---
title: But his mother had soothed him with soft words, assuring him that th… — The Red Fairy Book · tree and pragmatics
description: But his mother had soothed him with soft words, assuring him that this was not so. Who acts: this. A sentence of «The Red Fairy Book» by Andrew Lang, The Enchanted Pig, with its dependency tree and the pragmatics of every clause.
---

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# The Red Fairy Book, The Enchanted Pig, sentence 137

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But his mother had soothed him with soft words, assuring him that this was not so.

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**Who acts:** this · **What happens:** soothe, assure, not be · **To what, where:** mother, Sun

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This is a sentence of «The Red Fairy Book» by Andrew Lang, The Enchanted Pig. The page gives its syntax tree — a dependency tree in the style of Universal Dependencies — and its pragmatics clause by clause: who acts (this), 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:pg540:12:137
# text = But his mother had soothed him with soft words, assuring him that this was not so.
1	But	but	CCONJ	CC	_	5	cc	_	_
2	his	his	PRON	PRP$	Case=Gen|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|Poss=Yes|PronType=Prs	3	nmod:poss	_	_
3	mother	mother	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	5	nsubj:pass	_	_
4	had	have	AUX	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	5	aux	_	_
5	soothed	soothe	VERB	VBN	Tense=Past|VerbForm=Part|Voice=Pass	0	root	_	_
6	him	he	PRON	PRP	Case=Acc|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	5	obj	_	_
7	with	with	ADP	IN	_	9	case	_	_
8	soft	soft	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	9	amod	_	_
9	words	word	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	5	obl	_	SpaceAfter=No
10	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	11	punct	_	_
11	assuring	assure	VERB	VBG	Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Part	5	advcl	_	_
12	him	he	PRON	PRP	Case=Acc|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	11	obj	_	_
13	that	that	SCONJ	IN	_	17	mark	_	_
14	this	this	PRON	DT	Number=Sing|PronType=Dem	17	nsubj	_	_
15	was	be	AUX	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	17	cop	_	_
16	not	not	PART	RB	Polarity=Neg	17	advmod	_	_
17	so	so	ADV	RB	_	11	advcl	_	SpaceAfter=No
18	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	5	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

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| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **soothe** | past · perfect · passive |  | Sun's mother |  |  |  | with soft words | vn amuse-31.1 «NP V NP ADJ»: subject=Experiencer he=Result |
| 2 | **assure** | gerund |  |  | Sun |  |  |  | vn advise-37.9 «NP V NP.recipient»: agent=Agent he=Recipient |
| 3 | **not** **is** | past | this |  |  |  |  | so *property* | tree rules |

<!-- .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 Red Fairy Book» by Andrew Lang, Project Gutenberg book 540 (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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