---
title: She told her daughter what she meant to do, and although the daughte… — The Orange Fairy Book · tree and pragmatics
description: She told her daughter what she meant to do, and although the daughter could only say 'dirty creatures,' in answer, she nodded and smiled and looked well pleased. Who acts: witch, daughter. A sentence of «The Orange Fairy Book» by Andrew Lang, Opening, part 12, with its dependency tree and the pragma
---

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# The Orange Fairy Book, Opening, part 12, sentence 89

<!-- .ven lang=en -->
She told her daughter what she meant to do, and although the daughter could only say 'dirty creatures,' in answer, she nodded and smiled and looked well pleased.

<!-- .vintro -->
**Who acts:** witch, daughter · **What happens:** tell, mean, do, say, nod, smile · **To what, where:** daughter, dirty creatures, answer · **Speech:** someone speaks here

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This is a sentence of «The Orange Fairy Book» by Andrew Lang, Opening, part 12. The page gives its syntax tree — a dependency tree in the style of Universal Dependencies — and its pragmatics clause by clause: who acts (witch, daughter), 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:pg3027:12:89
# text = She told her daughter what she meant to do, and although the daughter could only say 'dirty creatures,' in answer, she nodded and smiled and looked well pleased.
1	She	she	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Gender=Fem|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	2	nsubj	_	_
2	told	tell	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	0	root	_	_
3	her	her	PRON	PRP$	Case=Gen|Gender=Fem|Number=Sing|Person=3|Poss=Yes|PronType=Prs	4	nmod:poss	_	_
4	daughter	daughter	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	2	iobj	_	_
5	what	what	PRON	WP	PronType=Int	2	obj	_	_
6	she	she	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Gender=Fem|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	7	nsubj	_	_
7	meant	mean	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	5	acl:relcl	_	_
8	to	to	PART	TO	_	9	mark	_	_
9	do	do	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	7	xcomp	_	SpaceAfter=No
10	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	27	punct	_	_
11	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	27	cc	_	_
12	although	although	SCONJ	IN	_	17	mark	_	_
13	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	14	det	_	_
14	daughter	daughter	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	17	nsubj	_	_
15	could	could	AUX	MD	VerbForm=Fin	17	aux	_	_
16	only	only	ADV	RB	_	17	advmod	_	_
17	say	say	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	27	advcl	_	_
18	'	'	PUNCT	``	_	20	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
19	dirty	dirty	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	20	amod	_	_
20	creatures	creature	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	17	obj	_	SpaceAfter=No
21	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	20	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
22	'	'	PUNCT	''	_	20	punct	_	_
23	in	in	ADP	IN	_	24	case	_	_
24	answer	answer	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	17	obl	_	SpaceAfter=No
25	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	17	punct	_	_
26	she	she	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Gender=Fem|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	27	nsubj	_	_
27	nodded	nod	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	2	parataxis	_	_
28	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	29	cc	_	_
29	smiled	smile	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	27	conj	_	_
30	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	31	cc	_	_
31	looked	look	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	27	conj	_	_
32	well	well	ADV	RB	Degree=Pos	33	advmod	_	_
33	pleased	pleased	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	31	xcomp	_	SpaceAfter=No
34	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	2	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

<!-- .fr -->
| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **tell** *speech: assert* | past | witch |  | witch's daughter |  |  |  | vn transfer\_mesg-37.1.1-1-1 «NP V NP-Dative NP»: agent=Agent daughter=Recipient what=Topic |
| 2 | **mean** | past | witch |  |  |  |  |  | vn intend-61.2-1 «NP V S\_INF»: agent=Agent clause=Topic |
| 3 | **do** *not said to happen* | to-infinitive | witch *not said here* |  |  |  |  |  | vn act-114-1 «NP V»: agent=Agent |
| 4 | **say** *speech: assert* | could | the daughter | dirty creatures |  | answer |  |  | vn pronounce-29.3.1 «NP V NP PP.manner»: agent=Agent creature=Theme in answer=Manner |
| 5 | **nod** | past | witch |  |  |  |  |  | vn wink-40.3.1 «NP V»: agent=Agent |
| 6 | **smile** | past | witch *not said here* |  |  |  |  |  | vn manner\_speaking-37.3 «NP V»: agent=Agent |
| 7 | **look** | past | witch *not said here* |  |  |  |  | pleased *property* | vn stimulus\_subject-30.4 «NP V ADJ»: agent=Stimulus |

<!-- .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 Orange Fairy Book» by Andrew Lang, Project Gutenberg book 3027 (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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