---
title: ‘Very well, do as he asks; one should refuse nothing to a man with a… — The Green Fairy Book · tree and pragmatics
description: ‘Very well, do as he asks; one should refuse nothing to a man with a rope round his neck.’ Who acts: King, one. A sentence of «The Green Fairy Book» by Andrew Lang, The Little Soldier, with its dependency tree and the pragmatics of every clause.
---

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# The Green Fairy Book, The Little Soldier, sentence 304

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‘Very well, do as he asks; one should refuse nothing to a man with a rope round his neck.’

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**Who acts:** King, one · **What happens:** do, ask, refuse · **To what, where:** nothing

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This is a sentence of «The Green Fairy Book» by Andrew Lang, The Little Soldier. The page gives its syntax tree — a dependency tree in the style of Universal Dependencies — and its pragmatics clause by clause: who acts (King, one), 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:pg7277:22:304
# text = ‘Very well, do as he asks; one should refuse nothing to a man with a rope round his neck.’
1	‘	'	PUNCT	``	_	5	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
2	Very	very	ADV	RB	_	3	advmod	_	_
3	well	well	ADV	RB	Degree=Pos	5	advmod	_	SpaceAfter=No
4	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	3	punct	_	_
5	do	do	VERB	VBP	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=1|Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Fin	0	root	_	_
6	as	as	SCONJ	IN	_	8	mark	_	_
7	he	he	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	8	nsubj	_	_
8	asks	ask	VERB	VBZ	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Fin	5	advcl	_	SpaceAfter=No
9	;	;	PUNCT	:	_	12	punct	_	_
10	one	one	PRON	PRP	Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	12	nsubj	_	_
11	should	should	AUX	MD	VerbForm=Fin	12	aux	_	_
12	refuse	refuse	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	5	conj	_	_
13	nothing	nothing	PRON	NN	Number=Sing|PronType=Neg	12	obj	_	_
14	to	to	ADP	IN	_	16	case	_	_
15	a	a	DET	DT	Definite=Ind|PronType=Art	16	det	_	_
16	man	man	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	12	obl	_	_
17	with	with	ADP	IN	_	19	case	_	_
18	a	a	DET	DT	Definite=Ind|PronType=Art	19	det	_	_
19	rope	rope	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	16	nmod	_	_
20	round	round	ADP	IN	_	22	case	_	_
21	his	his	PRON	PRP$	Case=Gen|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|Poss=Yes|PronType=Prs	22	nmod:poss	_	_
22	neck	neck	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	12	obl	_	SpaceAfter=No
23	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	5	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
24	’	'	PUNCT	''	_	5	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

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| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **do** | present |  |  |  |  |  | well *property* | vn act-114-1 «NP V»: agent=Agent |
| 2 | **ask** *speech: ask* | present | King |  |  |  |  |  | vn inquire-37.1.2 «NP V»: agent=Agent |
| 3 | **refuse** | should | one | nothing |  |  |  | to a man with a rope; round King's neck | vn reject-77.2 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent nothing=Theme |

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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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