---
title: The father hesitated, then answered: ‘Here is the eldest, whom I hav… — The Green Fairy Book · tree and pragmatics
description: The father hesitated, then answered: ‘Here is the eldest, whom I have the honour to present to your Highness.’ Who acts: father, eldest, I. A sentence of «The Green Fairy Book» by Andrew Lang, The Enchanted Ring, with its dependency tree and the pragmatics of every clause.
---

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# The Green Fairy Book, The Enchanted Ring, sentence 30

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The father hesitated, then answered: ‘Here is the eldest, whom I have the honour to present to your Highness.’

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**Who acts:** father, eldest, I · **What happens:** hesitate, answer, be, have, present · **To what, where:** father, honour, Highness

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This is a sentence of «The Green Fairy Book» by Andrew Lang, The Enchanted Ring. The page gives its syntax tree — a dependency tree in the style of Universal Dependencies — and its pragmatics clause by clause: who acts (father, eldest, I), 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:pg7277:19:30
# text = The father hesitated, then answered: ‘Here is the eldest, whom I have the honour to present to your Highness.’
1	The	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	2	det	_	_
2	father	father	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	6	nsubj	_	_
3	hesitated	hesitate	VERB	VBN	Tense=Past|VerbForm=Part|Voice=Pass	2	acl	_	SpaceAfter=No
4	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	6	punct	_	_
5	then	then	ADV	RB	PronType=Dem	6	advmod	_	_
6	answered	answer	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	0	root	_	SpaceAfter=No
7	:	:	PUNCT	:	_	6	punct	_	_
8	‘	'	PUNCT	``	_	9	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
9	Here	here	ADV	RB	PronType=Dem	6	conj	_	_
10	is	be	AUX	VBZ	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Fin	9	cop	_	_
11	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	12	det	_	_
12	eldest	eld	ADJ	JJS	Degree=Sup	9	nsubj	_	SpaceAfter=No
13	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	16	punct	_	_
14	whom	whom	PRON	WP	PronType=Rel	16	obj	_	_
15	I	I	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Number=Sing|Person=1|PronType=Prs	16	nsubj	_	_
16	have	have	VERB	VBP	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=1|Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Fin	12	parataxis	_	_
17	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	18	det	_	_
18	honour	honour	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	16	obj	_	_
19	to	to	PART	TO	_	20	mark	_	_
20	present	present	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	18	acl	_	_
21	to	to	ADP	IN	_	23	case	_	_
22	your	your	PRON	PRP$	Case=Gen|Person=2|Poss=Yes|PronType=Prs	23	nmod:poss	_	_
23	Highness	highness	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	20	obl	_	SpaceAfter=No
24	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	6	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
25	’	'	PUNCT	''	_	6	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

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| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **hesitate** | participle |  | the father *not said here* |  |  |  |  | vn linger-53.1 «NP V PP.location»: agent=Agent |
| 2 | **answer** *speech: assert* | past | the father |  |  |  | then |  | vn reciprocate-112-1 «NP V»: agent=Agent |
| 3 | **is** | present | the eldest |  |  |  |  | here *property* | tree rules |
| 4 | **have** | present | I | the honour |  |  |  |  | tree rules |
| 5 | **present** | to-infinitive | I *not said here* | the honour *not said here* | your Highness |  |  |  | vn fulfilling-13.4.1 «NP V NP PP.recipient»: agent=Agent to highness=Recipient |

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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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