---
title: “If only a roc’s egg,” replied he, “were hung up from the middle of… — The Blue Fairy Book · tree and pragmatics
description: “If only a roc’s egg,” replied he, “were hung up from the middle of this dome, it would be the wonder of the world.” Who acts: roc, middle. A sentence of «The Blue Fairy Book» by Andrew Lang, Aladdin and the Wonderful Lamp, with its dependency tree and the pragmatics of every clause.
---

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# The Blue Fairy Book, Aladdin and the Wonderful Lamp, sentence 251

<!-- .ven lang=en -->
“If only a roc’s egg,” replied he, “were hung up from the middle of this dome, it would be the wonder of the world.”

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**Who acts:** roc, middle · **What happens:** reply, hang up, be · **To what, where:** middle, wonder · **Speech:** someone speaks here

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This is a sentence of «The Blue Fairy Book» by Andrew Lang, Aladdin and the Wonderful Lamp. The page gives its syntax tree — a dependency tree in the style of Universal Dependencies — and its pragmatics clause by clause: who acts (roc, middle), 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:pg503:12:251
# text = “If only a roc’s egg,” replied he, “were hung up from the middle of this dome, it would be the wonder of the world.”
1	“	"	PUNCT	``	_	10	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
2	If	if	SCONJ	IN	_	7	mark	_	_
3	only	only	ADV	RB	_	5	advmod	_	_
4	a	a	DET	DT	Definite=Ind|PronType=Art	5	det	_	_
5	roc	roc	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	7	nmod:poss	_	SpaceAfter=No
6	’s	's	PART	POS	_	5	case	_	_
7	egg	egg	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	10	advcl	_	SpaceAfter=No
8	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	7	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
9	”	"	PUNCT	''	_	7	punct	_	_
10	replied	reply	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	0	root	_	_
11	he	he	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	10	nsubj	_	SpaceAfter=No
12	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	15	punct	_	_
13	“	"	PUNCT	``	_	15	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
14	were	be	AUX	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	15	aux:pass	_	_
15	hung	hang	VERB	VBN	Tense=Past|VerbForm=Part|Voice=Pass	10	parataxis	_	_
16	up	up	ADP	RP	_	15	compound:prt	_	_
17	from	from	ADP	IN	_	19	case	_	_
18	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	19	det	_	_
19	middle	middle	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	15	obl	_	_
20	of	of	ADP	IN	_	22	case	_	_
21	this	this	DET	DT	Number=Sing|PronType=Dem	22	det	_	_
22	dome	dome	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	19	nmod	_	SpaceAfter=No
23	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	28	punct	_	_
24	it	it	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Gender=Neut|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	28	nsubj	_	_
25	would	would	AUX	MD	VerbForm=Fin	28	aux	_	_
26	be	be	AUX	VB	VerbForm=Inf	28	cop	_	_
27	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	28	det	_	_
28	wonder	wonder	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	15	obl	_	_
29	of	of	ADP	IN	_	31	case	_	_
30	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	31	det	_	_
31	world	world	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	28	nmod	_	SpaceAfter=No
32	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	15	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
33	”	"	PUNCT	''	_	10	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

<!-- .fr -->
| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **reply** *speech: assert* | past | roc |  |  |  |  |  | vn say-37.7-1 «NP V S-Quote»: agent=Agent clause=Topic |
| 2 | **hang up** *in a quote* | past · passive |  |  |  | the middle of this dome |  |  | vn assuming\_position-50 «NP V» |
| 3 | **is a** *in a quote* | would | middle | the wonder |  |  |  | of the world | 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.

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**Text:** «The Blue Fairy Book» by Andrew Lang, Project Gutenberg book 503 (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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