---
title: At first the wily fox refused to tell her what he had gathered from… — The Green Fairy Book · tree and pragmatics
description: At first the wily fox refused to tell her what he had gathered from the conversation of the birds, but at last he gave way to her entreaties, and told her that they had spoken of the misfortunes of a beautiful young Prince, whom a wicked enchantress had turned into a snake for the period of seven ye
---

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# The Green Fairy Book, The Enchanted Snake, sentence 50

<!-- .ven lang=en -->
At first the wily fox refused to tell her what he had gathered from the conversation of the birds, but at last he gave way to her entreaties, and told her that they had spoken of the misfortunes of a beautiful young Prince, whom a wicked enchantress had turned into a snake for the period of seven years.

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**Who acts:** wily fox, fox, birds, wicked enchantress · **What happens:** refuse, not tell, gather, give, tell, speak · **To what, where:** Grannonia, conversation, way, entreaties, last, misfortunes · **Speech:** someone speaks here

<!-- .vabout -->
This is a sentence of «The Green Fairy Book» by Andrew Lang, The Enchanted Snake. The page gives its syntax tree — a dependency tree in the style of Universal Dependencies — and its pragmatics clause by clause: who acts (wily fox, fox, birds, wicked enchantress), 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:pg7277:25:50
# text = At first the wily fox refused to tell her what he had gathered from the conversation of the birds, but at last he gave way to her entreaties, and told her that they had spoken of the misfortunes of a beautiful young Prince, whom a wicked enchantress had turned into a snake for the period of seven years.
1	At	at	ADP	IN	_	2	case	_	_
2	first	first	ADV	RB	NumForm=Word|NumType=Ord	6	obl	_	_
3	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	5	det	_	_
4	wily	wily	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	5	amod	_	_
5	fox	fox	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	6	nsubj	_	_
6	refused	refuse	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	0	root	_	_
7	to	to	PART	TO	_	8	mark	_	_
8	tell	tell	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	6	xcomp	_	_
9	her	she	PRON	PRP	Case=Acc|Gender=Fem|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	8	iobj	_	_
10	what	what	PRON	WP	PronType=Int	13	nsubj:pass	_	_
11	he	he	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	13	nsubj	_	_
12	had	have	AUX	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Plur|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	13	aux	_	_
13	gathered	gather	VERB	VBN	Tense=Past|VerbForm=Part|Voice=Pass	8	ccomp	_	_
14	from	from	ADP	IN	_	16	case	_	_
15	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	16	det	_	_
16	conversation	conversation	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	13	obl	_	_
17	of	of	ADP	IN	_	19	case	_	_
18	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	19	det	_	_
19	birds	bird	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	16	nmod	_	SpaceAfter=No
20	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	25	punct	_	_
21	but	but	CCONJ	CC	_	25	cc	_	_
22	at	at	ADP	IN	_	23	case	_	_
23	last	last	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	25	obl	_	_
24	he	he	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	25	nsubj	_	_
25	gave	give	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	6	conj	_	_
26	way	way	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	25	obj	_	_
27	to	to	ADP	IN	_	29	case	_	_
28	her	her	PRON	PRP$	Case=Gen|Gender=Fem|Number=Sing|Person=3|Poss=Yes|PronType=Prs	29	nmod:poss	_	_
29	entreaties	entreaty	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	25	obl	_	SpaceAfter=No
30	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	32	punct	_	_
31	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	32	cc	_	_
32	told	tell	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	6	conj	_	_
33	her	she	PRON	PRP	Case=Acc|Gender=Fem|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	32	iobj	_	_
34	that	that	SCONJ	IN	_	37	mark	_	_
35	they	they	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Number=Plur|Person=3|PronType=Prs	37	nsubj	_	_
36	had	have	AUX	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Plur|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	37	aux	_	_
37	spoken	speak	VERB	VBN	Tense=Past|VerbForm=Part	32	ccomp	_	_
38	of	of	ADP	IN	_	40	case	_	_
39	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	40	det	_	_
40	misfortunes	misfortune	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	37	obl	_	_
41	of	of	ADP	IN	_	45	case	_	_
42	a	a	DET	DT	Definite=Ind|PronType=Art	45	det	_	_
43	beautiful	beautiful	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	45	amod	_	_
44	young	young	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	45	amod	_	_
45	Prince	Prince	PROPN	NNP	Number=Sing	40	nmod	_	SpaceAfter=No
46	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	52	punct	_	_
47	whom	whom	PRON	WP	PronType=Rel	52	obl	_	_
48	a	a	DET	DT	Definite=Ind|PronType=Art	50	det	_	_
49	wicked	wicked	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	50	amod	_	_
50	enchantress	enchantress	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	52	nsubj	_	_
51	had	have	AUX	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	52	aux	_	_
52	turned	turn	VERB	VBN	Tense=Past|VerbForm=Part	40	acl	_	_
53	into	into	ADP	IN	_	55	case	_	_
54	a	a	DET	DT	Definite=Ind|PronType=Art	55	det	_	_
55	snake	snake	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	52	obl	_	_
56	for	for	ADP	IN	_	58	case	_	_
57	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	58	det	_	_
58	period	period	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	52	obl	_	_
59	of	of	ADP	IN	_	61	case	_	_
60	seven	seven	NUM	CD	NumForm=Word|NumType=Card	61	nummod	_	_
61	years	year	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	58	nmod	_	SpaceAfter=No
62	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	6	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

<!-- .fr -->
| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **refuse** | past | the wily fox |  |  |  |  |  | vn reject-77.2 «NP V S\_ING»: agent=Agent clause=Theme |
| 2 | **not** **tell** *speech: assert* | to-infinitive | the wily fox *not said here* |  | Grannonia |  |  |  | vn transfer\_mesg-37.1.1-1-1 «NP V NP what S»: agent=Agent she=Recipient clause=Topic |
| 3 | **gather** | past · perfect · passive |  |  |  | the conversation of the birds |  |  | vn deduce-97.2 «NP V NP PP.source»: subject=Theme from conversation=Source |
| 4 | **give** | past | fox | way | Grannonia's entreaties | last |  |  | vn give-13.1-1 «NP V NP PP.recipient PP.asset»: agent=Agent way=Theme at last=Asset to entreaty=Recipient |
| 5 | **tell** *speech: assert* | past | the wily fox *not said here* |  | Grannonia |  |  |  | vn transfer\_mesg-37.1.1-1-1 «NP V NP S\_INF»: agent=Agent she=Recipient clause=Topic |
| 6 | **speak** *speech: other* | past · perfect | birds *= bird* |  |  |  |  | of the misfortunes of a beautiful young Prince | vn talk-37.5 «NP V»: agent=Agent |
| 7 | **turn** | past · perfect | a wicked enchantress | the misfortunes of a beautiful young Prince |  |  |  | into a snake *result*; for the period of seven years | vn roll-51.3.1 «NP V PP.result»: agent=Theme into snake=Result |
| 8 | **converse** |  | the birds |  |  |  |  |  | nom conversation «communication intransitive»: of=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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