---
title: For this was a fairy, who had taken the form of a poor country woman… — The Blue Fairy Book · tree and pragmatics
description: For this was a fairy, who had taken the form of a poor country woman, to see how far the civility and good manners of this pretty girl would go. Who acts: this, fairy, civility. A sentence of «The Blue Fairy Book» by Andrew Lang, Toads and Diamonds, with its dependency tree and the pragmatics of eve
---

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[Mova](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/) · [this page in HTML](https://mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg503/38/11/)

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# The Blue Fairy Book, Toads and Diamonds, sentence 11

<!-- .ven lang=en -->
For this was a fairy, who had taken the form of a poor country woman, to see how far the civility and good manners of this pretty girl would go.

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**Who acts:** this, fairy, civility · **What happens:** be, take, see, go, form · **To what, where:** form, poor country woman · **Speech:** someone speaks here

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This is a sentence of «The Blue Fairy Book» by Andrew Lang, Toads and Diamonds. The page gives its syntax tree — a dependency tree in the style of Universal Dependencies — and its pragmatics clause by clause: who acts (this, fairy, civility), what happens, when and where, as Mova's frames read it from the tree.

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**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:pg503:38:11
# text = For this was a fairy, who had taken the form of a poor country woman, to see how far the civility and good manners of this pretty girl would go.
1	For	for	ADP	IN	_	5	case	_	_
2	this	this	PRON	DT	Number=Sing|PronType=Dem	5	nsubj	_	_
3	was	be	AUX	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	5	cop	_	_
4	a	a	DET	DT	Definite=Ind|PronType=Art	5	det	_	_
5	fairy	fairy	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	0	root	_	SpaceAfter=No
6	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	9	punct	_	_
7	who	who	PRON	WP	PronType=Rel	9	nsubj	_	_
8	had	have	AUX	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	9	aux	_	_
9	taken	take	VERB	VBN	Tense=Past|VerbForm=Part	5	acl:relcl	_	_
10	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	11	det	_	_
11	form	form	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	9	obj	_	_
12	of	of	ADP	IN	_	16	case	_	_
13	a	a	DET	DT	Definite=Ind|PronType=Art	16	det	_	_
14	poor	poor	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	16	amod	_	_
15	country	country	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	16	compound	_	_
16	woman	woman	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	11	nmod	_	SpaceAfter=No
17	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	19	punct	_	_
18	to	to	PART	TO	_	19	mark	_	_
19	see	see	VERB	VB	Mood=Imp|VerbForm=Fin	9	parataxis	_	_
20	how	how	ADV	WRB	PronType=Int	21	advmod	_	_
21	far	far	ADV	RB	Degree=Pos	32	advmod	_	_
22	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	23	det	_	_
23	civility	civility	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	32	nsubj	_	_
24	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	26	cc	_	_
25	good	good	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	26	amod	_	_
26	manners	manners	NOUN	NNS	Number=Ptan	23	conj	_	_
27	of	of	ADP	IN	_	30	case	_	_
28	this	this	DET	DT	Number=Sing|PronType=Dem	30	det	_	_
29	pretty	pretty	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	30	amod	_	_
30	girl	girl	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	26	nmod	_	_
31	would	would	AUX	MD	VerbForm=Fin	32	aux	_	_
32	go	go	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	19	ccomp	_	SpaceAfter=No
33	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	5	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

<!-- .fr -->
| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **is** | past | this |  |  |  |  | for a fairy | tree rules |
| 2 | **take** | past · perfect | a fairy | the form of a poor country woman |  |  |  |  | vn bring-11.3 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent form=Theme |
| 3 | **see** | to-infinitive |  |  |  |  |  |  | vn comprehend-87.2-1-1 «NP V S\_ING»: agent=Experiencer clause=Stimulus |
| 4 | **go** | would | the civility and good manners of this pretty girl |  |  |  |  | far *property* | vn disappearance-48.2-1 «NP V»: agent=Theme |
| 5 | **form** |  |  | a poor country woman |  |  |  |  | nom form «communication transitive»: of=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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