---
title: The servant obeyed, and the old woman, fearing lest the elephants sh… — Indian Fairy Tales · tree and pragmatics
description: The servant obeyed, and the old woman, fearing lest the elephants should go and push down her hut and kill the prince and his friend, begged the princess to let her depart. Who acts: servant, elephants, woman. A sentence of «Indian Fairy Tales» by Joseph Jacobs, Demon With Matted Hair " 196, part 22
---

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# Indian Fairy Tales, Demon With Matted Hair " 196, part 22, sentence 35

<!-- .ven lang=en -->
The servant obeyed, and the old woman, fearing lest the elephants should go and push down her hut and kill the prince and his friend, begged the princess to let her depart.

<!-- .vintro -->
**Who acts:** servant, elephants, woman · **What happens:** obey, fear, go, push down, kill, beg · **To what, where:** old woman, hut, prince, princess, woman · **Speech:** someone speaks here

<!-- .vabout -->
This is a sentence of «Indian Fairy Tales» by Joseph Jacobs, Demon With Matted Hair " 196, part 22. The page gives its syntax tree — a dependency tree in the style of Universal Dependencies — and its pragmatics clause by clause: who acts (servant, elephants, woman), 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:pg7128:28:35
# text = The servant obeyed, and the old woman, fearing lest the elephants should go and push down her hut and kill the prince and his friend, begged the princess to let her depart.
1	The	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	2	det	_	_
2	servant	servant	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	3	nsubj	_	_
3	obeyed	obey	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	0	root	_	SpaceAfter=No
4	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	8	punct	_	_
5	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	8	cc	_	_
6	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	8	det	_	_
7	old	old	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	8	amod	_	_
8	woman	woman	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	3	obl	_	SpaceAfter=No
9	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	10	punct	_	_
10	fearing	fear	VERB	VBG	VerbForm=Ger	3	advcl	_	_
11	lest	lest	SCONJ	IN	_	15	mark	_	_
12	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	13	det	_	_
13	elephants	elephant	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	15	nsubj	_	_
14	should	should	AUX	MD	VerbForm=Fin	15	aux	_	_
15	go	go	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	10	ccomp	_	_
16	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	17	cc	_	_
17	push	push	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	15	conj	_	_
18	down	down	ADP	RP	_	17	compound:prt	_	_
19	her	her	PRON	PRP$	Case=Gen|Gender=Fem|Number=Sing|Person=3|Poss=Yes|PronType=Prs	20	nmod:poss	_	_
20	hut	hut	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	17	obj	_	_
21	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	22	cc	_	_
22	kill	kill	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	15	conj	_	_
23	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	24	det	_	_
24	prince	prince	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	22	obj	_	_
25	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	27	cc	_	_
26	his	his	PRON	PRP$	Case=Gen|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|Poss=Yes|PronType=Prs	27	nmod:poss	_	_
27	friend	friend	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	24	conj	_	SpaceAfter=No
28	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	29	punct	_	_
29	begged	beg	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	3	conj	_	_
30	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	31	det	_	_
31	princess	princess	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	29	obj	_	_
32	to	to	PART	TO	_	33	mark	_	_
33	let	let	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	29	ccomp	_	_
34	her	she	PRON	PRP	Case=Acc|Gender=Fem|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	33	obj	_	_
35	depart	depart	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	33	xcomp	_	SpaceAfter=No
36	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	3	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

<!-- .fr -->
| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **obey** | past | the servant | the old woman |  |  |  |  | vn abide\_by-93.2 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent |
| 2 | **fear** | gerund | the servant *not said here* |  |  |  |  |  | vn admire-31.2-1 «NP V S\_INF»: agent=Experiencer clause=Stimulus |
| 3 | **go** | should | the elephants |  |  |  |  |  | vn disappearance-48.2-1 «NP V»: agent=Theme |
| 4 | **push down** | infinitive | the elephants *not said here* | woman's hut |  |  |  |  | vn carry-11.4-1-1 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent hut=Theme |
| 5 | **kill** | infinitive | the elephants *not said here* | the prince and servant's friend |  |  |  |  | vn remove-10.1 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent prince=Theme |
| 6 | **beg** *speech: request* | past | the servant *not said here* |  | the princess |  |  |  | vn beg-58.2-1-1 «NP V NP S\_INF»: agent=Agent princess=Recipient clause=Topic |
| 7 | **let** *not said to happen* | to-infinitive |  | woman |  |  |  |  | tree rules |
| 8 | **depart** | infinitive | woman *not said here* |  |  |  |  |  | vn escape-51.1-1-1 «NP V»: agent=Theme |

<!-- .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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