---
title: The maid of honour was surprised; but she was fond of animals, and s… — The Orange Fairy Book · tree and pragmatics
description: The maid of honour was surprised; but she was fond of animals, and stroked the white doe tenderly, speaking gently to her all the while. Who acts: maid. A sentence of «The Orange Fairy Book» by Andrew Lang, Opening, part 23, with its dependency tree and the pragmatics of every clause.
---

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# The Orange Fairy Book, Opening, part 23, sentence 91

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The maid of honour was surprised; but she was fond of animals, and stroked the white doe tenderly, speaking gently to her all the while.

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**Who acts:** maid · **What happens:** be, stroke, speak · **To what, where:** white doe, doe · **Speech:** someone speaks here

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This is a sentence of «The Orange Fairy Book» by Andrew Lang, Opening, part 23. The page gives its syntax tree — a dependency tree in the style of Universal Dependencies — and its pragmatics clause by clause: who acts (maid), 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:pg3027:23:91
# text = The maid of honour was surprised; but she was fond of animals, and stroked the white doe tenderly, speaking gently to her all the while.
1	The	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	2	det	_	_
2	maid	maid	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	6	nsubj	_	_
3	of	of	ADP	IN	_	4	case	_	_
4	honour	honour	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	2	nmod	_	_
5	was	be	AUX	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	6	cop	_	_
6	surprised	surprised	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	0	root	_	SpaceAfter=No
7	;	;	PUNCT	,	_	11	punct	_	_
8	but	but	CCONJ	CC	_	11	cc	_	_
9	she	she	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Gender=Fem|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	11	nsubj	_	_
10	was	be	AUX	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	11	cop	_	_
11	fond	fond	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	6	conj	_	_
12	of	of	ADP	IN	_	13	case	_	_
13	animals	animal	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	11	obl	_	SpaceAfter=No
14	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	16	punct	_	_
15	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	16	cc	_	_
16	stroked	stroke	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	6	conj	_	_
17	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	19	det	_	_
18	white	white	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	19	amod	_	_
19	doe	doe	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	16	obj	_	_
20	tenderly	tenderly	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	16	xcomp	_	SpaceAfter=No
21	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	22	punct	_	_
22	speaking	speak	VERB	VBG	Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Part	16	advcl	_	_
23	gently	gently	ADV	RB	_	22	advmod	_	_
24	to	to	ADP	IN	_	25	case	_	_
25	her	she	PRON	PRP	Case=Acc|Gender=Fem|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	22	obl	_	_
26	all	all	DET	PDT	PronType=Tot	28	det:predet	_	_
27	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	28	det	_	_
28	while	while	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	22	obl	_	SpaceAfter=No
29	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	6	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

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| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **is** | past | the maid of honour |  |  |  |  | surprised *property* | tree rules |
| 2 | **is** | past | maid |  |  |  |  | of animals; fond *property* | tree rules |
| 3 | **stroke** | past | the maid of honour *not said here* | the white doe |  |  |  | tenderly *property* | vn touch-20-1 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent doe=Experiencer |
| 4 | **speak** *speech: other* | gerund | the maid of honour *not said here* |  | doe |  | while | gently *property* | vn talk-37.5 «NP V PP.co-agent»: agent=Agent to she=Co-Agent |

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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 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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