---
title: He was told that the head gardener at the castle had just left, and… — The Green Fairy Book · tree and pragmatics
description: He was told that the head gardener at the castle had just left, and perhaps he might have a chance of getting the place. Who acts: man, chance. 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 73

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He was told that the head gardener at the castle had just left, and perhaps he might have a chance of getting the place.

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**Who acts:** man, chance · **What happens:** tell, leave, have, get · **To what, where:** man, head gardener, chance, place · **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 (man, chance), 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:pg7277:20:73
# text = He was told that the head gardener at the castle had just left, and perhaps he might have a chance of getting the place.
1	He	he	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	3	nsubj	_	_
2	was	be	AUX	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	3	aux:pass	_	_
3	told	tell	VERB	VBN	Tense=Past|VerbForm=Part|Voice=Pass	0	root	_	_
4	that	that	SCONJ	IN	_	13	mark	_	_
5	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	7	det	_	_
6	head	head	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	7	compound	_	_
7	gardener	gardener	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	13	nsubj:pass	_	_
8	at	at	ADP	IN	_	10	case	_	_
9	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	10	det	_	_
10	castle	castle	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	7	nmod	_	_
11	had	have	AUX	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	13	aux	_	_
12	just	just	ADV	RB	_	13	advmod	_	_
13	left	leave	VERB	VBN	Tense=Past|VerbForm=Part|Voice=Pass	3	ccomp	_	SpaceAfter=No
14	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	19	punct	_	_
15	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	19	cc	_	_
16	perhaps	perhaps	ADV	RB	_	19	advmod	_	_
17	he	he	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	19	nsubj	_	_
18	might	might	AUX	MD	VerbForm=Fin	19	aux	_	_
19	have	have	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	3	conj	_	_
20	a	a	DET	DT	Definite=Ind|PronType=Art	21	det	_	_
21	chance	chance	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	19	obj	_	_
22	of	of	SCONJ	IN	_	23	mark	_	_
23	getting	get	VERB	VBG	VerbForm=Ger	21	acl	_	_
24	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	25	det	_	_
25	place	place	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	23	obj	_	SpaceAfter=No
26	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	3	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

<!-- .fr -->
| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **tell** *speech: assert* | past · passive |  | man |  |  |  |  | vn transfer\_mesg-37.1.1-1-1 «NP V NP S\_INF»: subject=Recipient clause=Topic |
| 2 | **leave** | past · perfect · passive |  | the head gardener at the castle |  |  |  |  | vn keep-15.2 «NP V NP»: subject=Theme |
| 3 | **have** | might | man | a chance |  |  |  | perhaps *property* | vn birth-28.2-1 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent chance=Patient |
| 4 | **get** | gerund | a chance *not said here* | the place |  |  |  |  | vn comprehend-87.2-1 «NP V NP»: agent=Experiencer place=Stimulus |

<!-- .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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