---
title: They said that the yellow water-lily could be none other than their… — The Blue Fairy Book · tree and pragmatics
description: They said that the yellow water-lily could be none other than their sister, who was not dead, but transformed by the magic ball. Who acts: maidens, yellow water lily, sister. A sentence of «The Blue Fairy Book» by Andrew Lang, The Water-lily. the Gold-spinners, with its dependency tree and the pragm
---

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# The Blue Fairy Book, The Water-lily. the Gold-spinners, sentence 78

<!-- .ven lang=en -->
They said that the yellow water-lily could be none other than their sister, who was not dead, but transformed by the magic ball.

<!-- .vintro -->
**Who acts:** maidens, yellow water lily, sister · **What happens:** say, be, not be, transform · **To what, where:** none · **Speech:** someone speaks here

<!-- .vabout -->
This is a sentence of «The Blue Fairy Book» by Andrew Lang, The Water-lily. the Gold-spinners. The page gives its syntax tree — a dependency tree in the style of Universal Dependencies — and its pragmatics clause by clause: who acts (maidens, yellow water lily, sister), 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:pg503:26:78
# text = They said that the yellow water-lily could be none other than their sister, who was not dead, but transformed by the magic ball.
1	They	they	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Number=Plur|Person=3|PronType=Prs	2	nsubj	_	_
2	said	say	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Plur|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	0	root	_	_
3	that	that	SCONJ	IN	_	11	mark	_	_
4	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	8	det	_	_
5	yellow	yellow	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	8	amod	_	_
6	water	water	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	8	compound	_	SpaceAfter=No
7	-	-	PUNCT	HYPH	_	6	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
8	lily	lily	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	11	nsubj	_	_
9	could	could	AUX	MD	VerbForm=Fin	11	aux	_	_
10	be	be	AUX	VB	VerbForm=Inf	11	cop	_	_
11	none	none	PRON	NN	PronType=Neg	2	ccomp	_	_
12	other	other	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	11	amod	_	_
13	than	than	ADP	IN	_	15	case	_	_
14	their	their	PRON	PRP$	Case=Gen|Number=Plur|Person=3|Poss=Yes|PronType=Prs	15	nmod:poss	_	_
15	sister	sister	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	12	obl	_	SpaceAfter=No
16	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	20	punct	_	_
17	who	who	PRON	WP	PronType=Rel	20	nsubj	_	_
18	was	be	AUX	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	20	cop	_	_
19	not	not	PART	RB	Polarity=Neg	20	advmod	_	_
20	dead	dead	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	15	acl:relcl	_	SpaceAfter=No
21	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	23	punct	_	_
22	but	but	CCONJ	CC	_	23	cc	_	_
23	transformed	transform	VERB	VBN	Tense=Past|VerbForm=Part|Voice=Pass	2	conj	_	_
24	by	by	ADP	IN	_	27	case	_	_
25	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	27	det	_	_
26	magic	magic	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	27	compound	_	_
27	ball	ball	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	23	obl	_	SpaceAfter=No
28	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	2	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

<!-- .fr -->
| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **say** *speech: assert* | past | maidens *= maiden* |  |  |  |  |  | vn say-37.7-1-1 «NP V that S»: agent=Agent |
| 2 | **is a** | could | the yellow water lily | none |  |  |  |  | tree rules |
| 3 | **not** **is** | past | maidens's sister |  |  |  |  | dead *property* | tree rules |
| 4 | **transform** | participle | maidens *= maiden* *not said here* |  |  |  |  | by the magic ball | vn turn-26.6.1 «NP 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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