---
title: But he gave him the most wretched horse in his stable, because the f… — The Green Fairy Book · tree and pragmatics
description: But he gave him the most wretched horse in his stable, because the foolish youth hadn’t asked for a better. Who acts: father. A sentence of «The Green Fairy Book» by Andrew Lang, The Golden Mermaid, with its dependency tree and the pragmatics of every clause.
---

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# The Green Fairy Book, The Golden Mermaid, sentence 8

<!-- .ven lang=en -->
But he gave him the most wretched horse in his stable, because the foolish youth hadn’t asked for a better.

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**Who acts:** father · **What happens:** give, not ask · **To what, where:** wretched horse, king, stable, foolish youth

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This is a sentence of «The Green Fairy Book» by Andrew Lang, The Golden Mermaid. The page gives its syntax tree — a dependency tree in the style of Universal Dependencies — and its pragmatics clause by clause: who acts (father), what happens, when and where, as Mova's frames read it from the tree.

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**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:pg7277:52:8
# text = But he gave him the most wretched horse in his stable, because the foolish youth hadn’t asked for a better.
1	But	but	CCONJ	CC	_	3	cc	_	_
2	he	he	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	3	nsubj	_	_
3	gave	give	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	0	root	_	_
4	him	he	PRON	PRP	Case=Acc|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	3	iobj	_	_
5	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	8	det	_	_
6	most	most	ADV	RBS	Degree=Sup	7	advmod	_	_
7	wretched	wretched	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	8	amod	_	_
8	horse	horse	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	3	obj	_	_
9	in	in	ADP	IN	_	11	case	_	_
10	his	his	PRON	PRP$	Case=Gen|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|Poss=Yes|PronType=Prs	11	nmod:poss	_	_
11	stable	stable	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	8	nmod	_	SpaceAfter=No
12	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	19	punct	_	_
13	because	because	SCONJ	IN	_	19	mark	_	_
14	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	16	det	_	_
15	foolish	foolish	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	16	amod	_	_
16	youth	youth	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	19	nsubj:pass	_	_
17	had	have	AUX	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	19	aux	_	SpaceAfter=No
18	n’t	not	PART	RB	Polarity=Neg	19	advmod	_	_
19	asked	ask	VERB	VBN	Tense=Past|VerbForm=Part|Voice=Pass	3	parataxis	_	_
20	for	for	ADP	IN	_	22	case	_	_
21	a	a	DET	DT	Definite=Ind|PronType=Art	22	det	_	_
22	better	good	ADJ	JJR	Degree=Cmp	19	obl	_	SpaceAfter=No
23	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	3	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

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| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **give** | past | father | the wretched horse | king | father's stable |  |  | vn give-13.1-1 «NP V NP-Dative NP»: agent=Agent he=Recipient horse=Theme |
| 2 | **not** **ask** *speech: ask* | past · perfect · passive |  | the foolish youth |  |  |  | for a better | vn inquire-37.1.2 «NP V NP.recipient»: subject=Recipient |

<!-- .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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