---
title: So the mysterious hands began to bring in the supper, and first they… — The Blue Fairy Book · tree and pragmatics
description: So the mysterious hands began to bring in the supper, and first they put on the table two dishes, one containing stewed pigeons and the other a fricassee of fat mice. Who acts: mysterious hands, hands. A sentence of «The Blue Fairy Book» by Andrew Lang, The White Cat, part 1, with its dependency tre
---

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# The Blue Fairy Book, The White Cat, part 1, sentence 43

<!-- .ven lang=en -->
So the mysterious hands began to bring in the supper, and first they put on the table two dishes, one containing stewed pigeons and the other a fricassee of fat mice.

<!-- .vintro -->
**Who acts:** mysterious hands, hands · **What happens:** begin, bring, put, contain, stew · **To what, where:** supper, two dishes, table

<!-- .vabout -->
This is a sentence of «The Blue Fairy Book» by Andrew Lang, The White Cat, part 1. The page gives its syntax tree — a dependency tree in the style of Universal Dependencies — and its pragmatics clause by clause: who acts (mysterious hands, hands), 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:pg503:23:43
# text = So the mysterious hands began to bring in the supper, and first they put on the table two dishes, one containing stewed pigeons and the other a fricassee of fat mice.
1	So	so	ADV	RB	_	5	advmod	_	_
2	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	4	det	_	_
3	mysterious	mysterious	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	4	amod	_	_
4	hands	hand	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	5	nsubj	_	_
5	began	begin	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Plur|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	0	root	_	_
6	to	to	PART	TO	_	7	mark	_	_
7	bring	bring	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	5	xcomp	_	_
8	in	in	ADP	IN	_	10	case	_	_
9	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	10	det	_	_
10	supper	supper	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	7	obl	_	SpaceAfter=No
11	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	15	punct	_	_
12	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	15	cc	_	_
13	first	first	ADV	RB	NumForm=Word|NumType=Ord	15	advmod	_	_
14	they	they	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Number=Plur|Person=3|PronType=Prs	15	nsubj	_	_
15	put	put	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Plur|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	5	conj	_	_
16	on	on	ADP	IN	_	18	case	_	_
17	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	18	det	_	_
18	table	table	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	15	obl	_	_
19	two	two	NUM	CD	NumForm=Word|NumType=Card	20	nummod	_	_
20	dishes	dish	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	15	obj	_	SpaceAfter=No
21	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	25	punct	_	_
22	one	one	NUM	CD	NumForm=Word|NumType=Card	25	nummod	_	_
23	containing	contain	VERB	VBG	VerbForm=Ger	25	amod	_	_
24	stewed	stew	VERB	VBN	Tense=Past|VerbForm=Part|Voice=Pass	25	amod	_	_
25	pigeons	pigeon	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	20	conj	_	_
26	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	30	cc	_	_
27	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	28	det	_	_
28	other	other	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	30	amod	_	_
29	a	a	DET	DT	Definite=Ind|PronType=Art	30	det	_	_
30	fricassee	fricassee	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	25	conj	_	_
31	of	of	ADP	IN	_	33	case	_	_
32	fat	fat	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	33	compound	_	_
33	mice	mouse	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	30	nmod	_	SpaceAfter=No
34	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	5	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

<!-- .fr -->
| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **begin** | past | the mysterious hands |  |  |  |  |  | vn begin-55.1-1-1 «NP V S\_INF»: agent=Agent clause=Eventuality |
| 2 | **bring** | to-infinitive | the mysterious hands *not said here* |  |  | the supper |  |  | vn bring-11.3-1 «NP V NP together»: agent=Agent |
| 3 | **put** | past | hands *= hand* | two dishes and one containing stewed pigeons and a other fricassee of fat mice |  | the table |  | first *property* | vn put-9.1-2 «NP V PP.destination NP»: agent=Agent dish=Theme on table=Destination |
| 4 | **contain** | gerund |  |  |  |  |  |  | vn comprise-107.2-2 «NP V NP»: agent=Pivot |
| 5 | **stew** | participle |  |  |  |  |  |  | vn cooking-45.3 «NP.patient V»: agent=Patient |

<!-- .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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