---
title: But he begged, and he begged, till at last the good queen let him go… — English Fairy Tales · tree and pragmatics
description: But he begged, and he begged, till at last the good queen let him go, and gave him his father's good brand that never struck in vain. Who acts: Merlin, good queen, father. A sentence of «English Fairy Tales» by Joseph Jacobs, Childe Rowland, with its dependency tree and the pragmatics of every claus
---

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# English Fairy Tales, Childe Rowland, sentence 17

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But he begged, and he begged, till at last the good queen let him go, and gave him his father's good brand that never struck in vain.

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**Who acts:** Merlin, good queen, father · **What happens:** beg, let, go, give, not strike, brand · **To what, where:** Merlin, last, good brand, vain

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This is a sentence of «English Fairy Tales» by Joseph Jacobs, Childe Rowland. The page gives its syntax tree — a dependency tree in the style of Universal Dependencies — and its pragmatics clause by clause: who acts (Merlin, good queen, father), 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:pg7439:24:17
# text = But he begged, and he begged, till at last the good queen let him go, and gave him his father's good brand that never struck in vain.
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	begged	beg	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	0	root	_	SpaceAfter=No
4	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	7	punct	_	_
5	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	7	cc	_	_
6	he	he	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	7	nsubj	_	_
7	begged	beg	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	3	conj	_	SpaceAfter=No
8	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	15	punct	_	_
9	till	till	SCONJ	IN	_	15	mark	_	_
10	at	at	ADP	IN	_	11	case	_	_
11	last	last	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	15	obl	_	_
12	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	14	det	_	_
13	good	good	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	14	amod	_	_
14	queen	queen	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	15	nsubj	_	_
15	let	let	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	7	ccomp	_	_
16	him	he	PRON	PRP	Case=Acc|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	15	obj	_	_
17	go	go	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	15	xcomp	_	SpaceAfter=No
18	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	20	punct	_	_
19	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	20	cc	_	_
20	gave	give	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	3	conj	_	_
21	him	he	PRON	PRP	Case=Acc|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	20	iobj	_	_
22	his	his	PRON	PRP$	Case=Gen|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|Poss=Yes|PronType=Prs	23	nmod:poss	_	_
23	father	father	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	26	nmod:poss	_	SpaceAfter=No
24	's	's	PART	POS	_	23	case	_	_
25	good	good	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	26	amod	_	_
26	brand	brand	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	20	obj	_	_
27	that	that	PRON	WDT	PronType=Rel	29	obj	_	_
28	never	never	ADV	RB	PronType=Neg	29	advmod	_	_
29	struck	strike	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	26	acl:relcl	_	_
30	in	in	ADP	IN	_	31	case	_	_
31	vain	vain	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	29	obl	_	SpaceAfter=No
32	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	3	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

<!-- .fr -->
| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **beg** *speech: request* | past | Merlin |  |  |  |  |  | vn beg-58.2-1-1 «NP V PP.Topic»: agent=Agent |
| 2 | **beg** *speech: request* | past | Merlin |  |  |  |  |  | vn beg-58.2-1-1 «NP V S\_INF»: agent=Agent clause=Topic |
| 3 | **let** | infinitive | the good queen | Merlin |  | last |  |  | tree rules |
| 4 | **go** | infinitive | Merlin *not said here* |  |  |  |  |  | vn disappearance-48.2-1 «NP V»: agent=Theme |
| 5 | **give** | past | Merlin *not said here* | Merlin's father's good brand | Merlin |  |  |  | vn give-13.1-1 «NP V NP-Dative NP»: agent=Agent he=Recipient brand=Theme |
| 6 | **not** **strike** | past |  | Merlin's father's good brand |  | vain |  |  | vn hit-18.1-1 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent that=Patient |
| 7 | **brand** |  | Merlin's father |  |  |  |  |  | nom brand «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:** «English Fairy Tales» by Joseph Jacobs, Project Gutenberg book 7439 (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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