---
title: Then the old man found himself obliged to fulfil his promise, though… — The Green Fairy Book · tree and pragmatics
description: Then the old man found himself obliged to fulfil his promise, though he had had no intention of doing so, and had only desired to get his beard back. Who acts: old man, man, intention. A sentence of «The Green Fairy Book» by Andrew Lang, The Three Musicians, with its dependency tree and the pragmati
---

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# The Green Fairy Book, The Three Musicians, sentence 44

<!-- .ven lang=en -->
Then the old man found himself obliged to fulfil his promise, though he had had no intention of doing so, and had only desired to get his beard back.

<!-- .vintro -->
**Who acts:** old man, man, intention · **What happens:** find, oblige, fulfil, have, do, desire · **To what, where:** man, promise, intention, beard

<!-- .vabout -->
This is a sentence of «The Green Fairy Book» by Andrew Lang, The Three Musicians. The page gives its syntax tree — a dependency tree in the style of Universal Dependencies — and its pragmatics clause by clause: who acts (old man, man, intention), 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:pg7277:55:44
# text = Then the old man found himself obliged to fulfil his promise, though he had had no intention of doing so, and had only desired to get his beard back.
1	Then	then	ADV	RB	PronType=Dem	5	advmod	_	_
2	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	4	det	_	_
3	old	old	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	4	amod	_	_
4	man	man	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	5	nsubj	_	_
5	found	find	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	0	root	_	_
6	himself	himself	PRON	PRP	Case=Acc|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs|Reflex=Yes	5	obj	_	_
7	obliged	oblige	VERB	VBN	Tense=Past|VerbForm=Part|Voice=Pass	5	xcomp	_	_
8	to	to	PART	TO	_	9	mark	_	_
9	fulfil	fulfil	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	7	xcomp	_	_
10	his	his	PRON	PRP$	Case=Gen|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|Poss=Yes|PronType=Prs	11	nmod:poss	_	_
11	promise	promise	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	9	obj	_	SpaceAfter=No
12	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	16	punct	_	_
13	though	though	SCONJ	IN	_	16	mark	_	_
14	he	he	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	16	nsubj	_	_
15	had	have	AUX	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	16	aux	_	_
16	had	have	VERB	VBN	Tense=Past|VerbForm=Part	9	advcl	_	_
17	no	no	DET	DT	PronType=Neg	18	det	_	_
18	intention	intention	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	16	obj	_	_
19	of	of	SCONJ	IN	_	20	mark	_	_
20	doing	do	VERB	VBG	VerbForm=Ger	18	acl	_	_
21	so	so	ADV	RB	_	20	advmod	_	SpaceAfter=No
22	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	26	punct	_	_
23	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	26	cc	_	_
24	had	have	AUX	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	26	aux	_	_
25	only	only	ADV	RB	_	26	advmod	_	_
26	desired	desire	VERB	VBN	Tense=Past|VerbForm=Part	5	conj	_	_
27	to	to	PART	TO	_	28	mark	_	_
28	get	get	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	26	xcomp	_	_
29	his	his	PRON	PRP$	Case=Gen|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|Poss=Yes|PronType=Prs	30	nmod:poss	_	_
30	beard	beard	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	28	obj	_	_
31	back	back	ADV	RB	_	28	advmod	_	SpaceAfter=No
32	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	5	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

<!-- .fr -->
| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **find** | past | the old man | man |  |  | then |  | vn declare-29.4-1-1 «NP V NP ADJ»: agent=Agent himself=Attribute clause=Theme |
| 2 | **oblige** | participle | man *not said here* |  |  |  |  |  | vn compel-59.1-1 «NP V NP S\_INF»: agent=Agent clause=Result |
| 3 | **fulfil** | to-infinitive | man *not said here* | man's promise |  |  |  |  | tree rules |
| 4 | **have** | past · perfect | man | no intention |  |  |  |  | vn birth-28.2-1 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent intention=Patient |
| 5 | **do** | gerund | no intention *not said here* |  |  |  |  |  | vn act-114-1 «NP V»: agent=Agent |
| 6 | **desire** | past · perfect | the old man *not said here* |  |  |  |  |  | vn want-32.1-1-1 «NP V NP S\_INF»: agent=Pivot clause=Theme |
| 7 | **get back** *not said to happen* | to-infinitive | the old man *not said here* | man's beard |  |  |  |  | vn comprehend-87.2-1 «NP V NP»: agent=Experiencer beard=Stimulus |
| 8 | **promise** |  | man |  |  |  |  |  | nom promise «communication transitive»: poss=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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