---
title: When they had tried all their little dogs, the youngest son handed h… — The Green Fairy Book · tree and pragmatics
description: When they had tried all their little dogs, the youngest son handed his father the hazel-nut, with a modest bow, and begged him to crack it carefully. Who acts: sons, youngest son. A sentence of «The Green Fairy Book» by Andrew Lang, The Biter Bit, part 5, with its dependency tree and the pragmatics 
---

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# The Green Fairy Book, The Biter Bit, part 5, sentence 7

<!-- .ven lang=en -->
When they had tried all their little dogs, the youngest son handed his father the hazel-nut, with a modest bow, and begged him to crack it carefully.

<!-- .vintro -->
**Who acts:** sons, youngest son · **What happens:** try, hand, beg, crack · **To what, where:** little dogs, hazel nut, father, Prince, nut

<!-- .vabout -->
This is a sentence of «The Green Fairy Book» by Andrew Lang, The Biter Bit, part 5. The page gives its syntax tree — a dependency tree in the style of Universal Dependencies — and its pragmatics clause by clause: who acts (sons, youngest son), 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:pg7277:30:7
# text = When they had tried all their little dogs, the youngest son handed his father the hazel-nut, with a modest bow, and begged him to crack it carefully.
1	When	when	ADV	WRB	PronType=Int	4	advmod	_	_
2	they	they	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Number=Plur|Person=3|PronType=Prs	4	nsubj	_	_
3	had	have	AUX	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Plur|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	4	aux	_	_
4	tried	try	VERB	VBN	Tense=Past|VerbForm=Part	0	root	_	_
5	all	all	DET	PDT	PronType=Tot	8	det:predet	_	_
6	their	their	PRON	PRP$	Case=Gen|Number=Plur|Person=3|Poss=Yes|PronType=Prs	8	nmod:poss	_	_
7	little	little	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	8	amod	_	_
8	dogs	dog	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	4	obj	_	SpaceAfter=No
9	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	13	punct	_	_
10	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	12	det	_	_
11	youngest	young	ADJ	JJS	Degree=Sup	12	amod	_	_
12	son	son	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	13	nsubj	_	_
13	handed	hand	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	8	parataxis	_	_
14	his	his	PRON	PRP$	Case=Gen|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|Poss=Yes|PronType=Prs	15	nmod:poss	_	_
15	father	father	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	13	obj	_	_
16	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	19	det	_	_
17	hazel	hazel	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	19	compound	_	SpaceAfter=No
18	-	-	PUNCT	HYPH	_	17	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
19	nut	nut	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	13	obj	_	SpaceAfter=No
20	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	24	punct	_	_
21	with	with	ADP	IN	_	24	case	_	_
22	a	a	DET	DT	Definite=Ind|PronType=Art	24	det	_	_
23	modest	modest	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	24	amod	_	_
24	bow	bow	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	13	obl	_	SpaceAfter=No
25	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	27	punct	_	_
26	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	27	cc	_	_
27	begged	beg	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	13	conj	_	_
28	him	he	PRON	PRP	Case=Acc|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	27	obj	_	_
29	to	to	PART	TO	_	30	mark	_	_
30	crack	crack	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	27	xcomp	_	_
31	it	it	PRON	PRP	Case=Acc|Gender=Neut|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	30	obj	_	_
32	carefully	carefully	ADV	RB	_	30	advmod	_	SpaceAfter=No
33	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	4	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

<!-- .fr -->
| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **try** | past · perfect | sons *= son* | sons's little dogs |  |  |  |  | vn try-61.1 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent dog=Eventuality |
| 2 | **hand** | past | the youngest son | the hazel nut | Prince's father |  |  | with a modest bow | vn send-11.1-1 «NP V NP-Dative NP»: agent=Agent father=Destination nut=Theme |
| 3 | **beg** *speech: request* | past | the youngest son *not said here* |  | Prince |  |  |  | vn beg-58.2-1-1 «NP V NP S\_INF»: agent=Agent he=Recipient clause=Topic |
| 4 | **crack** *not said to happen* | to-infinitive | the youngest son *not said here* | nut |  |  |  | carefully *property* | vn sound\_emission-43.2 «PP.location V NP»: agent=Location 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.

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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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