---
title: If I could only dine off that fox I saw a fortnight ago, curled up i… — The Orange Fairy Book · tree and pragmatics
description: If I could only dine off that fox I saw a fortnight ago, curled up into a delicious hairy ball, I should ask nothing better; I would have eaten her then, but unluckily her husband was lying beside her, and one knows that foxes, great and small, run like the wind. Who acts: I, dine fox, husband, one.
---

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# The Orange Fairy Book, Opening, part 6, sentence 52

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If I could only dine off that fox I saw a fortnight ago, curled up into a delicious hairy ball, I should ask nothing better; I would have eaten her then, but unluckily her husband was lying beside her, and one knows that foxes, great and small, run like the wind.

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**Who acts:** I, dine fox, husband, one · **What happens:** dine off, see, curl up, ask, eat, lie · **To what, where:** delicious hairy ball, nothing, plenty

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This is a sentence of «The Orange Fairy Book» by Andrew Lang, Opening, part 6. The page gives its syntax tree — a dependency tree in the style of Universal Dependencies — and its pragmatics clause by clause: who acts (I, dine fox, husband, one), 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:pg3027:6:52
# text = If I could only dine off that fox I saw a fortnight ago, curled up into a delicious hairy ball, I should ask nothing better; I would have eaten her then, but unluckily her husband was lying beside her, and one knows that foxes, great and small, run like the wind.
1	If	if	SCONJ	IN	_	5	mark	_	_
2	I	I	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Number=Sing|Person=1|PronType=Prs	5	nsubj	_	_
3	could	could	AUX	MD	VerbForm=Fin	5	aux	_	_
4	only	only	ADV	RB	_	5	advmod	_	_
5	dine	dine	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	8	compound	_	_
6	off	off	ADP	RP	_	5	compound:prt	_	_
7	that	that	DET	DT	Number=Sing|PronType=Dem	8	det	_	_
8	fox	fox	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	10	nsubj	_	_
9	I	I	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Number=Sing|Person=1|PronType=Prs	10	nsubj	_	_
10	saw	see	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	0	root	_	_
11	a	a	DET	DT	Definite=Ind|PronType=Art	12	det	_	_
12	fortnight	fortnight	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	13	obl:unmarked	_	_
13	ago	ago	ADV	RB	_	10	advmod	_	SpaceAfter=No
14	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	15	punct	_	_
15	curled	curl	VERB	VBN	Tense=Past|VerbForm=Part|Voice=Pass	10	conj	_	_
16	up	up	ADP	RP	_	15	compound:prt	_	_
17	into	into	ADP	IN	_	21	case	_	_
18	a	a	DET	DT	Definite=Ind|PronType=Art	21	det	_	_
19	delicious	delicious	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	21	amod	_	_
20	hairy	hairy	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	21	amod	_	_
21	ball	ball	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	15	obl	_	SpaceAfter=No
22	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	25	punct	_	_
23	I	I	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Number=Sing|Person=1|PronType=Prs	25	nsubj	_	_
24	should	should	AUX	MD	VerbForm=Fin	25	aux	_	_
25	ask	ask	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	10	conj	_	_
26	nothing	nothing	PRON	NN	Number=Sing|PronType=Neg	25	obj	_	_
27	better	well	ADV	RBR	Degree=Cmp	25	advmod	_	SpaceAfter=No
28	;	;	PUNCT	,	_	32	punct	_	_
29	I	I	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Number=Sing|Person=1|PronType=Prs	32	nsubj	_	_
30	would	would	AUX	MD	VerbForm=Fin	32	aux	_	_
31	have	have	AUX	VB	VerbForm=Inf	32	aux	_	_
32	eaten	eat	VERB	VBN	Tense=Past|VerbForm=Part	10	conj	_	_
33	her	her	PRON	PRP$	Case=Gen|Gender=Fem|Number=Sing|Person=3|Poss=Yes|PronType=Prs	32	obj	_	_
34	then	then	ADV	RB	PronType=Dem	32	advmod	_	SpaceAfter=No
35	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	41	punct	_	_
36	but	but	CCONJ	CC	_	41	cc	_	_
37	unluckily	unluckily	ADV	RB	_	41	advmod	_	_
38	her	her	PRON	PRP$	Case=Gen|Gender=Fem|Number=Sing|Person=3|Poss=Yes|PronType=Prs	39	nmod:poss	_	_
39	husband	husband	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	41	nsubj	_	_
40	was	be	AUX	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	41	aux	_	_
41	lying	lie	VERB	VBG	Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Part	10	conj	_	_
42	beside	beside	ADP	IN	_	43	case	_	_
43	her	she	PRON	PRP	Case=Acc|Gender=Fem|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	41	obl	_	SpaceAfter=No
44	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	47	punct	_	_
45	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	47	cc	_	_
46	one	one	NUM	CD	NumForm=Word|NumType=Card	47	nsubj	_	_
47	knows	know	VERB	VBZ	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Fin	41	parataxis	_	_
48	that	that	SCONJ	IN	_	51	mark	_	_
49	foxes	fox	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	51	nsubj	_	SpaceAfter=No
50	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	51	punct	_	_
51	great	great	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	47	ccomp	_	_
52	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	53	cc	_	_
53	small	small	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	51	conj	_	SpaceAfter=No
54	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	55	punct	_	_
55	run	run	VERB	VBN	Tense=Past|VerbForm=Part|Voice=Pass	51	conj	_	_
56	like	like	ADP	IN	_	58	case	_	_
57	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	58	det	_	_
58	wind	wind	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	55	obl:agent	_	SpaceAfter=No
59	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	10	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

<!-- .fr -->
| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **dine off** *a condition, not said to happen* | could | I |  |  |  |  |  | vn dine-39.5 «NP V»: agent=Agent |
| 2 | **see** | past | that dine fox |  |  |  |  | ago *property* | vn comprehend-87.2-1-1 «NP V»: agent=Experiencer |
| 3 | **curl up** | participle | that dine fox *not said here* |  |  | a delicious hairy ball |  |  | vn coil-9.6-1 «NP V PP.location»: agent=Theme into ball=Destination |
| 4 | **ask** *speech: ask* | should | I | nothing |  |  |  | well *property* | vn inquire-37.1.2 «NP V NP.recipient»: agent=Agent nothing=Recipient |
| 5 | **eat** | would · perfect | I | plenty |  |  | then |  | vn eat-39.1-1 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent her=Patient |
| 6 | **lie** | past · progressive | plenty's husband |  |  |  |  | beside plenty; unluckily *property* | vn assuming\_position-50 «NP V PP.location»: agent=Agent beside she=Location |
| 7 | **know** | present | one |  |  |  |  |  | vn comprehend-87.2-1-1-1 «NP V»: agent=Experiencer |
| 8 | **run** | participle | one *not said here* |  |  |  |  |  | vn run-51.3.2-2-1 «NP V»: agent=Theme |

<!-- .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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