---
title: The servant, however, declined everything, and only begged for a hor… — The Green Fairy Book · tree and pragmatics
description: The servant, however, declined everything, and only begged for a horse and some money to enable him to travel, as he was anxious to see something of the world. Who acts: servant, haste. A sentence of «The Green Fairy Book» by Andrew Lang, The White Snake, with its dependency tree and the pragmatics 
---

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# The Green Fairy Book, The White Snake, sentence 23

<!-- .ven lang=en -->
The servant, however, declined everything, and only begged for a horse and some money to enable him to travel, as he was anxious to see something of the world.

<!-- .vintro -->
**Who acts:** servant, haste · **What happens:** decline, beg, enable, travel, be, see · **To what, where:** everything, haste, something

<!-- .vabout -->
This is a sentence of «The Green Fairy Book» by Andrew Lang, The White Snake. The page gives its syntax tree — a dependency tree in the style of Universal Dependencies — and its pragmatics clause by clause: who acts (servant, haste), 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:pg7277:50:23
# text = The servant, however, declined everything, and only begged for a horse and some money to enable him to travel, as he was anxious to see something of the world.
1	The	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	2	det	_	_
2	servant	servant	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	6	nsubj	_	SpaceAfter=No
3	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	2	punct	_	_
4	however	however	ADV	RB	_	6	advmod	_	SpaceAfter=No
5	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	4	punct	_	_
6	declined	decline	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	0	root	_	_
7	everything	everything	PRON	NN	Number=Sing|PronType=Tot	6	obj	_	SpaceAfter=No
8	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	11	punct	_	_
9	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	11	cc	_	_
10	only	only	ADV	RB	_	11	advmod	_	_
11	begged	beg	VERB	VBN	Tense=Past|VerbForm=Part|Voice=Pass	6	conj	_	_
12	for	for	ADP	IN	_	14	case	_	_
13	a	a	DET	DT	Definite=Ind|PronType=Art	14	det	_	_
14	horse	horse	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	11	obl	_	_
15	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	17	cc	_	_
16	some	some	DET	DT	PronType=Ind	17	det	_	_
17	money	money	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	14	conj	_	_
18	to	to	PART	TO	_	19	mark	_	_
19	enable	enable	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	11	advcl	_	_
20	him	he	PRON	PRP	Case=Acc|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	19	obj	_	_
21	to	to	PART	TO	_	22	mark	_	_
22	travel	travel	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	19	xcomp	_	SpaceAfter=No
23	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	27	punct	_	_
24	as	as	SCONJ	IN	_	27	mark	_	_
25	he	he	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	27	nsubj	_	_
26	was	be	AUX	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	27	cop	_	_
27	anxious	anxious	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	22	conj	_	_
28	to	to	PART	TO	_	29	mark	_	_
29	see	see	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	27	xcomp	_	_
30	something	something	PRON	NN	Number=Sing|PronType=Ind	29	obj	_	_
31	of	of	ADP	IN	_	33	case	_	_
32	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	33	det	_	_
33	world	world	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	30	nmod	_	SpaceAfter=No
34	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	6	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

<!-- .fr -->
| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **decline** | past | the servant | everything |  |  |  | however *property* | vn reject-77.2 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent everything=Theme |
| 2 | **beg** *speech: request* | participle | the servant *not said here* |  |  |  |  | for a horse and some money | vn beg-58.2-1-1 «NP V PP.Topic»: agent=Agent for horse=Topic |
| 3 | **enable** | to-infinitive | the servant *not said here* | haste |  |  |  |  | tree rules |
| 4 | **travel** | to-infinitive | haste *not said here* |  |  |  |  |  | vn run-51.3.2-1 «NP V»: agent=Theme |
| 5 | **is** | past | haste |  |  |  |  | anxious *property* | tree rules |
| 6 | **see** | to-infinitive | haste *not said here* | something |  |  |  |  | vn comprehend-87.2-1-1 «NP V NP»: agent=Experiencer something=Stimulus |

<!-- .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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