---
title: So the old lord despatched his eldest son to look for the wonderful… — The Green Fairy Book · tree and pragmatics
description: So the old lord despatched his eldest son to look for the wonderful bird, and promised him great riches if he managed to find it and bring it back. Who acts: old lord, lord. A sentence of «The Green Fairy Book» by Andrew Lang, The Golden Blackbird, with its dependency tree and the pragmatics of ever
---

<!-- md -->
[Mova](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/) · [this page in HTML](https://mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg7277/21/4/)

<!-- crumbs -->
[home](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/) / [corpora](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/) / [tales](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/) / [The Green Fairy Book](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg7277/) / [The Golden Blackbird](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg7277/21/) / 4

# The Green Fairy Book, The Golden Blackbird, sentence 4

<!-- .ven lang=en -->
So the old lord despatched his eldest son to look for the wonderful bird, and promised him great riches if he managed to find it and bring it back.

<!-- .vintro -->
**Who acts:** old lord, lord · **What happens:** despatch, look, promise, manage, find, bring back · **To what, where:** eldest son, great riches, lord, bird

<!-- .vabout -->
This is a sentence of «The Green Fairy Book» by Andrew Lang, The Golden Blackbird. The page gives its syntax tree — a dependency tree in the style of Universal Dependencies — and its pragmatics clause by clause: who acts (old lord, lord), 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:pg7277:21:4
# text = So the old lord despatched his eldest son to look for the wonderful bird, and promised him great riches if he managed to find it and bring it back.
1	So	so	ADV	RB	_	5	advmod	_	_
2	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	4	det	_	_
3	old	old	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	4	amod	_	_
4	lord	lord	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	5	nsubj	_	_
5	despatched	despatch	VERB	VBN	Tense=Past|VerbForm=Part|Voice=Pass	0	root	_	_
6	his	his	PRON	PRP$	Case=Gen|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|Poss=Yes|PronType=Prs	8	nmod:poss	_	_
7	eldest	eld	ADJ	JJS	Degree=Sup	8	amod	_	_
8	son	son	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	5	obj	_	_
9	to	to	PART	TO	_	10	mark	_	_
10	look	look	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	5	advcl	_	_
11	for	for	ADP	IN	_	14	case	_	_
12	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	14	det	_	_
13	wonderful	wonderful	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	14	amod	_	_
14	bird	bird	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	10	obl	_	SpaceAfter=No
15	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	17	punct	_	_
16	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	17	cc	_	_
17	promised	promise	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	5	parataxis	_	_
18	him	he	PRON	PRP	Case=Acc|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	17	iobj	_	_
19	great	great	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	20	amod	_	_
20	riches	rich	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	17	obj	_	_
21	if	if	SCONJ	IN	_	23	mark	_	_
22	he	he	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	23	nsubj	_	_
23	managed	manage	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	17	advcl	_	_
24	to	to	PART	TO	_	25	mark	_	_
25	find	find	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	23	xcomp	_	_
26	it	it	PRON	PRP	Case=Acc|Gender=Neut|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	25	obj	_	_
27	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	28	cc	_	_
28	bring	bring	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	25	conj	_	_
29	it	it	PRON	PRP	Case=Acc|Gender=Neut|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	28	obj	_	_
30	back	back	ADV	RB	_	28	advmod	_	SpaceAfter=No
31	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	5	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

<!-- .fr -->
| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **despatch** | participle | the old lord | lord's eldest son |  |  |  |  | tree rules |
| 2 | **look** | to-infinitive | the old lord *not said here* |  |  |  |  | for the wonderful bird | vn rummage-35.5 «NP V PP.location PP.theme»: agent=Agent for bird=Theme |
| 3 | **promise** *speech: promise* | past |  | great riches | lord |  |  |  | vn future\_having-13.3 «NP V NP.goal NP»: agent=Agent he=Goal rich=Theme |
| 4 | **manage** *a condition, not said to happen* | past | lord |  |  |  |  |  | vn succeed-74-1-1 «NP V S\_INF»: agent=Agent clause=Eventuality |
| 5 | **find** | to-infinitive | lord *not said here* | bird |  |  |  |  | vn discover-84 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent it=Topic |
| 6 | **bring back** | infinitive | lord *not said here* | bird |  |  |  |  | vn bring-11.3-1 «NP V NP together»: agent=Agent it=Theme |

<!-- .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.

<!-- div src -->

**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.

<!-- /div -->

<!-- pn -->
- ← previous: [sentence 3](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg7277/21/3/)
- next →: [sentence 5](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg7277/21/5/)
- ↑ back to [The Golden Blackbird](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg7277/21/)