---
title: Someone told him that he ought to consult the moon, for the moon tra… — The Green Fairy Book · tree and pragmatics
description: Someone told him that he ought to consult the moon, for the moon travelled far, and might be able to tell him something. Who acts: Someone, man, moon. A sentence of «The Green Fairy Book» by Andrew Lang, The Snuff-box, with its dependency tree and the pragmatics of every clause.
---

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# The Green Fairy Book, The Snuff-box, sentence 36

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Someone told him that he ought to consult the moon, for the moon travelled far, and might be able to tell him something.

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**Who acts:** Someone, man, moon · **What happens:** tell, consult, travel, be · **To what, where:** man, moon, something · **Speech:** someone speaks here

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This is a sentence of «The Green Fairy Book» by Andrew Lang, The Snuff-box. The page gives its syntax tree — a dependency tree in the style of Universal Dependencies — and its pragmatics clause by clause: who acts (Someone, man, moon), 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:pg7277:20:36
# text = Someone told him that he ought to consult the moon, for the moon travelled far, and might be able to tell him something.
1	Someone	someone	PRON	NN	Number=Sing|PronType=Ind	2	nsubj	_	_
2	told	tell	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	0	root	_	_
3	him	he	PRON	PRP	Case=Acc|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	2	iobj	_	_
4	that	that	SCONJ	IN	_	8	mark	_	_
5	he	he	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	8	nsubj	_	_
6	ought	ought	AUX	MD	VerbForm=Fin	8	aux	_	_
7	to	to	PART	TO	_	8	mark	_	_
8	consult	consult	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	2	xcomp	_	_
9	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	10	det	_	_
10	moon	moon	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	8	obj	_	SpaceAfter=No
11	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	15	punct	_	_
12	for	for	SCONJ	IN	_	15	mark	_	_
13	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	14	det	_	_
14	moon	moon	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	15	nsubj	_	_
15	travelled	travel	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	2	conj	_	_
16	far	far	ADV	RB	Degree=Pos	15	advmod	_	SpaceAfter=No
17	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	21	punct	_	_
18	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	21	cc	_	_
19	might	might	AUX	MD	VerbForm=Fin	21	aux	_	_
20	be	be	AUX	VB	VerbForm=Inf	21	cop	_	_
21	able	able	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	15	advcl	_	_
22	to	to	PART	TO	_	23	mark	_	_
23	tell	tell	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	21	xcomp	_	_
24	him	he	PRON	PRP	Case=Acc|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	23	iobj	_	_
25	something	something	PRON	NN	Number=Sing|PronType=Ind	23	obj	_	SpaceAfter=No
26	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	2	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

<!-- .fr -->
| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **tell** *speech: assert* | past | Someone |  | man |  |  |  | vn transfer\_mesg-37.1.1-1-1 «NP V NP S\_INF»: agent=Agent he=Recipient clause=Topic |
| 2 | **consult** *not said to happen* | ought | man | the moon |  |  |  |  | vn assessment-34.1 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent moon=Theme |
| 3 | **travel** | past | the moon |  |  |  |  | far *property* | vn run-51.3.2-1 «NP V»: agent=Theme |
| 4 | **is** | might | the moon *not said here* |  |  |  |  | able *property* | tree rules |
| 5 | **tell** *speech: assert* | to-infinitive | the moon *not said here* | something | man |  |  |  | vn transfer\_mesg-37.1.1-1-1 «NP V NP-Dative NP»: agent=Agent he=Recipient something=Topic |

<!-- .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:** «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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