---
title: There was nothing to eat on the island, and the fisher’s son thought… — The Lilac Fairy Book · tree and pragmatics
description: There was nothing to eat on the island, and the fisher’s son thought he would die of food, when he remembered the box that the lady had put in his pocket. Who acts: nothing, son. A sentence of «The Lilac Fairy Book» by Andrew Lang, The Lilac Fairy Book, part 17, with its dependency tree and the prag
---

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[Mova](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/) · [this page in HTML](https://mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg3454/17/24/)

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# The Lilac Fairy Book, The Lilac Fairy Book, part 17, sentence 24

<!-- .ven lang=en -->
There was nothing to eat on the island, and the fisher’s son thought he would die of food, when he remembered the box that the lady had put in his pocket.

<!-- .vintro -->
**Who acts:** nothing, son · **What happens:** be, eat, think, die, remember, put · **To what, where:** island, box, lady, pocket · **Speech:** someone speaks here

<!-- .vabout -->
This is a sentence of «The Lilac Fairy Book» by Andrew Lang, The Lilac Fairy Book, part 17. The page gives its syntax tree — a dependency tree in the style of Universal Dependencies — and its pragmatics clause by clause: who acts (nothing, son), 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:pg3454:17:24
# text = There was nothing to eat on the island, and the fisher’s son thought he would die of food, when he remembered the box that the lady had put in his pocket.
1	There	there	PRON	EX	PronType=Dem	2	expl	_	_
2	was	be	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	0	root	_	_
3	nothing	nothing	PRON	NN	Number=Sing|PronType=Neg	2	nsubj	_	_
4	to	to	PART	TO	_	5	mark	_	_
5	eat	eat	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	3	acl	_	_
6	on	on	ADP	IN	_	8	case	_	_
7	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	8	det	_	_
8	island	island	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	5	obl	_	SpaceAfter=No
9	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	15	punct	_	_
10	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	15	cc	_	_
11	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	12	det	_	_
12	fisher	fisher	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	14	nmod:poss	_	SpaceAfter=No
13	’s	's	PART	POS	_	12	case	_	_
14	son	son	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	15	nsubj	_	_
15	thought	think	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	2	parataxis	_	_
16	he	he	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	18	nsubj	_	_
17	would	would	AUX	MD	VerbForm=Fin	18	aux	_	_
18	die	die	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	15	ccomp	_	_
19	of	of	ADP	IN	_	20	case	_	_
20	food	food	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	18	obl	_	SpaceAfter=No
21	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	24	punct	_	_
22	when	when	ADV	WRB	PronType=Int	24	advmod	_	_
23	he	he	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	24	nsubj	_	_
24	remembered	remember	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	15	conj	_	_
25	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	26	det	_	_
26	box	box	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	24	obj	_	_
27	that	that	SCONJ	IN	_	31	mark	_	_
28	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	29	det	_	_
29	lady	lady	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	31	nsubj:pass	_	_
30	had	have	AUX	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	31	aux	_	_
31	put	put	VERB	VBN	Tense=Past|VerbForm=Part|Voice=Pass	24	advcl	_	_
32	in	in	ADP	IN	_	34	case	_	_
33	his	his	PRON	PRP$	Case=Gen|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|Poss=Yes|PronType=Prs	34	nmod:poss	_	_
34	pocket	pocket	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	31	obl	_	SpaceAfter=No
35	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	2	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

<!-- .fr -->
| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **be** | past | nothing |  |  | there |  |  | vn exist-47.1 «NP V»: agent=Theme |
| 2 | **eat** | to-infinitive | nothing *not said here* |  |  | the island |  |  | vn eat-39.1-1 «NP V»: agent=Agent |
| 3 | **think** *speech: other* | past | the fisher's son |  |  |  |  |  | vn consider-29.9-2 «NP V how S»: agent=Agent clause=Theme |
| 4 | **die** | would | son |  |  |  |  | of food | vn die-42.4-1 «NP V PP.cause»: agent=Patient of food=Causer |
| 5 | **remember** | past | son | the box |  |  |  |  | vn characterize-29.2-1-1 «NP V NP S\_ING»: agent=Agent box=Theme |
| 6 | **put** | past · perfect · passive |  | the lady |  | son's pocket |  |  | vn put-9.1-2 «NP V NP PP.destination»: subject=Theme in pocket=Destination |

<!-- .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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