---
title: Hardly had he spoken these words when his wife beheld, to her great… — The Fairy Tales of Charles Perrault · tree and pragmatics
description: Hardly had he spoken these words when his wife beheld, to her great astonishment, a long black pudding which, issuing from a corner of the hearth, came winding and wriggling towards her. Who acts: he, wife, long black pudding. A sentence of «The Fairy Tales of Charles Perrault» by Charles Perrault, 
---

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# The Fairy Tales of Charles Perrault, Towards Her"\], sentence 3

<!-- .ven lang=en -->
Hardly had he spoken these words when his wife beheld, to her great astonishment, a long black pudding which, issuing from a corner of the hearth, came winding and wriggling towards her.

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**Who acts:** he, wife, long black pudding · **What happens:** speak, behold, issue, come, wind, wriggle · **To what, where:** words, great astonishment, corner · **Speech:** someone speaks here

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This is a sentence of «The Fairy Tales of Charles Perrault» by Charles Perrault, Towards Her"\]. The page gives its syntax tree — a dependency tree in the style of Universal Dependencies — and its pragmatics clause by clause: who acts (he, wife, long black pudding), 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:pg29021:15:3
# text = Hardly had he spoken these words when his wife beheld, to her great astonishment, a long black pudding which, issuing from a corner of the hearth, came winding and wriggling towards her.
1	Hardly	hardly	ADV	RB	_	4	advmod	_	_
2	had	have	AUX	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	4	aux	_	_
3	he	he	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	4	nsubj	_	_
4	spoken	speak	VERB	VBN	Tense=Past|VerbForm=Part	0	root	_	_
5	these	this	DET	DT	Number=Plur|PronType=Dem	6	det	_	_
6	words	word	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	4	obj	_	_
7	when	when	ADV	WRB	PronType=Int	10	advmod	_	_
8	his	his	PRON	PRP$	Case=Gen|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|Poss=Yes|PronType=Prs	9	nmod:poss	_	_
9	wife	wife	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	10	nsubj	_	_
10	beheld	behold	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	4	advcl	_	SpaceAfter=No
11	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	15	punct	_	_
12	to	to	ADP	IN	_	15	case	_	_
13	her	her	PRON	PRP$	Case=Gen|Gender=Fem|Number=Sing|Person=3|Poss=Yes|PronType=Prs	15	nmod:poss	_	_
14	great	great	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	15	amod	_	_
15	astonishment	astonishment	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	10	obj	_	SpaceAfter=No
16	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	20	punct	_	_
17	a	a	DET	DT	Definite=Ind|PronType=Art	20	det	_	_
18	long	long	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	20	amod	_	_
19	black	black	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	20	amod	_	_
20	pudding	pudding	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	15	appos	_	_
21	which	which	PRON	WDT	PronType=Rel	23	nsubj	_	SpaceAfter=No
22	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	23	punct	_	_
23	issuing	issue	VERB	VBG	Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Part	20	acl:relcl	_	_
24	from	from	ADP	IN	_	26	case	_	_
25	a	a	DET	DT	Definite=Ind|PronType=Art	26	det	_	_
26	corner	corner	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	23	obl	_	_
27	of	of	ADP	IN	_	29	case	_	_
28	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	29	det	_	_
29	hearth	hearth	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	26	nmod	_	SpaceAfter=No
30	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	31	punct	_	_
31	came	come	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	10	conj	_	_
32	winding	wind	VERB	VBG	VerbForm=Ger	31	xcomp	_	_
33	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	34	cc	_	_
34	wriggling	wriggle	VERB	VBG	VerbForm=Ger	32	conj	_	_
35	towards	towards	ADP	IN	_	36	case	_	_
36	her	she	PRON	PRP	Case=Acc|Gender=Fem|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	34	obl	_	SpaceAfter=No
37	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	4	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

<!-- .fr -->
| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **speak** *speech: other* | past · perfect | he | this words |  |  |  | hardly *property* | tree rules |
| 2 | **behold** | past | his wife | wife's great astonishment |  |  |  |  | vn sight-30.2 «NP V NP»: agent=Experiencer astonishment=Stimulus |
| 3 | **issue** | gerund | a long black pudding |  |  | a corner of the hearth |  |  | vn appear-48.1.1 «NP V»: agent=Theme |
| 4 | **come** | past | his wife *not said here* |  |  |  |  |  | tree rules |
| 5 | **wind** | gerund | his wife *not said here* |  |  |  |  |  | vn roll-51.3.1 «NP.theme V»: agent=Theme |
| 6 | **wriggle** | gerund | his wife *not said here* |  |  |  |  | towards wife | vn body\_internal\_motion-49.1 «NP V»: agent=Agent |
| 7 | **astonish** |  | wife |  |  |  |  |  | nom astonishment «feeling 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 Fairy Tales of Charles Perrault» by Charles Perrault, Project Gutenberg book 29021 (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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