---
title: Now one day there was a big fair at the market town to which the far… — The Green Fairy Book · tree and pragmatics
description: Now one day there was a big fair at the market town to which the farmer meant to go, so he asked his wife what he should bring her from it. Who acts: big fair, farmer. A sentence of «The Green Fairy Book» by Andrew Lang, Jack My Hedgehog, with its dependency tree and the pragmatics of every clause.
---

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# The Green Fairy Book, Jack My Hedgehog, sentence 12

<!-- .ven lang=en -->
Now one day there was a big fair at the market town to which the farmer meant to go, so he asked his wife what he should bring her from it.

<!-- .vintro -->
**Who acts:** big fair, farmer · **What happens:** be, mean, go, ask, bring · **To what, where:** wife, fair · **Speech:** someone speaks here

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This is a sentence of «The Green Fairy Book» by Andrew Lang, Jack My Hedgehog. The page gives its syntax tree — a dependency tree in the style of Universal Dependencies — and its pragmatics clause by clause: who acts (big fair, farmer), 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:pg7277:48:12
# text = Now one day there was a big fair at the market town to which the farmer meant to go, so he asked his wife what he should bring her from it.
1	Now	now	ADV	RB	PronType=Dem	5	advmod	_	_
2	one	one	NUM	CD	NumForm=Word|NumType=Card	3	nummod	_	_
3	day	day	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	5	obl:unmarked	_	_
4	there	there	PRON	EX	PronType=Dem	5	expl	_	_
5	was	be	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	0	root	_	_
6	a	a	DET	DT	Definite=Ind|PronType=Art	8	det	_	_
7	big	big	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	8	amod	_	_
8	fair	fair	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	5	nsubj	_	_
9	at	at	ADP	IN	_	12	case	_	_
10	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	12	det	_	_
11	market	market	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	12	compound	_	_
12	town	town	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	8	nmod	_	_
13	to	to	ADP	IN	_	14	case	_	_
14	which	which	PRON	WDT	PronType=Rel	17	obl	_	_
15	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	16	det	_	_
16	farmer	farmer	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	17	nsubj	_	_
17	meant	mean	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	12	acl:relcl	_	_
18	to	to	PART	TO	_	19	mark	_	_
19	go	go	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	17	xcomp	_	SpaceAfter=No
20	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	23	punct	_	_
21	so	so	ADV	RB	_	23	advmod	_	_
22	he	he	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	23	nsubj	_	_
23	asked	ask	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	5	csubj	_	_
24	his	his	PRON	PRP$	Case=Gen|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|Poss=Yes|PronType=Prs	25	nmod:poss	_	_
25	wife	wife	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	23	obj	_	_
26	what	what	PRON	WP	PronType=Int	29	obj	_	_
27	he	he	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	29	nsubj	_	_
28	should	should	AUX	MD	VerbForm=Fin	29	aux	_	_
29	bring	bring	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	23	ccomp	_	_
30	her	she	PRON	PRP	Case=Acc|Gender=Fem|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	29	obj	_	_
31	from	from	ADP	IN	_	32	case	_	_
32	it	it	PRON	PRP	Case=Acc|Gender=Neut|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	29	obl	_	SpaceAfter=No
33	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	5	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

<!-- .fr -->
| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **be** | past | a big fair at the market town |  |  | there | now; day |  | vn exist-47.1 «NP V»: agent=Theme |
| 2 | **mean** | past | the farmer |  |  |  |  | to the market town | vn intend-61.2-1 «NP V S\_INF»: agent=Agent clause=Topic |
| 3 | **go** *not said to happen* | to-infinitive | the farmer *not said here* |  |  |  |  |  | vn disappearance-48.2-1 «NP V»: agent=Theme |
| 4 | **ask** *speech: ask* | past | farmer |  | farmer's wife |  |  |  | vn inquire-37.1.2 «NP V NP whether S»: agent=Agent wife=Recipient clause=Topic |
| 5 | **bring** | should | farmer |  | wife | fair |  |  | vn bring-11.3-1 «NP V NP ADVP»: agent=Instrument what=Theme she=Destination |

<!-- .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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