---
title: After explaining their grief as well as he could, he ended by beggin… — The Green Fairy Book · tree and pragmatics
description: After explaining their grief as well as he could, he ended by begging them to see the Princess for themselves. Who acts: he. A sentence of «The Green Fairy Book» by Andrew Lang, Heart of Ice, part 3, with its dependency tree and the pragmatics of every clause.
---

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# The Green Fairy Book, Heart of Ice, part 3, sentence 5

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After explaining their grief as well as he could, he ended by begging them to see the Princess for themselves.

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**Who acts:** he · **What happens:** explain, end, beg, see · **To what, where:** grief, King, Princess

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This is a sentence of «The Green Fairy Book» by Andrew Lang, Heart of Ice, part 3. The page gives its syntax tree — a dependency tree in the style of Universal Dependencies — and its pragmatics clause by clause: who acts (he), 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:pg7277:16:5
# text = After explaining their grief as well as he could, he ended by begging them to see the Princess for themselves.
1	After	after	SCONJ	IN	_	2	mark	_	_
2	explaining	explain	VERB	VBG	Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Part	12	advcl	_	_
3	their	their	PRON	PRP$	Case=Gen|Number=Plur|Person=3|Poss=Yes|PronType=Prs	4	nmod:poss	_	_
4	grief	grief	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	2	obj	_	_
5	as	as	ADV	RB	_	6	advmod	_	_
6	well	well	ADV	RB	Degree=Pos	2	advmod	_	_
7	as	as	SCONJ	IN	_	9	mark	_	_
8	he	he	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	9	nsubj	_	_
9	could	could	AUX	MD	VerbForm=Fin	6	advcl	_	SpaceAfter=No
10	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	2	punct	_	_
11	he	he	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	12	nsubj	_	_
12	ended	end	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	0	root	_	_
13	by	by	SCONJ	IN	_	14	mark	_	_
14	begging	beg	VERB	VBG	Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Part	12	advcl	_	_
15	them	they	PRON	PRP	Case=Acc|Number=Plur|Person=3|PronType=Prs	14	obj	_	_
16	to	to	PART	TO	_	17	mark	_	_
17	see	see	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	14	advcl	_	_
18	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	19	det	_	_
19	Princess	princess	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	17	obj	_	_
20	for	for	ADP	IN	_	21	case	_	_
21	themselves	themselves	PRON	PRP	Case=Acc|Number=Plur|Person=3|PronType=Prs|Reflex=Yes	17	obl	_	SpaceAfter=No
22	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	12	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

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| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **explain** *speech: assert* | gerund | he *not said here* | King's grief |  |  |  | well *property* | vn transfer\_mesg-37.1.1 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent grief=Topic |
| 2 | **end** | past | he |  |  |  |  |  | vn stop-55.4-1-1 «NP.eventuality V»: agent=Eventuality |
| 3 | **beg** *speech: request* | gerund | he *not said here* |  | King |  |  |  | vn beg-58.2-1-1 «NP V NP PP.Topic»: agent=Agent they=Recipient |
| 4 | **see** | to-infinitive | he *not said here* | the Princess |  |  |  | for King | vn comprehend-87.2-1-1 «NP V NP»: agent=Experiencer princess=Stimulus |

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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:** «The Green Fairy Book» by Andrew Lang, Project Gutenberg book 7277 (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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