	them	they	PRON	PRP	Case=Acc|Number=Plur|Person=3|PronType=Prs	4	iobj	_	_
6	everything	everything	PRON	NN	Number=Sing|PronType=Tot	4	obj	_	SpaceAfter=No
7	--	--	PUNCT	,	_	10	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
8	about	about	ADP	IN	_	10	case	_	_
9	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	10	det	_	_
10	laughing	laughing	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	4	obl	_	_
11	of	of	ADP	IN	_	13	case	_	_
12	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	13	det	_	_
13	fish	fish	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	10	nmod	_	SpaceAfter=No
14	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	19	punct	_	_
15	his	his	PRON	PRP$	Case=Gen|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|Poss=Yes|PronType=Prs	16	nmod:poss	_	_
16	father	father	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	19	nmod:poss	_	SpaceAfter=No
17	's	's	PART	POS	_	16	case	_	_
18	threatened	threaten	VERB	VBN	Tense=Past|VerbForm=Part|Voice=Pass	19	amod	_	_
19	execution	execution	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	10	conj	_	SpaceAfter=No
20	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	24	punct	_	_
21	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	24	cc	_	_
22	his	his	PRON	PRP$	Case=Gen|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|Poss=Yes|PronType=Prs	24	nmod:poss	_	_
23	own	own	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	24	amod	_	_
24	banishment	banishment	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	4	conj	_	SpaceAfter=No
25	--	--	PUNCT	,	_	27	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
26	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	27	cc	_	_
27	asked	ask	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	4	conj	_	_
28	their	their	PRON	PRP$	Case=Gen|Number=Plur|Person=3|Poss=Yes|PronType=Prs	29	nmod:poss	_	_
29	advice	advice	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	27	obj	_	_
30	as	as	ADP	IN	ExtPos=ADP	32	case	_	_
31	to	to	ADP	IN	_	30	fixed	_	_
32	what	what	PRON	WP	PronType=Rel	27	obl	_	_
33	he	he	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	35	nsubj	_	_
34	should	should	AUX	MD	VerbForm=Fin	35	aux	_	_
35	do	do	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	32	acl:relcl	_	SpaceAfter=No
36	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	4	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

<!-- .fr -->
| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **tell** *speech: assert* | past | host | everything | rest | length |  | about the laughing of the fish and host's father's threatened execution | vn transfer\_mesg-37.1.1-1-1 «NP V NP-Dative NP»: agent=Agent they=Recipient everything=Topic |
| 2 | **threaten** | participle |  |  |  |  |  |  | vn amuse-31.1 «NP V ADV-Middle»: agent=Experiencer |
| 3 | **ask** *speech: ask* | past | host *not said here* | laughing's advice |  |  |  |  | vn inquire-37.1.2 «NP V NP.recipient»: agent=Agent advice=Recipient |
| 4 | **do** | should | host |  |  |  |  |  | vn act-114-1 «NP V»: agent=Agent |
| 5 | **execute** |  | host's father |  |  |  |  |  | nom execution «act transitive»: poss=agent |
| 6 | **banish** |  | host |  |  |  |  |  | nom banishment «state 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:** «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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