---
title: Overcome with gratitude, the keeper stooped to caress the strange cr… — The Blue Fairy Book · tree and pragmatics
description: Overcome with gratitude, the keeper stooped to caress the strange creature which had done him such a great service; but suddenly a voice said in his ear: Who acts: you, keeper, strange creature, voice. A sentence of «The Blue Fairy Book» by Andrew Lang, Prince Darling, with its dependency tree and t
---

<!-- md -->
[Mova](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/) · [this page in HTML](https://mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg503/39/121/)

<!-- crumbs -->
[home](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/) / [corpora](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/) / [tales](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/) / [The Blue Fairy Book](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg503/) / [Prince Darling](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg503/39/) / 121

# The Blue Fairy Book, Prince Darling, sentence 121

<!-- .ven lang=en -->
Overcome with gratitude, the keeper stooped to caress the strange creature which had done him such a great service; but suddenly a voice said in his ear:

<!-- .vintro -->
**Who acts:** you, keeper, strange creature, voice · **What happens:** overcome, stoop, caress, do, say · **To what, where:** gratitude, strange creature, keeper, ear · **Speech:** someone speaks here

<!-- .vabout -->
This is a sentence of «The Blue Fairy Book» by Andrew Lang, Prince Darling. The page gives its syntax tree — a dependency tree in the style of Universal Dependencies — and its pragmatics clause by clause: who acts (you, keeper, strange creature, voice), 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:pg503:39:121
# text = Overcome with gratitude, the keeper stooped to caress the strange creature which had done him such a great service; but suddenly a voice said in his ear:
1	Overcome	overcome	VERB	VB	Mood=Imp|VerbForm=Fin	0	root	_	_
2	with	with	ADP	IN	_	3	case	_	_
3	gratitude	gratitude	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	1	obl	_	SpaceAfter=No
4	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	7	punct	_	_
5	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	6	det	_	_
6	keeper	keeper	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	7	nsubj	_	_
7	stooped	stoop	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	3	acl:relcl	_	_
8	to	to	PART	TO	_	9	mark	_	_
9	caress	caress	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	7	xcomp	_	_
10	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	12	det	_	_
11	strange	strange	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	12	amod	_	_
12	creature	creature	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	9	obj	_	_
13	which	which	PRON	WDT	PronType=Rel	15	nsubj	_	_
14	had	have	AUX	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	15	aux	_	_
15	done	do	VERB	VBN	Tense=Past|VerbForm=Part	12	acl:relcl	_	_
16	him	he	PRON	PRP	Case=Acc|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	15	obj	_	_
17	such	such	DET	PDT	PronType=Ind	20	det:predet	_	_
18	a	a	DET	DT	Definite=Ind|PronType=Art	20	det	_	_
19	great	great	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	20	amod	_	_
20	service	service	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	15	obj	_	SpaceAfter=No
21	;	;	PUNCT	,	_	26	punct	_	_
22	but	but	CCONJ	CC	_	26	cc	_	_
23	suddenly	suddenly	ADV	RB	_	26	advmod	_	_
24	a	a	DET	DT	Definite=Ind|PronType=Art	25	det	_	_
25	voice	voice	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	26	nsubj	_	_
26	said	say	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	1	parataxis	_	_
27	in	in	ADP	IN	_	29	case	_	_
28	his	his	PRON	PRP$	Case=Gen|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|Poss=Yes|PronType=Prs	29	nmod:poss	_	_
29	ear	ear	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	26	obl	_	SpaceAfter=No
30	:	:	PUNCT	:	_	1	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

<!-- .fr -->
| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **overcome** | imperative | you *not said here* |  |  |  |  | with gratitude | vn exceed-90 «NP V NP»: agent=Pivot |
| 2 | **stoop** | past | the keeper | gratitude *not said here* |  |  |  |  | tree rules |
| 3 | **caress** | to-infinitive | the keeper *not said here* | the strange creature |  |  |  |  | vn touch-20-1 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent creature=Experiencer |
| 4 | **do** | past · perfect | the strange creature | keeper |  |  |  |  | tree rules |
| 5 | **say** *speech: assert* | past | a voice |  |  | keeper's ear |  | suddenly *property* | vn pronounce-29.3.1 «NP V NP PP.manner»: agent=Agent in ear=Manner |

<!-- .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.

<!-- div src -->

**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.

<!-- /div -->

<!-- pn -->
- ← previous: [sentence 120](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg503/39/120/)
- next →: [sentence 122](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg503/39/122/)
- ↑ back to [Prince Darling](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg503/39/)