---
title: He never did anything at home except sit over the stove and dirty hi… — The Green Fairy Book · tree and pragmatics
description: He never did anything at home except sit over the stove and dirty himself with the ashes; but he also begged his father’s leave to travel for three years. Who acts: brother. A sentence of «The Green Fairy Book» by Andrew Lang, The Enchanted Watch, with its dependency tree and the pragmatics of every
---

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# The Green Fairy Book, The Enchanted Watch, sentence 9

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He never did anything at home except sit over the stove and dirty himself with the ashes; but he also begged his father’s leave to travel for three years.

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**Who acts:** brother · **What happens:** not do, dirty, beg, travel · **To what, where:** anything, home, brother, leave

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This is a sentence of «The Green Fairy Book» by Andrew Lang, The Enchanted Watch. The page gives its syntax tree — a dependency tree in the style of Universal Dependencies — and its pragmatics clause by clause: who acts (brother), 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:pg7277:8:9
# text = He never did anything at home except sit over the stove and dirty himself with the ashes; but he also begged his father’s leave to travel for three years.
1	He	he	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	3	nsubj	_	_
2	never	never	ADV	RB	PronType=Neg	3	advmod	_	_
3	did	do	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	0	root	_	_
4	anything	anything	PRON	NN	Number=Sing|PronType=Ind	3	obj	_	_
5	at	at	ADP	IN	_	6	case	_	_
6	home	home	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	4	nmod	_	_
7	except	except	ADP	IN	_	8	case	_	_
8	sit	sit	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	4	nmod	_	_
9	over	over	ADP	IN	_	11	case	_	_
10	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	11	det	_	_
11	stove	stove	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	3	obl	_	_
12	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	13	cc	_	_
13	dirty	dirty	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	3	conj	_	_
14	himself	himself	PRON	PRP	Case=Acc|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs|Reflex=Yes	13	obj	_	_
15	with	with	ADP	IN	_	17	case	_	_
16	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	17	det	_	_
17	ashes	ash	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	13	obl	_	SpaceAfter=No
18	;	;	PUNCT	:	_	22	punct	_	_
19	but	but	CCONJ	CC	_	22	cc	_	_
20	he	he	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	22	nsubj	_	_
21	also	also	ADV	RB	_	22	advmod	_	_
22	begged	beg	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	3	conj	_	_
23	his	his	PRON	PRP$	Case=Gen|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|Poss=Yes|PronType=Prs	24	nmod:poss	_	_
24	father	father	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	26	nmod:poss	_	SpaceAfter=No
25	’s	's	PART	POS	_	24	case	_	_
26	leave	leave	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	22	obj	_	_
27	to	to	PART	TO	_	28	mark	_	_
28	travel	travel	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	22	advcl	_	_
29	for	for	ADP	IN	_	31	case	_	_
30	three	three	NUM	CD	NumForm=Word|NumType=Card	31	nummod	_	_
31	years	year	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	28	obl	_	SpaceAfter=No
32	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	3	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

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| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **not** **do** | past | brother | anything |  | home |  | except sit; over the stove | vn act-114-1 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent anything=Eventuality |
| 2 | **dirty** | infinitive | brother *not said here* | brother |  |  |  | with the ashes | vn other\_cos-45.4 «NP V NP PP.instrument»: agent=Agent himself=Patient with ash=Instrument |
| 3 | **beg** *speech: request* | past | brother | brother's father's leave |  |  |  |  | vn beg-58.2-1-1 «NP V NP PP.Topic»: agent=Agent leave=Recipient |
| 4 | **travel** | to-infinitive | brother *not said here* |  |  |  | year |  | vn run-51.3.2-1 «NP V»: agent=Theme |

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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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