---
title: So, when dinner-time drew near, he set the mill on the kitchen-table… — The Blue Fairy Book · tree and pragmatics
description: So, when dinner-time drew near, he set the mill on the kitchen-table, and said: “Grind herrings and milk pottage, and do it both quickly and well.” Who acts: dinner time, mill. A sentence of «The Blue Fairy Book» by Andrew Lang, Why the Sea Is Salt, with its dependency tree and the pragmatics of eve
---

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# The Blue Fairy Book, Why the Sea Is Salt, sentence 39

<!-- .ven lang=en -->
So, when dinner-time drew near, he set the mill on the kitchen-table, and said: “Grind herrings and milk pottage, and do it both quickly and well.”

<!-- .vintro -->
**Who acts:** dinner time, mill · **What happens:** draw, set, say, grind, do · **To what, where:** mill, kitchen table, herrings, harvest · **Speech:** someone speaks here

<!-- .vabout -->
This is a sentence of «The Blue Fairy Book» by Andrew Lang, Why the Sea Is Salt. The page gives its syntax tree — a dependency tree in the style of Universal Dependencies — and its pragmatics clause by clause: who acts (dinner time, mill), 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:pg503:20:39
# text = So, when dinner-time drew near, he set the mill on the kitchen-table, and said: “Grind herrings and milk pottage, and do it both quickly and well.”
1	So	so	ADV	RB	_	7	advmod	_	SpaceAfter=No
2	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	7	punct	_	_
3	when	when	ADV	WRB	PronType=Int	7	advmod	_	_
4	dinner	dinner	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	6	compound	_	SpaceAfter=No
5	-	-	PUNCT	HYPH	_	4	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
6	time	time	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	7	nsubj	_	_
7	drew	draw	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	0	root	_	_
8	near	near	ADV	RB	_	7	advmod	_	SpaceAfter=No
9	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	11	punct	_	_
10	he	he	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	11	nsubj	_	_
11	set	set	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	7	conj	_	_
12	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	13	det	_	_
13	mill	mill	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	11	obj	_	_
14	on	on	ADP	IN	_	18	case	_	_
15	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	18	det	_	_
16	kitchen	kitchen	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	18	compound	_	SpaceAfter=No
17	-	-	PUNCT	HYPH	_	16	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
18	table	table	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	11	obl	_	SpaceAfter=No
19	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	21	punct	_	_
20	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	21	cc	_	_
21	said	say	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	7	conj	_	SpaceAfter=No
22	:	:	PUNCT	:	_	24	punct	_	_
23	“	"	PUNCT	``	_	24	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
24	Grind	grind	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	21	ccomp	_	_
25	herrings	herring	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	24	obj	_	_
26	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	28	cc	_	_
27	milk	milk	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	28	compound	_	_
28	pottage	pottage	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	25	conj	_	SpaceAfter=No
29	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	31	punct	_	_
30	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	31	cc	_	_
31	do	do	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	24	conj	_	_
32	it	it	PRON	PRP	Case=Acc|Gender=Neut|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	31	obj	_	_
33	both	both	ADV	RB	_	31	advmod	_	_
34	quickly	quickly	ADV	RB	_	31	advmod	_	_
35	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	36	cc	_	_
36	well	well	ADV	RB	Degree=Pos	34	conj	_	SpaceAfter=No
37	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	24	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
38	”	"	PUNCT	''	_	24	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

<!-- .fr -->
| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **draw** | past | dinner time |  |  |  |  | near *property* | vn scribble-25.2-1 «NP V»: agent=Agent |
| 2 | **set** | past | mill | the mill |  | the kitchen table |  |  | vn put-9.1-2 «NP V PP.destination NP»: agent=Agent mill=Theme on table=Destination |
| 3 | **say** *speech: assert* | past | dinner time *not said here* |  |  |  |  |  | vn say-37.7-1-1 «NP V that S»: agent=Agent clause=Topic |
| 4 | **grind** *in a quote* | infinitive |  | herrings and milk pottage |  |  |  |  | vn carve-21.2-1 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent herring=Patient |
| 5 | **do** *in a quote* | infinitive |  | harvest |  |  |  | both, quickly *property* | vn act-114-1 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent it=Eventuality |

<!-- .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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