---
title: My brother took such a fancy to him that he pressed him to spend a c… — The Green Fairy Book · tree and pragmatics
description: My brother took such a fancy to him that he pressed him to spend a couple of days with us, which, after a little hesitation, the stranger consented to do. Who acts: brother, stranger. A sentence of «The Green Fairy Book» by Andrew Lang, The Crystal Coffin, with its dependency tree and the pragmatics
---

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# The Green Fairy Book, The Crystal Coffin, sentence 56

<!-- .ven lang=en -->
My brother took such a fancy to him that he pressed him to spend a couple of days with us, which, after a little hesitation, the stranger consented to do.

<!-- .vintro -->
**Who acts:** brother, stranger · **What happens:** take, press, spend, consent, do · **To what, where:** fancy, stranger, brother, couple

<!-- .vabout -->
This is a sentence of «The Green Fairy Book» by Andrew Lang, The Crystal Coffin. The page gives its syntax tree — a dependency tree in the style of Universal Dependencies — and its pragmatics clause by clause: who acts (brother, stranger), 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:pg7277:45:56
# text = My brother took such a fancy to him that he pressed him to spend a couple of days with us, which, after a little hesitation, the stranger consented to do.
1	My	my	PRON	PRP$	Case=Gen|Number=Sing|Person=1|Poss=Yes|PronType=Prs	2	nmod:poss	_	_
2	brother	brother	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	3	nsubj	_	_
3	took	take	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	0	root	_	_
4	such	such	DET	PDT	PronType=Ind	6	det:predet	_	_
5	a	a	DET	DT	Definite=Ind|PronType=Art	6	det	_	_
6	fancy	fancy	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	3	obj	_	_
7	to	to	ADP	IN	_	8	case	_	_
8	him	he	PRON	PRP	Case=Acc|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	3	obl	_	_
9	that	that	SCONJ	IN	_	11	mark	_	_
10	he	he	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	11	nsubj	_	_
11	pressed	press	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	3	advcl	_	_
12	him	he	PRON	PRP	Case=Acc|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	11	obj	_	_
13	to	to	PART	TO	_	14	mark	_	_
14	spend	spend	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	11	xcomp	_	_
15	a	a	DET	DT	Definite=Ind|PronType=Art	16	det	_	_
16	couple	couple	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	14	obj	_	_
17	of	of	ADP	IN	_	18	case	_	_
18	days	day	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	16	nmod	_	_
19	with	with	ADP	IN	_	20	case	_	_
20	us	we	PRON	PRP	Case=Acc|Number=Plur|Person=1|PronType=Prs	14	obl	_	SpaceAfter=No
21	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	22	punct	_	_
22	which	which	PRON	WDT	PronType=Rel	14	obj	_	SpaceAfter=No
23	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	27	punct	_	_
24	after	after	ADP	IN	_	27	case	_	_
25	a	a	DET	DT	Definite=Ind|PronType=Art	27	det	_	_
26	little	little	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	27	amod	_	_
27	hesitation	hesitation	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	14	obl	_	SpaceAfter=No
28	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	31	punct	_	_
29	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	30	det	_	_
30	stranger	stranger	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	31	nsubj	_	_
31	consented	consent	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	27	conj	_	_
32	to	to	PART	TO	_	33	mark	_	_
33	do	do	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	31	xcomp	_	SpaceAfter=No
34	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	3	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

<!-- .fr -->
| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **take** | past | My brother | such fancy | stranger |  |  |  | vn bring-11.3 «NP V NP PP.destination»: agent=Agent fancy=Theme to he=Destination |
| 2 | **press** | past | stranger | brother |  |  |  |  | vn urge-58.1-1-1 «NP V NP S\_ING»: agent=Agent he=Recipient clause=Topic |
| 3 | **spend** | to-infinitive | stranger *not said here* | a couple of days |  |  | after a little hesitation | with us | tree rules |
| 4 | **consent** | past | the stranger |  |  |  |  |  | vn acquiesce-95.1-1-1 «NP V S\_INF»: agent=Agent clause=Theme |
| 5 | **do** | to-infinitive | the stranger *not said here* |  |  |  |  |  | vn act-114-1 «NP V»: agent=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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