---
title: “Pretty little creatures,” she said, “how I wish that your cage was… — The Blue Fairy Book · tree and pragmatics
description: “Pretty little creatures,” she said, “how I wish that your cage was nearer to my room, that I might often hear you sing!” Who acts: little creatures, cage, you. A sentence of «The Blue Fairy Book» by Andrew Lang, Beauty and the Beast, part 2, with its dependency tree and the pragmatics of every clau
---

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# The Blue Fairy Book, Beauty and the Beast, part 2, sentence 101

<!-- .ven lang=en -->
“Pretty little creatures,” she said, “how I wish that your cage was nearer to my room, that I might often hear you sing!”

<!-- .vintro -->
**Who acts:** little creatures, cage, you · **What happens:** say, wish, be, hear, sing · **Speech:** someone speaks here

<!-- .vabout -->
This is a sentence of «The Blue Fairy Book» by Andrew Lang, Beauty and the Beast, part 2. The page gives its syntax tree — a dependency tree in the style of Universal Dependencies — and its pragmatics clause by clause: who acts (little creatures, cage, you), 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:pg503:15:101
# text = “Pretty little creatures,” she said, “how I wish that your cage was nearer to my room, that I might often hear you sing!”
1	“	"	PUNCT	``	_	4	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
2	Pretty	pretty	ADV	RB	_	3	advmod	_	_
3	little	little	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	4	amod	_	_
4	creatures	creature	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	8	nsubj	_	SpaceAfter=No
5	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	4	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
6	”	"	PUNCT	''	_	4	punct	_	_
7	she	she	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Gender=Fem|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	8	nsubj	_	_
8	said	say	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Plur|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	0	root	_	SpaceAfter=No
9	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	13	punct	_	_
10	“	"	PUNCT	``	_	13	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
11	how	how	ADV	WRB	PronType=Int	13	advmod	_	_
12	I	I	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Number=Sing|Person=1|PronType=Prs	13	nsubj	_	_
13	wish	wish	VERB	VBP	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=1|Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Fin	8	ccomp	_	_
14	that	that	SCONJ	IN	_	18	mark	_	_
15	your	your	PRON	PRP$	Case=Gen|Person=2|Poss=Yes|PronType=Prs	16	nmod:poss	_	_
16	cage	cage	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	18	nsubj	_	_
17	was	be	AUX	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	18	cop	_	_
18	nearer	near	ADJ	JJR	Degree=Cmp	13	advcl	_	_
19	to	to	ADP	IN	_	21	case	_	_
20	my	my	PRON	PRP$	Case=Gen|Number=Sing|Person=1|Poss=Yes|PronType=Prs	21	nmod:poss	_	_
21	room	room	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	18	obl	_	SpaceAfter=No
22	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	27	punct	_	_
23	that	that	SCONJ	IN	_	27	mark	_	_
24	I	I	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Number=Sing|Person=1|PronType=Prs	27	nsubj	_	_
25	might	might	AUX	MD	VerbForm=Fin	27	aux	_	_
26	often	often	ADV	RB	_	27	advmod	_	_
27	hear	hear	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	13	conj	_	_
28	you	you	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Person=2|PronType=Prs	29	nsubj	_	_
29	sing	sing	VERB	VBP	Mood=Ind|Number=Plur|Person=3|Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Fin	27	xcomp	_	SpaceAfter=No
30	!	!	PUNCT	.	_	8	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
31	”	"	PUNCT	''	_	8	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

<!-- .fr -->
| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **say** *speech: express* | past | little creatures |  |  |  |  |  | vn say-37.7-1-1 «NP V that S»: agent=Agent clause=Topic |
| 2 | **wish** *in a quote* | present | little creatures *= creature* |  |  |  |  |  | vn wish-62 «NP V for NP S\_INF»: agent=Pivot |
| 3 | **is** *in a quote* | past | your cage |  |  |  |  | to my room; near *property* | tree rules |
| 4 | **hear** *in a quote* | might | little creatures *= creature* |  |  |  |  | often *property* | vn see-30.1-1-1 «NP V S\_ING»: agent=Experiencer clause=Stimulus |
| 5 | **sing** *speech: express* *in a quote* | present | you |  |  |  |  |  | vn sound\_emission-43.2 «NP.location V PP.theme»: agent=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 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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