---
title: The magician, to dissemble the better, took it after a great deal of… — The Blue Fairy Book · tree and pragmatics
description: The magician, to dissemble the better, took it after a great deal of entreaty; but at last she took the china dish, and, holding back her head, swallowed down the liquor. Who acts: magician, head. A sentence of «The Blue Fairy Book» by Andrew Lang, The Story of Prince Ahmed and the Fairy Paribanou, 
---

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# The Blue Fairy Book, The Story of Prince Ahmed and the Fairy Paribanou, part 4, sentence 1

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The magician, to dissemble the better, took it after a great deal of entreaty; but at last she took the china dish, and, holding back her head, swallowed down the liquor.

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**Who acts:** magician, head · **What happens:** dissemble, take, hold back, swallow down, deal · **To what, where:** better, it, china dish, last, liquor, entreaty

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This is a sentence of «The Blue Fairy Book» by Andrew Lang, The Story of Prince Ahmed and the Fairy Paribanou, part 4. The page gives its syntax tree — a dependency tree in the style of Universal Dependencies — and its pragmatics clause by clause: who acts (magician, head), 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:pg503:52:1
# text = The magician, to dissemble the better, took it after a great deal of entreaty; but at last she took the china dish, and, holding back her head, swallowed down the liquor.
1	The	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	2	det	_	_
2	magician	magician	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	9	nsubj	_	SpaceAfter=No
3	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	5	punct	_	_
4	to	to	PART	TO	_	5	mark	_	_
5	dissemble	dissemble	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	2	acl:relcl	_	_
6	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	7	det	_	_
7	better	good	ADJ	JJR	Degree=Cmp	5	obj	_	SpaceAfter=No
8	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	2	punct	_	_
9	took	take	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	0	root	_	_
10	it	it	PRON	PRP	Case=Acc|Gender=Neut|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	9	obj	_	_
11	after	after	ADP	IN	_	14	case	_	_
12	a	a	DET	DT	Definite=Ind|PronType=Art	14	det	_	_
13	great	great	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	14	amod	_	_
14	deal	deal	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	9	obl	_	_
15	of	of	ADP	IN	_	16	case	_	_
16	entreaty	entreaty	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	14	nmod	_	SpaceAfter=No
17	;	;	PUNCT	,	_	22	punct	_	_
18	but	but	CCONJ	CC	_	22	cc	_	_
19	at	at	ADP	IN	_	20	case	_	_
20	last	last	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	22	obl	_	_
21	she	she	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Gender=Fem|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	22	nsubj	_	_
22	took	take	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	9	conj	_	_
23	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	25	det	_	_
24	china	china	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	25	compound	_	_
25	dish	dish	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	22	obj	_	SpaceAfter=No
26	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	34	punct	_	_
27	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	34	cc	_	SpaceAfter=No
28	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	27	punct	_	_
29	holding	hold	VERB	VBG	Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Part	34	csubj:pass	_	_
30	back	back	ADV	RB	_	29	advmod	_	_
31	her	her	PRON	PRP$	Case=Gen|Gender=Fem|Number=Sing|Person=3|Poss=Yes|PronType=Prs	32	nmod:poss	_	_
32	head	head	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	34	nsubj	_	SpaceAfter=No
33	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	34	punct	_	_
34	swallowed	swallow	VERB	VBN	Tense=Past|VerbForm=Part|Voice=Pass	22	conj	_	_
35	down	down	ADP	IN	_	37	case	_	_
36	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	37	det	_	_
37	liquor	liquor	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	34	obl	_	SpaceAfter=No
38	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	9	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

<!-- .fr -->
| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **dissemble** | to-infinitive | the magician *not said here* | the better |  |  |  |  | tree rules |
| 2 | **take** | past | the magician | it |  |  | after a great deal of entreaty |  | vn bring-11.3 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent it=Theme |
| 3 | **take** | past | magician | the china dish |  | last |  |  | vn get-13.5.1 «NP V NP PP.source NP.asset»: agent=Agent dish=Theme at last=Asset |
| 4 | **hold back** | gerund |  |  |  |  |  |  | vn exist-47.1 «NP V»: agent=Theme |
| 5 | **swallow down** | participle | magician's head | the liquor |  |  |  |  | vn gobble-39.3 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent liquor=Patient |
| 6 | **deal** |  |  | entreaty |  |  |  |  | nom deal «act 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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