---
title: “Nothing but your little finger, your Majesty,” was his answer; and… — The Crimson Fairy Book · tree and pragmatics
description: “Nothing but your little finger, your Majesty,” was his answer; and the king cut off his little finger and gave it to Paperarello, who bowed and hid it in his surcoat. Who acts: Nothing, king, Paperarello. A sentence of «The Crimson Fairy Book» by Andrew Lang, The Crimson Fairy Book, part 13, with i
---

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# The Crimson Fairy Book, The Crimson Fairy Book, part 13, sentence 52

<!-- .ven lang=en -->
“Nothing but your little finger, your Majesty,” was his answer; and the king cut off his little finger and gave it to Paperarello, who bowed and hid it in his surcoat.

<!-- .vintro -->
**Who acts:** Nothing, king, Paperarello · **What happens:** be, cut off, give, bow, hide · **To what, where:** answer, little finger, finger, Paperarello, surcoat

<!-- .vabout -->
This is a sentence of «The Crimson Fairy Book» by Andrew Lang, The Crimson Fairy Book, part 13. The page gives its syntax tree — a dependency tree in the style of Universal Dependencies — and its pragmatics clause by clause: who acts (Nothing, king, Paperarello), 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:pg2435:13:52
# text = “Nothing but your little finger, your Majesty,” was his answer; and the king cut off his little finger and gave it to Paperarello, who bowed and hid it in his surcoat.
1	“	"	PUNCT	``	_	2	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
2	Nothing	nothing	PRON	NN	Number=Sing|PronType=Neg	14	nsubj	_	_
3	but	but	CCONJ	CC	_	6	cc	_	_
4	your	your	PRON	PRP$	Case=Gen|Person=2|Poss=Yes|PronType=Prs	6	nmod:poss	_	_
5	little	little	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	6	amod	_	_
6	finger	finger	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	2	conj	_	SpaceAfter=No
7	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	9	punct	_	_
8	your	your	PRON	PRP$	Case=Gen|Person=2|Poss=Yes|PronType=Prs	9	nmod:poss	_	_
9	Majesty	majesty	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	2	conj	_	SpaceAfter=No
10	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	2	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
11	”	"	PUNCT	''	_	2	punct	_	_
12	was	be	AUX	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	14	cop	_	_
13	his	his	PRON	PRP$	Case=Gen|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|Poss=Yes|PronType=Prs	14	nmod:poss	_	_
14	answer	answer	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	0	root	_	SpaceAfter=No
15	;	;	PUNCT	,	_	19	punct	_	_
16	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	19	cc	_	_
17	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	18	det	_	_
18	king	king	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	19	nsubj	_	_
19	cut	cut	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	14	parataxis	_	_
20	off	off	ADP	RP	_	19	compound:prt	_	_
21	his	his	PRON	PRP$	Case=Gen|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|Poss=Yes|PronType=Prs	23	nmod:poss	_	_
22	little	little	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	23	amod	_	_
23	finger	finger	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	19	obj	_	_
24	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	25	cc	_	_
25	gave	give	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	19	conj	_	_
26	it	it	PRON	PRP	Case=Acc|Gender=Neut|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	25	obj	_	_
27	to	to	ADP	IN	_	28	case	_	_
28	Paperarello	Paperarello	PROPN	NNP	Number=Sing	25	obl	_	SpaceAfter=No
29	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	31	punct	_	_
30	who	who	PRON	WP	PronType=Rel	31	nsubj	_	_
31	bowed	bow	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	28	acl:relcl	_	_
32	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	33	cc	_	_
33	hid	hide	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	31	conj	_	_
34	it	it	PRON	PRP	Case=Acc|Gender=Neut|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	33	obj	_	_
35	in	in	ADP	IN	_	37	case	_	_
36	his	his	PRON	PRP$	Case=Gen|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|Poss=Yes|PronType=Prs	37	nmod:poss	_	_
37	surcoat	surcoat	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	33	obl	_	SpaceAfter=No
38	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	14	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

<!-- .fr -->
| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **is a** | past | Nothing | knight's answer |  |  |  |  | tree rules |
| 2 | **cut off** | past | the king | knight's little finger |  |  |  |  | vn stop-55.4-1 «NP V NP.eventuality»: agent=Affector finger=Eventuality |
| 3 | **give** | past | the king *not said here* | finger | Paperarello |  |  |  | vn give-13.1-1 «NP V NP PP.recipient»: agent=Agent it=Theme to paperarello=Recipient |
| 4 | **bow** | past | Paperarello |  |  |  |  |  | vn acquiesce-95.1-1 «NP V»: agent=Agent |
| 5 | **hide** | past | Paperarello *not said here* | finger |  | knight's surcoat |  |  | vn concealment-16-1 «NP V NP PP.location»: agent=Agent it=Patient in surcoat=Location |

<!-- .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 Crimson Fairy Book» by Andrew Lang, Project Gutenberg book 2435 (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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