---
title: But his mother told him such a pitiful story of the miserable wretch… — The Green Fairy Book · tree and pragmatics
description: But his mother told him such a pitiful story of the miserable wretch who had lost everything, and had come from far to ask his help, that at last he promised to see him. Who acts: mother, miserable wretch, last, sun. A sentence of «The Green Fairy Book» by Andrew Lang, The Snuff-box, with its depend
---

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# The Green Fairy Book, The Snuff-box, sentence 54

<!-- .ven lang=en -->
But his mother told him such a pitiful story of the miserable wretch who had lost everything, and had come from far to ask his help, that at last he promised to see him.

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**Who acts:** mother, miserable wretch, last, sun · **What happens:** tell, lose, come, ask, promise, see · **To what, where:** pitiful story, sun, everything, help · **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 (mother, miserable wretch, last, sun), 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:pg7277:20:54
# text = But his mother told him such a pitiful story of the miserable wretch who had lost everything, and had come from far to ask his help, that at last he promised to see him.
1	But	but	CCONJ	CC	_	4	cc	_	_
2	his	his	PRON	PRP$	Case=Gen|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|Poss=Yes|PronType=Prs	3	nmod:poss	_	_
3	mother	mother	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	4	nsubj	_	_
4	told	tell	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	0	root	_	_
5	him	he	PRON	PRP	Case=Acc|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	4	iobj	_	_
6	such	such	DET	PDT	PronType=Ind	9	det:predet	_	_
7	a	a	DET	DT	Definite=Ind|PronType=Art	9	det	_	_
8	pitiful	pitiful	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	9	amod	_	_
9	story	story	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	4	obj	_	_
10	of	of	ADP	IN	_	13	case	_	_
11	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	13	det	_	_
12	miserable	miserable	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	13	amod	_	_
13	wretch	wretch	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	9	nmod	_	_
14	who	who	PRON	WP	PronType=Rel	16	nsubj	_	_
15	had	have	AUX	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	16	aux	_	_
16	lost	lose	VERB	VBN	Tense=Past|VerbForm=Part	13	acl:relcl	_	_
17	everything	everything	PRON	NN	Number=Sing|PronType=Tot	16	obj	_	SpaceAfter=No
18	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	21	punct	_	_
19	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	21	cc	_	_
20	had	have	AUX	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	21	aux	_	_
21	come	come	VERB	VBN	Tense=Past|VerbForm=Part	4	parataxis	_	_
22	from	from	ADP	IN	_	23	case	_	_
23	far	far	ADV	RB	Degree=Pos	21	obl	_	_
24	to	to	PART	TO	_	25	mark	_	_
25	ask	ask	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	23	advcl	_	_
26	his	his	PRON	PRP$	Case=Gen|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|Poss=Yes|PronType=Prs	27	nmod:poss	_	_
27	help	help	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	25	obj	_	SpaceAfter=No
28	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	33	punct	_	_
29	that	that	DET	DT	Number=Sing|PronType=Dem	31	det	_	_
30	at	at	ADP	IN	_	31	case	_	_
31	last	last	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	33	nsubj	_	_
32	he	he	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	33	nsubj	_	_
33	promised	promise	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	4	conj	_	_
34	to	to	PART	TO	_	35	mark	_	_
35	see	see	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	33	xcomp	_	_
36	him	he	PRON	PRP	Case=Acc|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	35	obj	_	SpaceAfter=No
37	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	4	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

<!-- .fr -->
| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **tell** *speech: assert* | past | sun's mother | such pitiful story of the miserable wretch | sun |  |  |  | vn transfer\_mesg-37.1.1-1-1 «NP V NP-Dative NP»: agent=Agent he=Recipient story=Topic |
| 2 | **lose** | past · perfect | the miserable wretch | everything |  |  |  |  | vn succeed-74-3-1 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent everything=Eventuality |
| 3 | **come** | past · perfect |  |  |  |  |  |  | vn escape-51.1-1 «NP V PP.initial\_location»: agent=Theme from far=Initial\_Location |
| 4 | **ask** *speech: ask* | to-infinitive |  | sun's help |  |  |  |  | vn inquire-37.1.2 «NP V NP.recipient»: agent=Agent help=Recipient |
| 5 | **promise** *speech: promise* | past | that last |  |  |  |  |  | vn promise-37.13 «NP V that S»: agent=Agent clause=Topic |
| 6 | **see** *not said to happen* | to-infinitive | that last *not said here* | sun |  |  |  |  | vn comprehend-87.2-1-1 «NP V NP»: agent=Experiencer he=Stimulus |
| 7 | **help** |  | sun |  |  |  |  |  | nom help «act transitive»: poss=agent |

<!-- .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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