---
title: On hearing this the merchant went to the king, and told him what had… — Indian Fairy Tales · tree and pragmatics
description: On hearing this the merchant went to the king, and told him what had taken place. Who acts: merchant. A sentence of «Indian Fairy Tales» by Joseph Jacobs, Demon With Matted Hair " 196, part 21, with its dependency tree and the pragmatics of every clause.
---

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# Indian Fairy Tales, Demon With Matted Hair " 196, part 21, sentence 19

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On hearing this the merchant went to the king, and told him what had taken place.

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**Who acts:** merchant · **What happens:** hear, go, tell, take · **To what, where:** this, merchant, place · **Speech:** someone speaks here

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This is a sentence of «Indian Fairy Tales» by Joseph Jacobs, Demon With Matted Hair " 196, part 21. The page gives its syntax tree — a dependency tree in the style of Universal Dependencies — and its pragmatics clause by clause: who acts (merchant), 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:pg7128:27:19
# text = On hearing this the merchant went to the king, and told him what had taken place.
1	On	on	SCONJ	IN	_	2	mark	_	_
2	hearing	hear	VERB	VBG	Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Part	6	advcl	_	_
3	this	this	PRON	DT	Number=Sing|PronType=Dem	2	obj	_	_
4	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	5	det	_	_
5	merchant	merchant	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	6	nsubj	_	_
6	went	go	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	0	root	_	_
7	to	to	ADP	IN	_	9	case	_	_
8	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	9	det	_	_
9	king	king	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	6	obl	_	SpaceAfter=No
10	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	12	punct	_	_
11	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	12	cc	_	_
12	told	tell	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	6	conj	_	_
13	him	he	PRON	PRP	Case=Acc|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	12	iobj	_	_
14	what	what	PRON	WP	PronType=Int	16	nsubj:pass	_	_
15	had	have	AUX	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Plur|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	16	aux	_	_
16	taken	take	VERB	VBN	Tense=Past|VerbForm=Part|Voice=Pass	12	ccomp	_	_
17	place	place	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	16	obj	_	SpaceAfter=No
18	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	6	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

<!-- .fr -->
| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **hear** | gerund | the merchant *not said here* | this |  |  |  |  | vn see-30.1-1-1 «NP V S»: agent=Experiencer this=Stimulus |
| 2 | **go** | past | the merchant |  |  |  |  | to the king | vn escape-51.1-1 «NP V PP.initial\_location»: agent=Theme to king=Initial\_Location |
| 3 | **tell** *speech: assert* | past | the merchant *not said here* |  | merchant |  |  |  | vn transfer\_mesg-37.1.1-1-1 «NP V NP what S»: agent=Agent he=Recipient clause=Topic |
| 4 | **take** | past · perfect · passive |  | place |  |  |  |  | vn bring-11.3 «NP V NP ADVP»: subject=Theme place=Destination |

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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:** «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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