---
title: When it wished for food he cut off pieces of the meat and put them i… — The Brown Fairy Book · tree and pragmatics
description: When it wished for food he cut off pieces of the meat and put them in its mouth. Who acts: way, Jamila. A sentence of «The Brown Fairy Book» by Andrew Lang, The Brown Fairy Book, part 4, with its dependency tree and the pragmatics of every clause.
---

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# The Brown Fairy Book, The Brown Fairy Book, part 4, sentence 9

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When it wished for food he cut off pieces of the meat and put them in its mouth.

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**Who acts:** way, Jamila · **What happens:** wish, cut off, put · **To what, where:** pieces, mouth

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This is a sentence of «The Brown Fairy Book» by Andrew Lang, The Brown Fairy Book, part 4. The page gives its syntax tree — a dependency tree in the style of Universal Dependencies — and its pragmatics clause by clause: who acts (way, Jamila), 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:pg3282:4:9
# text = When it wished for food he cut off pieces of the meat and put them in its mouth.
1	When	when	ADV	WRB	PronType=Int	3	advmod	_	_
2	it	it	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Gender=Neut|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	3	nsubj	_	_
3	wished	wish	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	7	advcl	_	_
4	for	for	ADP	IN	_	5	case	_	_
5	food	food	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	3	obl	_	_
6	he	he	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	7	nsubj	_	_
7	cut	cut	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	0	root	_	_
8	off	off	ADP	RP	_	7	compound:prt	_	_
9	pieces	piece	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	7	obj	_	_
10	of	of	ADP	IN	_	12	case	_	_
11	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	12	det	_	_
12	meat	meat	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	9	nmod	_	_
13	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	14	cc	_	_
14	put	put	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	7	conj	_	_
15	them	they	PRON	PRP	Case=Acc|Number=Plur|Person=3|PronType=Prs	14	obj	_	_
16	in	in	ADP	IN	_	18	case	_	_
17	its	its	PRON	PRP$	Case=Gen|Gender=Neut|Number=Sing|Person=3|Poss=Yes|PronType=Prs	18	nmod:poss	_	_
18	mouth	mouth	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	14	obl	_	SpaceAfter=No
19	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	7	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

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| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **wish** | past | way |  |  |  |  | for food | vn long-32.2 «NP V PP.theme»: agent=Pivot for food=Theme |
| 2 | **cut off** | past | Jamila | pieces of the meat |  |  |  |  | vn stop-55.4-1 «NP V NP.eventuality»: agent=Affector piece=Eventuality |
| 3 | **put** | infinitive | Jamila *not said here* | pieces *= piece* |  | way's mouth |  |  | vn put-9.1-2 «NP V NP PP.destination»: agent=Agent they=Theme in mouth=Destination |

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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 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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