---
title: He saw the coffin on the hill, with the beautiful Snowdrop inside it… — The Red Fairy Book · tree and pragmatics
description: He saw the coffin on the hill, with the beautiful Snowdrop inside it, and when he had read what was written on it in golden letters, he said to the Dwarf: Who acts: Prince. A sentence of «The Red Fairy Book» by Andrew Lang, Bushy Bride, with its dependency tree and the pragmatics of every clause.
---

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# The Red Fairy Book, Bushy Bride, sentence 261

<!-- .ven lang=en -->
He saw the coffin on the hill, with the beautiful Snowdrop inside it, and when he had read what was written on it in golden letters, he said to the Dwarf:

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**Who acts:** Prince · **What happens:** see, read, write, say · **To what, where:** coffin, hill, Dwarf · **Speech:** someone speaks here

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This is a sentence of «The Red Fairy Book» by Andrew Lang, Bushy Bride. The page gives its syntax tree — a dependency tree in the style of Universal Dependencies — and its pragmatics clause by clause: who acts (Prince), 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:pg540:47:261
# text = He saw the coffin on the hill, with the beautiful Snowdrop inside it, and when he had read what was written on it in golden letters, he said to the Dwarf:
1	He	he	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	2	nsubj	_	_
2	saw	see	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	0	root	_	_
3	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	4	det	_	_
4	coffin	coffin	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	2	obj	_	_
5	on	on	ADP	IN	_	7	case	_	_
6	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	7	det	_	_
7	hill	hill	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	2	obl	_	SpaceAfter=No
8	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	12	punct	_	_
9	with	with	ADP	IN	_	12	case	_	_
10	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	12	det	_	_
11	beautiful	beautiful	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	12	amod	_	_
12	Snowdrop	Snowdrop	PROPN	NNP	Number=Sing	2	obl	_	_
13	inside	inside	ADP	IN	_	14	case	_	_
14	it	it	PRON	PRP	Case=Acc|Gender=Neut|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	12	nmod	_	SpaceAfter=No
15	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	20	punct	_	_
16	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	20	cc	_	_
17	when	when	SCONJ	WRB	_	20	mark	_	_
18	he	he	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	20	nsubj	_	_
19	had	have	AUX	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	20	aux	_	_
20	read	read	VERB	VBN	Tense=Past|VerbForm=Part	2	conj	_	_
21	what	what	PRON	WP	PronType=Int	23	nsubj:pass	_	_
22	was	be	AUX	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	23	aux:pass	_	_
23	written	write	VERB	VBN	Tense=Past|VerbForm=Part|Voice=Pass	20	xcomp	_	_
24	on	on	ADP	IN	_	25	case	_	_
25	it	it	PRON	PRP	Case=Acc|Gender=Neut|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	23	obl	_	_
26	in	in	ADP	IN	_	28	case	_	_
27	golden	golden	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	28	amod	_	_
28	letters	letter	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	23	obl	_	SpaceAfter=No
29	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	31	punct	_	_
30	he	he	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	31	nsubj	_	_
31	said	say	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	2	parataxis	_	_
32	to	to	ADP	IN	_	34	case	_	_
33	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	34	det	_	_
34	Dwarf	Dwarf	PROPN	NNP	Number=Sing	31	obl	_	SpaceAfter=No
35	:	:	PUNCT	:	_	2	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

<!-- .fr -->
| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **see** | past | Prince | the coffin |  | the hill |  | with the beautiful Snowdrop inside coffin | vn comprehend-87.2-1-1 «NP V NP»: agent=Experiencer coffin=Stimulus |
| 2 | **read** | past · perfect | Prince |  |  |  |  |  | vn transfer\_mesg-37.1.1-1 «NP V how S»: agent=Agent clause=Topic |
| 3 | **write** | past · passive |  |  |  | coffin |  | in golden letters | vn scribble-25.2-1 «NP V NP PP.destination»: subject=Theme on it=Destination |
| 4 | **say** *speech: assert* | past | Prince |  | the Dwarf |  |  |  | vn say-37.7-1-1 «NP V PP.recipient S-Quote»: agent=Agent to dwarf=Recipient |

<!-- .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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