---
title: “The elves bathe here,” he said, “and if you put in your tail the fi… — The Brown Fairy Book · tree and pragmatics
description: “The elves bathe here,” he said, “and if you put in your tail the fish will catch hold of it. Who acts: elves, bear, you. A sentence of «The Brown Fairy Book» by Andrew Lang, The Brown Fairy Book, part 26, with its dependency tree and the pragmatics of every clause.
---

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# The Brown Fairy Book, The Brown Fairy Book, part 26, sentence 71

<!-- .ven lang=en -->
“The elves bathe here,” he said, “and if you put in your tail the fish will catch hold of it.

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**Who acts:** elves, bear, you · **What happens:** bathe, say, put, catch, hold · **To what, where:** fish, tail, hold · **Speech:** someone speaks here

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This is a sentence of «The Brown Fairy Book» by Andrew Lang, The Brown Fairy Book, part 26. The page gives its syntax tree — a dependency tree in the style of Universal Dependencies — and its pragmatics clause by clause: who acts (elves, bear, 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:pg3282:26:71
# text = “The elves bathe here,” he said, “and if you put in your tail the fish will catch hold of it.
1	“	"	PUNCT	``	_	4	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
2	The	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	3	det	_	_
3	elves	elf	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	4	nsubj	_	_
4	bathe	bathe	VERB	VBP	Mood=Ind|Number=Plur|Person=3|Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Fin	9	ccomp	_	_
5	here	here	ADV	RB	PronType=Dem	4	advmod	_	SpaceAfter=No
6	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	4	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
7	”	"	PUNCT	''	_	4	punct	_	_
8	he	he	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	9	nsubj	_	_
9	said	say	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	0	root	_	SpaceAfter=No
10	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	22	punct	_	_
11	“	"	PUNCT	``	_	22	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
12	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	22	cc	_	_
13	if	if	SCONJ	IN	_	15	mark	_	_
14	you	you	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Person=2|PronType=Prs	15	nsubj	_	_
15	put	put	VERB	VBP	Mood=Ind|Number=Plur|Person=3|Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Fin	22	advcl	_	_
16	in	in	ADP	IN	_	18	case	_	_
17	your	your	PRON	PRP$	Case=Gen|Person=2|Poss=Yes|PronType=Prs	18	nmod:poss	_	_
18	tail	tail	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	15	obl	_	_
19	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	20	det	_	_
20	fish	fish	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	15	obj	_	_
21	will	will	AUX	MD	VerbForm=Fin	22	aux	_	_
22	catch	catch	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	9	conj	_	_
23	hold	hold	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	22	obj	_	_
24	of	of	ADP	IN	_	25	case	_	_
25	it	it	PRON	PRP	Case=Acc|Gender=Neut|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	23	nmod	_	SpaceAfter=No
26	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	9	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

<!-- .fr -->
| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **bathe** *in a quote* | present | the elves |  |  | here |  |  | vn dress-41.1.1-1-1 «NP V»: agent=Agent |
| 2 | **say** *speech: assert* | past | bear |  |  |  |  |  | vn say-37.7-1-1 «NP V that S»: agent=Agent clause=Topic |
| 3 | **put** *a condition, not said to happen, in a quote* | present | you | the fish |  | your tail |  |  | vn put-9.1-2 «NP V NP PP.destination»: agent=Agent fish=Theme in tail=Destination |
| 4 | **catch** *in a quote* | future | bear *not said here* | hold of hold |  |  |  |  | vn get-13.5.1 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent hold=Theme |
| 5 | **hold** *in a quote* |  |  | hold |  |  |  |  | nom hold «act transitive»: of=patient |

<!-- .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 Brown Fairy Book» by Andrew Lang, Project Gutenberg book 3282 (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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