---
title: ‘Be careful with the sugar, Otto,’ said the big sister; but Otto’s p… — The Lilac Fairy Book · tree and pragmatics
description: ‘Be careful with the sugar, Otto,’ said the big sister; but Otto’s plate was like a snowdrift in winter, with just a little red under the snow. Who acts: big sister, plate. A sentence of «The Lilac Fairy Book» by Andrew Lang, The Lilac Fairy Book, part 24, with its dependency tree and the pragmatics
---

<!-- md -->
[Mova](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/) · [this page in HTML](https://mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg3454/24/117/)

<!-- crumbs -->
[home](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/) / [corpora](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/) / [tales](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/) / [The Lilac Fairy Book](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg3454/) / [The Lilac Fairy Book, part 24](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg3454/24/) / 117

# The Lilac Fairy Book, The Lilac Fairy Book, part 24, sentence 117

<!-- .ven lang=en -->
‘Be careful with the sugar, Otto,’ said the big sister; but Otto’s plate was like a snowdrift in winter, with just a little red under the snow.

<!-- .vintro -->
**Who acts:** big sister, plate · **What happens:** be, say · **Speech:** someone speaks here

<!-- .vabout -->
This is a sentence of «The Lilac Fairy Book» by Andrew Lang, The Lilac Fairy Book, part 24. The page gives its syntax tree — a dependency tree in the style of Universal Dependencies — and its pragmatics clause by clause: who acts (big sister, plate), 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:pg3454:24:117
# text = ‘Be careful with the sugar, Otto,’ said the big sister; but Otto’s plate was like a snowdrift in winter, with just a little red under the snow.
1	‘	'	PUNCT	``	_	3	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
2	Be	be	AUX	VB	VerbForm=Inf	3	cop	_	_
3	careful	careful	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	11	ccomp	_	_
4	with	with	ADP	IN	_	6	case	_	_
5	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	6	det	_	_
6	sugar	sugar	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	3	obl	_	SpaceAfter=No
7	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	8	punct	_	_
8	Otto	Otto	PROPN	NNP	Number=Sing	6	appos	_	SpaceAfter=No
9	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	3	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
10	’	'	PUNCT	''	_	3	punct	_	_
11	said	say	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	0	root	_	_
12	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	14	det	_	_
13	big	big	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	14	amod	_	_
14	sister	sister	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	11	nsubj	_	SpaceAfter=No
15	;	;	PUNCT	:	_	23	punct	_	_
16	but	but	CCONJ	CC	_	23	cc	_	_
17	Otto	Otto	PROPN	NNP	Number=Sing	19	nmod:poss	_	SpaceAfter=No
18	’s	's	PART	POS	_	17	case	_	_
19	plate	plate	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	23	nsubj	_	_
20	was	be	AUX	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	23	cop	_	_
21	like	like	ADP	IN	_	23	case	_	_
22	a	a	DET	DT	Definite=Ind|PronType=Art	23	det	_	_
23	snowdrift	snowdrift	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	11	ccomp	_	_
24	in	in	ADP	IN	_	25	case	_	_
25	winter	winter	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	23	nmod	_	SpaceAfter=No
26	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	31	punct	_	_
27	with	with	ADP	IN	_	31	case	_	_
28	just	just	ADV	RB	_	31	advmod	_	_
29	a	a	DET	DT	Definite=Ind|PronType=Art	30	det	_	_
30	little	little	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	31	obl:unmarked	_	_
31	red	red	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	23	appos	_	_
32	under	under	ADP	IN	_	34	case	_	_
33	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	34	det	_	_
34	snow	snow	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	31	obl	_	SpaceAfter=No
35	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	11	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

<!-- .fr -->
| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **is** | infinitive |  |  |  |  |  | with the sugar; careful *property* | tree rules |
| 2 | **say** *speech: assert* | past | the big sister |  |  |  |  |  | vn say-37.7-1-1 «NP V that S»: agent=Agent |
| 3 | **is** | past | Otto's plate |  |  |  | winter | like a snowdrift | tree rules |

<!-- .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.

<!-- div src -->

**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.

<!-- /div -->

<!-- pn -->
- ← previous: [sentence 116](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg3454/24/116/)
- next →: [sentence 118](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg3454/24/118/)
- ↑ back to [The Lilac Fairy Book, part 24](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg3454/24/)