---
title: He ordered the merchant to go back and ascertain whether his wife co… — Indian Fairy Tales · tree and pragmatics
description: He ordered the merchant to go back and ascertain whether his wife could recognise the young men if she saw them again. Who acts: punishment, merchant, wife. A sentence of «Indian Fairy Tales» by Joseph Jacobs, Demon With Matted Hair " 196, part 21, with its dependency tree and the pragmatics of ever
---

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

<!-- .ven lang=en -->
He ordered the merchant to go back and ascertain whether his wife could recognise the young men if she saw them again.

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**Who acts:** punishment, merchant, wife · **What happens:** order, go back, ascertain, recognise, see · **To what, where:** merchant, young men, men

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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 (punishment, merchant, wife), 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:pg7128:27:21
# text = He ordered the merchant to go back and ascertain whether his wife could recognise the young men if she saw them again.
1	He	he	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	2	nsubj	_	_
2	ordered	order	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	0	root	_	_
3	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	4	det	_	_
4	merchant	merchant	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	2	obj	_	_
5	to	to	PART	TO	_	6	mark	_	_
6	go	go	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	2	xcomp	_	_
7	back	back	ADV	RB	_	6	advmod	_	_
8	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	9	cc	_	_
9	ascertain	ascertain	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	6	conj	_	_
10	whether	whether	SCONJ	IN	_	14	mark	_	_
11	his	his	PRON	PRP$	Case=Gen|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|Poss=Yes|PronType=Prs	12	nmod:poss	_	_
12	wife	wife	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	14	nsubj	_	_
13	could	could	AUX	MD	VerbForm=Fin	14	aux	_	_
14	recognise	recognise	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	9	advcl	_	_
15	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	17	det	_	_
16	young	young	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	17	amod	_	_
17	men	man	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	14	obj	_	_
18	if	if	SCONJ	IN	_	20	mark	_	_
19	she	she	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Gender=Fem|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	20	nsubj	_	_
20	saw	see	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	14	advcl	_	_
21	them	they	PRON	PRP	Case=Acc|Number=Plur|Person=3|PronType=Prs	20	obj	_	_
22	again	again	ADV	RB	_	20	advmod	_	SpaceAfter=No
23	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	2	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

<!-- .fr -->
| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **order** | past | punishment | the merchant |  |  |  |  | vn order-58.3-1 «NP V NP S\_ING»: agent=Agent merchant=Recipient clause=Topic |
| 2 | **go back** *not said to happen* | to-infinitive | the merchant *not said here* |  |  |  |  |  | vn convert-26.6.2 «NP V S\_ING»: agent=Patient |
| 3 | **ascertain** | infinitive | the merchant *not said here* |  |  |  |  |  | vn discover-84 «NP V how S»: agent=Agent |
| 4 | **recognise** | could | punishment's wife | the young men |  |  |  |  | vn comprehend-87.2-1 «NP V NP»: agent=Experiencer man=Stimulus |
| 5 | **see** *a condition, not said to happen* | past | wife | men *= man* |  |  | again |  | vn comprehend-87.2-1-1 «NP V NP»: agent=Experiencer they=Stimulus |

<!-- .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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