---
title: He made friends with one of the maids, who told him the history of t… — The Green Fairy Book · tree and pragmatics
description: He made friends with one of the maids, who told him the history of the snuff-box, and he coaxed her to let him see it. Who acts: man, maids. 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 76

<!-- .ven lang=en -->
He made friends with one of the maids, who told him the history of the snuff-box, and he coaxed her to let him see it.

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**Who acts:** man, maids · **What happens:** make, tell, coax, let, see · **To what, where:** friends, history, man, gardener · **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, maids), 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:pg7277:20:76
# text = He made friends with one of the maids, who told him the history of the snuff-box, and he coaxed her to let him see it.
1	He	he	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	2	nsubj	_	_
2	made	make	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	0	root	_	_
3	friends	friend	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	2	obj	_	_
4	with	with	ADP	IN	_	5	case	_	_
5	one	one	NUM	CD	NumForm=Word|NumType=Card	2	obl	_	_
6	of	of	ADP	IN	_	8	case	_	_
7	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	8	det	_	_
8	maids	maid	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	5	nmod	_	SpaceAfter=No
9	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	11	punct	_	_
10	who	who	PRON	WP	PronType=Rel	11	nsubj	_	_
11	told	tell	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Plur|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	8	acl:relcl	_	_
12	him	he	PRON	PRP	Case=Acc|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	11	iobj	_	_
13	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	14	det	_	_
14	history	history	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	11	obj	_	_
15	of	of	ADP	IN	_	19	case	_	_
16	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	19	det	_	_
17	snuff	snuff	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	19	compound	_	SpaceAfter=No
18	-	-	PUNCT	HYPH	_	17	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
19	box	box	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	14	nmod	_	SpaceAfter=No
20	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	23	punct	_	_
21	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	23	cc	_	_
22	he	he	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	23	nsubj	_	_
23	coaxed	coax	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	2	conj	_	_
24	her	she	PRON	PRP	Case=Acc|Gender=Fem|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	23	obj	_	_
25	to	to	PART	TO	_	26	mark	_	_
26	let	let	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	23	advcl	_	_
27	him	he	PRON	PRP	Case=Acc|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	26	obj	_	_
28	see	see	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	26	xcomp	_	_
29	it	it	PRON	PRP	Case=Acc|Gender=Neut|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	28	obj	_	SpaceAfter=No
30	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	2	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

<!-- .fr -->
| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **make** | past | man | friends |  |  |  | with one of the maids | vn build-26.1-1 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent friend=Product |
| 2 | **tell** *speech: assert* | past | the maids | the history of the snuff box | man |  |  |  | vn transfer\_mesg-37.1.1-1-1 «NP V NP-Dative NP»: agent=Agent he=Recipient history=Topic |
| 3 | **coax** | past | man | gardener |  |  |  |  | vn lure-59.3 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent she=Patient |
| 4 | **let** | to-infinitive | man *not said here* | man |  |  |  |  | tree rules |
| 5 | **see** | infinitive | man *not said here* | history |  |  |  |  | vn comprehend-87.2-1-1 «NP V NP»: agent=Experiencer it=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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