---
title: At first the coachman wouldn’t say anything, but when the youth pres… — The Green Fairy Book · tree and pragmatics
description: At first the coachman wouldn’t say anything, but when the youth pressed him he told him that a huge dragon dwelt in the neighbourhood, and required yearly the sacrifice of a beautiful maiden. Who acts: coachman, youth. A sentence of «The Green Fairy Book» by Andrew Lang, The Three Dogs, with its dep
---

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# The Green Fairy Book, The Three Dogs, sentence 20

<!-- .ven lang=en -->
At first the coachman wouldn’t say anything, but when the youth pressed him he told him that a huge dragon dwelt in the neighbourhood, and required yearly the sacrifice of a beautiful maiden.

<!-- .vintro -->
**Who acts:** coachman, youth · **What happens:** not say, press, tell, dwell, require, sacrifice · **To what, where:** anything, coachman, youth, huge dragon, neighbourhood, sacrifice · **Speech:** someone speaks here

<!-- .vabout -->
This is a sentence of «The Green Fairy Book» by Andrew Lang, The Three Dogs. The page gives its syntax tree — a dependency tree in the style of Universal Dependencies — and its pragmatics clause by clause: who acts (coachman, youth), 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:pg7277:56:20
# text = At first the coachman wouldn’t say anything, but when the youth pressed him he told him that a huge dragon dwelt in the neighbourhood, and required yearly the sacrifice of a beautiful maiden.
1	At	at	ADP	IN	_	2	case	_	_
2	first	first	ADV	RB	NumForm=Word|NumType=Ord	7	obl	_	_
3	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	4	det	_	_
4	coachman	coachman	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	7	nsubj	_	_
5	would	would	AUX	MD	VerbForm=Fin	7	aux	_	SpaceAfter=No
6	n’t	not	PART	RB	Polarity=Neg	7	advmod	_	_
7	say	say	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	0	root	_	_
8	anything	anything	PRON	NN	Number=Sing|PronType=Ind	7	obj	_	SpaceAfter=No
9	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	17	punct	_	_
10	but	but	CCONJ	CC	_	17	cc	_	_
11	when	when	ADV	WRB	PronType=Int	14	advmod	_	_
12	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	13	det	_	_
13	youth	youth	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	14	nsubj	_	_
14	pressed	press	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	17	advcl	_	_
15	him	he	PRON	PRP	Case=Acc|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	14	obj	_	_
16	he	he	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	17	nsubj	_	_
17	told	tell	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	7	parataxis	_	_
18	him	he	PRON	PRP	Case=Acc|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	17	iobj	_	_
19	that	that	SCONJ	IN	_	22	mark	_	_
20	a	a	DET	DT	Definite=Ind|PronType=Art	22	det	_	_
21	huge	huge	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	22	amod	_	_
22	dragon	dragon	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	17	ccomp	_	_
23	dwelt	dwell	VERB	VBN	Tense=Past|VerbForm=Part|Voice=Pass	22	acl	_	_
24	in	in	ADP	IN	_	26	case	_	_
25	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	26	det	_	_
26	neighbourhood	neighbourhood	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	23	obl	_	SpaceAfter=No
27	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	29	punct	_	_
28	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	29	cc	_	_
29	required	require	VERB	VBN	Tense=Past|VerbForm=Part|Voice=Pass	17	ccomp	_	_
30	yearly	yearly	ADV	RB	_	32	advmod	_	_
31	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	32	det	_	_
32	sacrifice	sacrifice	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	29	obj	_	_
33	of	of	ADP	IN	_	36	case	_	_
34	a	a	DET	DT	Definite=Ind|PronType=Art	36	det	_	_
35	beautiful	beautiful	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	36	amod	_	_
36	maiden	maiden	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	32	nmod	_	SpaceAfter=No
37	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	7	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

<!-- .fr -->
| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **not** **say** *speech: assert* | would | the coachman | anything |  |  |  |  | vn say-37.7-1-1 «NP V NP.topic»: agent=Agent anything=Topic |
| 2 | **press** | past | the youth | coachman |  |  |  |  | vn push-12-1-1 «NP V NP ADJP-Result»: agent=Agent he=Result |
| 3 | **tell** *speech: assert* | past | coachman |  | youth |  |  |  | vn transfer\_mesg-37.1.1-1-1 «NP V NP S\_INF»: agent=Agent he=Recipient clause=Topic |
| 4 | **dwell** | participle |  | a huge dragon *not said here* |  | the neighbourhood |  |  | vn exist-47.1 «NP V PP.location»: agent=Theme in neighbourhood=Location |
| 5 | **require** | participle |  | the sacrifice of a beautiful maiden |  |  |  |  | vn require-103-1 «NP V NP»: agent=Theme sacrifice=Precondition |
| 6 | **sacrifice** |  |  | a beautiful maiden |  |  |  |  | nom sacrifice «act transitive»: of=patient |

<!-- .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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