---
title: ‘If the brown otter of the stream were only here, he would soon have… — The Lilac Fairy Book · tree and pragmatics
description: ‘If the brown otter of the stream were only here, he would soon have that egg,’ cried the king; and the next minute there was the brown otter, dripping with water, holding the egg in his mouth. Who acts: brown otter, otter, next minute. A sentence of «The Lilac Fairy Book» by Andrew Lang, The Lilac 
---

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# The Lilac Fairy Book, The Lilac Fairy Book, part 10, sentence 16

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‘If the brown otter of the stream were only here, he would soon have that egg,’ cried the king; and the next minute there was the brown otter, dripping with water, holding the egg in his mouth.

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**Who acts:** brown otter, otter, next minute · **What happens:** be, have, cry, drip, hold · **To what, where:** egg, king, brown otter, mouth · **Speech:** someone speaks here

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This is a sentence of «The Lilac Fairy Book» by Andrew Lang, The Lilac Fairy Book, part 10. The page gives its syntax tree — a dependency tree in the style of Universal Dependencies — and its pragmatics clause by clause: who acts (brown otter, otter, next minute), what happens, when and where, as Mova's frames read it from the tree.

<!-- .note-en -->
**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:pg3454:10:16
# text = ‘If the brown otter of the stream were only here, he would soon have that egg,’ cried the king; and the next minute there was the brown otter, dripping with water, holding the egg in his mouth.
1	‘	'	PUNCT	``	_	16	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
2	If	if	SCONJ	IN	_	11	mark	_	_
3	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	5	det	_	_
4	brown	brown	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	5	amod	_	_
5	otter	otter	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	11	nsubj	_	_
6	of	of	ADP	IN	_	8	case	_	_
7	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	8	det	_	_
8	stream	stream	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	5	nmod	_	_
9	were	be	AUX	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Plur|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	11	cop	_	_
10	only	only	ADV	RB	_	11	advmod	_	_
11	here	here	ADV	RB	PronType=Dem	16	advcl	_	SpaceAfter=No
12	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	11	punct	_	_
13	he	he	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	16	nsubj	_	_
14	would	would	AUX	MD	VerbForm=Fin	16	aux	_	_
15	soon	soon	ADV	RB	Degree=Pos	16	advmod	_	_
16	have	have	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	21	ccomp	_	_
17	that	that	DET	DT	Number=Sing|PronType=Dem	18	det	_	_
18	egg	egg	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	16	obj	_	SpaceAfter=No
19	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	16	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
20	’	'	PUNCT	''	_	16	punct	_	_
21	cried	cry	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=1|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	0	root	_	_
22	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	23	det	_	_
23	king	king	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	21	obj	_	SpaceAfter=No
24	;	;	PUNCT	:	_	33	punct	_	_
25	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	33	cc	_	_
26	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	28	det	_	_
27	next	next	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	28	amod	_	_
28	minute	minute	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	33	nsubj	_	_
29	there	there	PRON	EX	PronType=Dem	30	expl	_	_
30	was	be	AUX	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	33	cop	_	_
31	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	33	det	_	_
32	brown	brown	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	33	amod	_	_
33	otter	otter	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	21	obl	_	SpaceAfter=No
34	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	35	punct	_	_
35	dripping	drip	VERB	VBG	VerbForm=Ger	33	acl	_	_
36	with	with	ADP	IN	_	37	case	_	_
37	water	water	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	35	obl	_	SpaceAfter=No
38	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	39	punct	_	_
39	holding	hold	VERB	VBG	Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Part	21	advcl	_	_
40	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	41	det	_	_
41	egg	egg	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	39	obj	_	_
42	in	in	ADP	IN	_	44	case	_	_
43	his	his	PRON	PRP$	Case=Gen|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|Poss=Yes|PronType=Prs	44	nmod:poss	_	_
44	mouth	mouth	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	39	obl	_	SpaceAfter=No
45	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	21	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

<!-- .fr -->
| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **is** *a condition, not said to happen* | past | the brown otter of the stream |  |  |  |  | here *property* | tree rules |
| 2 | **have** | would | otter | that egg |  |  |  | soon *property* | vn birth-28.2-1 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent egg=Patient |
| 3 | **cry** *speech: express* | past |  | the king |  |  |  |  | tree rules |
| 4 | **is a** | past | the next minute | the brown otter |  |  |  |  | tree rules |
| 5 | **drip** | gerund | the brown otter *not said here* |  |  |  |  | with water | vn substance\_emission-43.4-1 «NP.location V PP.theme»: agent=Location with water=Theme |
| 6 | **hold** | gerund |  | the egg |  | otter's mouth |  |  | vn keep-15.2 «NP V NP PP.location»: agent=Agent egg=Theme in mouth=Location |

<!-- .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 Lilac Fairy Book» by Andrew Lang, Project Gutenberg book 3454 (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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