---
title: 'Didn't I say that fish would be delicious?' she cried; and plunging… — The Orange Fairy Book · tree and pragmatics
description: 'Didn't I say that fish would be delicious?' she cried; and plunging her spoon into the dish the girl helped herself to a large piece. Who acts: I, fish, power, girl. A sentence of «The Orange Fairy Book» by Andrew Lang, Opening, part 25, with its dependency tree and the pragmatics of every clause.
---

<!-- md -->
[Mova](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/) · [this page in HTML](https://mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg3027/25/18/)

<!-- crumbs -->
[home](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/) / [corpora](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/) / [tales](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/) / [The Orange Fairy Book](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg3027/) / [Opening, part 25](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg3027/25/) / 18

# The Orange Fairy Book, Opening, part 25, sentence 18

<!-- .ven lang=en -->
'Didn't I say that fish would be delicious?' she cried; and plunging her spoon into the dish the girl helped herself to a large piece.

<!-- .vintro -->
**Who acts:** I, fish, power, girl · **What happens:** not do, say, be, cry, plunge, help · **To what, where:** spoon, dish, power · **Speech:** someone speaks here

<!-- .vabout -->
This is a sentence of «The Orange Fairy Book» by Andrew Lang, Opening, part 25. The page gives its syntax tree — a dependency tree in the style of Universal Dependencies — and its pragmatics clause by clause: who acts (I, fish, power, girl), 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:pg3027:25:18
# text = 'Didn't I say that fish would be delicious?' she cried; and plunging her spoon into the dish the girl helped herself to a large piece.
1	'	'	PUNCT	``	_	2	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
2	Did	do	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=1|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	0	root	_	SpaceAfter=No
3	n't	not	PART	RB	Polarity=Neg	2	advmod	_	_
4	I	I	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Number=Sing|Person=1|PronType=Prs	5	nsubj	_	_
5	say	say	VERB	VBP	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=1|Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Fin	2	parataxis	_	_
6	that	that	SCONJ	IN	_	10	mark	_	_
7	fish	fish	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	10	nsubj	_	_
8	would	would	AUX	MD	VerbForm=Fin	10	aux	_	_
9	be	be	AUX	VB	VerbForm=Inf	10	cop	_	_
10	delicious	delicious	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	5	ccomp	_	SpaceAfter=No
11	?	?	PUNCT	.	_	10	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
12	'	'	PUNCT	''	_	10	punct	_	_
13	she	she	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Gender=Fem|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	14	nsubj	_	_
14	cried	cry	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	10	parataxis	_	SpaceAfter=No
15	;	;	PUNCT	,	_	17	punct	_	_
16	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	17	cc	_	_
17	plunging	plunge	VERB	VBG	Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Part	2	advcl	_	_
18	her	her	PRON	PRP$	Case=Gen|Gender=Fem|Number=Sing|Person=3|Poss=Yes|PronType=Prs	19	nmod:poss	_	_
19	spoon	spoon	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	17	obj	_	_
20	into	into	ADP	IN	_	22	case	_	_
21	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	22	det	_	_
22	dish	dish	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	17	obl	_	_
23	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	24	det	_	_
24	girl	girl	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	25	nsubj	_	_
25	helped	help	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	22	acl:relcl	_	_
26	herself	herself	PRON	PRP	Case=Acc|Gender=Fem|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs|Reflex=Yes	25	obj	_	_
27	to	to	ADP	IN	_	30	case	_	_
28	a	a	DET	DT	Definite=Ind|PronType=Art	30	det	_	_
29	large	large	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	30	amod	_	_
30	piece	piece	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	25	obl	_	SpaceAfter=No
31	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	2	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

<!-- .fr -->
| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **not** **do** | past |  |  |  |  |  |  | vn act-114-1 «NP V»: agent=Agent |
| 2 | **say** *speech: assert* | present | I |  |  |  |  |  | vn say-37.7-1-1 «NP V that S»: agent=Agent |
| 3 | **is** | would | fish |  |  |  |  | delicious *property* | tree rules |
| 4 | **cry** *speech: express* | past | power |  |  |  |  |  | vn manner\_speaking-37.3 «NP V»: agent=Agent |
| 5 | **plunge** | gerund |  | power's spoon |  | the dish |  |  | vn meander-47.7-1 «PP.location V NP»: agent=Location spoon=Theme |
| 6 | **help** | past | the girl | power |  |  |  | to a large piece | vn help-72.1-1-1 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent herself=Beneficiary |

<!-- .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.

<!-- div src -->

**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.

<!-- /div -->

<!-- pn -->
- ← previous: [sentence 17](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg3027/25/17/)
- next →: [sentence 19](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg3027/25/19/)
- ↑ back to [Opening, part 25](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg3027/25/)