---
title: The scallop and oyster Their two shells did roister, Like castanets… — The Lilac Fairy Book · tree and pragmatics
description: The scallop and oyster Their two shells did roister, Like castanets flitting; While limpets moved clearly, And rocks very nearly With laughter were splitting. Who acts: scallop, castanets, limpets, rocks. A sentence of «The Lilac Fairy Book» by Andrew Lang, The Lilac Fairy Book, part 18, with its de
---

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[Mova](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/) · [this page in HTML](https://mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg3454/18/42/)

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# The Lilac Fairy Book, The Lilac Fairy Book, part 18, sentence 42

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The scallop and oyster Their two shells did roister, Like castanets flitting; While limpets moved clearly, And rocks very nearly With laughter were splitting.

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**Who acts:** scallop, castanets, limpets, rocks · **What happens:** oyster, roister, flit, move, split · **To what, where:** two shells

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This is a sentence of «The Lilac Fairy Book» by Andrew Lang, The Lilac Fairy Book, part 18. The page gives its syntax tree — a dependency tree in the style of Universal Dependencies — and its pragmatics clause by clause: who acts (scallop, castanets, limpets, rocks), 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:pg3454:18:42
# text = The scallop and oyster Their two shells did roister, Like castanets flitting; While limpets moved clearly, And rocks very nearly With laughter were splitting.
1	The	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	2	det	_	_
2	scallop	scallop	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	9	nsubj	_	_
3	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	4	cc	_	_
4	oyster	oyster	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	2	conj	_	_
5	Their	their	PRON	PRP$	Case=Gen|Number=Plur|Person=3|Poss=Yes|PronType=Prs	7	nmod:poss	_	_
6	two	two	NUM	CD	NumForm=Word|NumType=Card	7	nummod	_	_
7	shells	shell	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	4	obj	_	_
8	did	do	AUX	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	9	aux	_	_
9	roister	roister	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	0	root	_	SpaceAfter=No
10	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	13	punct	_	_
11	Like	like	SCONJ	IN	_	13	mark	_	_
12	castanets	castanet	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	13	nsubj	_	_
13	flitting	flit	VERB	VBG	Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Part	9	conj	_	SpaceAfter=No
14	;	;	PUNCT	,	_	17	punct	_	_
15	While	while	SCONJ	IN	_	17	mark	_	_
16	limpets	limpet	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	17	nsubj	_	_
17	moved	move	VERB	VBN	Tense=Past|VerbForm=Part|Voice=Pass	9	parataxis	_	_
18	clearly	clearly	ADV	RB	_	17	advmod	_	SpaceAfter=No
19	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	27	punct	_	_
20	And	and	CCONJ	CC	_	27	cc	_	_
21	rocks	rock	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	27	nsubj	_	_
22	very	very	ADV	RB	_	23	advmod	_	_
23	nearly	nearly	ADV	RB	_	25	advmod	_	_
24	With	with	ADP	IN	_	25	case	_	_
25	laughter	laughter	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	21	nmod	_	_
26	were	be	AUX	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Plur|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	27	aux	_	_
27	splitting	split	VERB	VBG	Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Part	17	advcl	_	SpaceAfter=No
28	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	9	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

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| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **oyster** | infinitive | the scallop *not said here* | ’d's two shells |  |  |  |  | vn berry-13.7 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent shell=Location |
| 2 | **roister** | past · do-support | the scallop |  |  |  |  |  | tree rules |
| 3 | **flit** | gerund | castanets |  |  |  |  |  | vn run-51.3.2 «NP V»: agent=Theme |
| 4 | **move** | participle | limpets |  |  |  |  | clearly *property* | vn roll-51.3.1 «NP.theme V»: agent=Theme |
| 5 | **split** | past · progressive | rocks with laughter |  |  |  |  |  | vn break-45.1 «NP.patient V»: agent=Patient |

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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 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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