---
title: Certainly none could have guessed that they were the snails, water-… — The Orange Fairy Book · tree and pragmatics
description: Certainly none could have guessed that they were the snails, water- rats, and grasshoppers from which she had chosen her retinue. Who acts: hands, frog. A sentence of «The Orange Fairy Book» by Andrew Lang, Opening, part 28, with its dependency tree and the pragmatics of every clause.
---

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[Mova](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/) · [this page in HTML](https://mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg3027/28/86/)

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# The Orange Fairy Book, Opening, part 28, sentence 86

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Certainly none could have guessed that they were the snails, water- rats, and grasshoppers from which she had chosen her retinue.

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**Who acts:** hands, frog · **What happens:** guess, be, choose · **To what, where:** none, snails, retinue

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This is a sentence of «The Orange Fairy Book» by Andrew Lang, Opening, part 28. The page gives its syntax tree — a dependency tree in the style of Universal Dependencies — and its pragmatics clause by clause: who acts (hands, frog), 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:pg3027:28:86
# text = Certainly none could have guessed that they were the snails, water- rats, and grasshoppers from which she had chosen her retinue.
1	Certainly	certainly	ADV	RB	_	5	advmod	_	_
2	none	none	PRON	NN	PronType=Neg	5	nsubj:pass	_	_
3	could	could	AUX	MD	VerbForm=Fin	5	aux	_	_
4	have	have	AUX	VB	VerbForm=Inf	5	aux	_	_
5	guessed	guess	VERB	VBN	Tense=Past|VerbForm=Part|Voice=Pass	0	root	_	_
6	that	that	SCONJ	IN	_	10	mark	_	_
7	they	they	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Number=Plur|Person=3|PronType=Prs	10	nsubj	_	_
8	were	be	AUX	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Plur|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	10	cop	_	_
9	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	10	det	_	_
10	snails	snail	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	5	parataxis	_	SpaceAfter=No
11	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	14	punct	_	_
12	water	water	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	14	compound	_	SpaceAfter=No
13	-	-	PUNCT	HYPH	_	12	punct	_	_
14	rats	rat	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	10	conj	_	SpaceAfter=No
15	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	17	punct	_	_
16	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	17	cc	_	_
17	grasshoppers	grasshopper	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	10	conj	_	_
18	from	from	ADP	IN	_	19	case	_	_
19	which	which	PRON	WDT	PronType=Rel	22	obl	_	_
20	she	she	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Gender=Fem|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	22	nsubj	_	_
21	had	have	AUX	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	22	aux	_	_
22	chosen	choose	VERB	VBN	Tense=Past|VerbForm=Part	17	acl:relcl	_	_
23	her	her	PRON	PRP$	Case=Gen|Gender=Fem|Number=Sing|Person=3|Poss=Yes|PronType=Prs	24	nmod:poss	_	_
24	retinue	retinue	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	22	obj	_	SpaceAfter=No
25	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	5	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

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| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **guess** | could · perfect · passive |  | none |  |  |  | certainly *property* | vn conjecture-29.5-1 «NP V NP»: subject=Theme |
| 2 | **is a** | past | hands *= hand* | the snails and water rats and grasshoppers |  |  |  |  | tree rules |
| 3 | **choose** | past · perfect | frog | frog's retinue |  |  |  | from grasshoppers | vn get-13.5.1 «NP V NP PP.source»: agent=Agent retinue=Theme from which=Source |

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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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