---
title: What was her surprise when the animal said to her: 'Take off my brid… — The Orange Fairy Book · tree and pragmatics
description: What was her surprise when the animal said to her: 'Take off my bridle and you will save my life.' Who acts: animal, you. A sentence of «The Orange Fairy Book» by Andrew Lang, Opening, part 39, with its dependency tree and the pragmatics of every clause.
---

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# The Orange Fairy Book, Opening, part 39, sentence 81

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What was her surprise when the animal said to her: 'Take off my bridle and you will save my life.'

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**Who acts:** animal, you · **What happens:** be, say, take off, save · **To what, where:** surprise, girl, bridle, life · **Speech:** someone speaks here

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This is a sentence of «The Orange Fairy Book» by Andrew Lang, Opening, part 39. The page gives its syntax tree — a dependency tree in the style of Universal Dependencies — and its pragmatics clause by clause: who acts (animal, you), 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:pg3027:39:81
# text = What was her surprise when the animal said to her: 'Take off my bridle and you will save my life.'
1	What	what	PRON	WP	PronType=Int	4	nsubj	_	_
2	was	be	AUX	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	4	cop	_	_
3	her	her	PRON	PRP$	Case=Gen|Gender=Fem|Number=Sing|Person=3|Poss=Yes|PronType=Prs	4	nmod:poss	_	_
4	surprise	surprise	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	0	root	_	_
5	when	when	ADV	WRB	PronType=Int	8	advmod	_	_
6	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	7	det	_	_
7	animal	animal	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	8	nsubj	_	_
8	said	say	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	4	acl:relcl	_	_
9	to	to	ADP	IN	_	10	case	_	_
10	her	she	PRON	PRP	Case=Acc|Gender=Fem|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	8	obl	_	SpaceAfter=No
11	:	:	PUNCT	:	_	13	punct	_	_
12	'	'	PUNCT	``	_	13	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
13	Take	take	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	8	ccomp	_	_
14	off	off	ADP	RP	_	13	compound:prt	_	_
15	my	my	PRON	PRP$	Case=Gen|Number=Sing|Person=1|Poss=Yes|PronType=Prs	16	nmod:poss	_	_
16	bridle	bridle	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	13	obj	_	_
17	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	20	cc	_	_
18	you	you	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Person=2|PronType=Prs	20	nsubj	_	_
19	will	will	AUX	MD	VerbForm=Fin	20	aux	_	_
20	save	save	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	13	conj	_	_
21	my	my	PRON	PRP$	Case=Gen|Number=Sing|Person=1|Poss=Yes|PronType=Prs	22	nmod:poss	_	_
22	life	life	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	20	obj	_	SpaceAfter=No
23	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	13	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
24	'	'	PUNCT	''	_	13	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

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| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **is a** | past |  | girl's surprise |  |  |  |  | tree rules |
| 2 | **say** *speech: assert* | past | the animal |  | girl |  |  |  | vn indicate-78-1 «NP V PP.recipient that S»: agent=Pivot to she=Experiencer clause=Topic |
| 3 | **take off** | infinitive |  | my bridle |  |  |  |  | vn remove-10.1 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent bridle=Theme |
| 4 | **save** | future | you | my life |  |  |  |  | vn get-13.5.1-1 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent life=Theme |

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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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