---
title: ‘It lays as well as it did when it belonged to that paltry knight,’… — The Red Fairy Book · tree and pragmatics
description: ‘It lays as well as it did when it belonged to that paltry knight,’ he said; ‘indeed I think the eggs are heavier than ever.’ Who acts: supper, Jack, I, eggs. A sentence of «The Red Fairy Book» by Andrew Lang, The Hen That Lays Golden Eggs., with its dependency tree and the pragmatics of every claus
---

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# The Red Fairy Book, The Hen That Lays Golden Eggs., sentence 4

<!-- .ven lang=en -->
‘It lays as well as it did when it belonged to that paltry knight,’ he said; ‘indeed I think the eggs are heavier than ever.’

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**Who acts:** supper, Jack, I, eggs · **What happens:** lay, do, belong, say, think, be · **Speech:** someone speaks here

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This is a sentence of «The Red Fairy Book» by Andrew Lang, The Hen That Lays Golden Eggs.. The page gives its syntax tree — a dependency tree in the style of Universal Dependencies — and its pragmatics clause by clause: who acts (supper, Jack, I, eggs), 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:pg540:17:4
# text = ‘It lays as well as it did when it belonged to that paltry knight,’ he said; ‘indeed I think the eggs are heavier than ever.’
1	‘	'	PUNCT	``	_	3	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
2	It	it	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Gender=Neut|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	3	nsubj	_	_
3	lays	lay	VERB	VBZ	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Fin	0	root	_	_
4	as	as	ADV	RB	ExtPos=ADV	3	advmod	_	_
5	well	well	ADV	RB	Degree=Pos	4	fixed	_	_
6	as	as	SCONJ	IN	_	8	mark	_	_
7	it	it	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Gender=Neut|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	8	nsubj	_	_
8	did	do	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	19	advcl	_	_
9	when	when	ADV	WRB	PronType=Int	11	advmod	_	_
10	it	it	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Gender=Neut|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	11	nsubj	_	_
11	belonged	belong	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	8	advcl	_	_
12	to	to	ADP	IN	_	15	case	_	_
13	that	that	DET	DT	Number=Sing|PronType=Dem	15	det	_	_
14	paltry	paltry	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	15	amod	_	_
15	knight	knight	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	11	obl	_	SpaceAfter=No
16	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	8	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
17	’	'	PUNCT	''	_	8	punct	_	_
18	he	he	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	19	nsubj	_	_
19	said	say	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	3	parataxis	_	SpaceAfter=No
20	;	;	PUNCT	:	_	24	punct	_	_
21	‘	'	PUNCT	``	_	24	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
22	indeed	indeed	ADV	RB	_	24	advmod	_	_
23	I	I	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Number=Sing|Person=1|PronType=Prs	24	nsubj	_	_
24	think	think	VERB	VBP	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=1|Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Fin	3	conj	_	_
25	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	26	det	_	_
26	eggs	egg	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	28	nsubj	_	_
27	are	be	AUX	VBP	Mood=Ind|Number=Plur|Person=3|Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Fin	28	cop	_	_
28	heavier	heavy	ADJ	JJR	Degree=Cmp	24	ccomp	_	_
29	than	than	ADP	IN	_	30	case	_	_
30	ever	ever	ADV	RB	PronType=Ind	28	obl	_	SpaceAfter=No
31	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	3	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
32	’	'	PUNCT	''	_	3	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

<!-- .fr -->
| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **lay** | present | supper |  |  |  |  |  | vn create-26.4 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent |
| 2 | **do** | past | supper |  |  |  |  |  | vn act-114-1 «NP V»: agent=Agent |
| 3 | **belong** | past | supper |  |  |  |  | to that paltry knight | vn attend-107.4-2 «NP V PP»: agent=Theme |
| 4 | **say** *speech: assert* | past | Jack |  |  |  |  |  | vn say-37.7-1-1 «NP V that S»: agent=Agent |
| 5 | **think** *speech: other* | present | I |  |  |  |  | indeed *property* | vn focus-87.1-1 «NP V»: agent=Agent |
| 6 | **is** | present | the eggs |  |  |  |  | heavy *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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