---
title: The reindeer told Gerda’s whole history, but first he told his own,… — The Pink Fairy Book · tree and pragmatics
description: The reindeer told Gerda’s whole history, but first he told his own, for that seemed to him much more important, and Gerda was so cold that she could not speak. Who acts: reindeer, fish, Gerda. A sentence of «The Pink Fairy Book» by Andrew Lang, The Pink Fairy Book, part 10, with its dependency tree 
---

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# The Pink Fairy Book, The Pink Fairy Book, part 10, sentence 63

<!-- .ven lang=en -->
The reindeer told Gerda’s whole history, but first he told his own, for that seemed to him much more important, and Gerda was so cold that she could not speak.

<!-- .vintro -->
**Who acts:** reindeer, fish, Gerda · **What happens:** tell, seem, be, not speak · **To what, where:** whole history, own, fish · **Speech:** someone speaks here

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This is a sentence of «The Pink Fairy Book» by Andrew Lang, The Pink Fairy Book, part 10. The page gives its syntax tree — a dependency tree in the style of Universal Dependencies — and its pragmatics clause by clause: who acts (reindeer, fish, Gerda), 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:pg5615:10:63
# text = The reindeer told Gerda’s whole history, but first he told his own, for that seemed to him much more important, and Gerda was so cold that she could not speak.
1	The	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	2	det	_	_
2	reindeer	reindeer	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	3	nsubj	_	_
3	told	tell	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	0	root	_	_
4	Gerda	Gerda	PROPN	NNP	Number=Sing	7	nmod:poss	_	SpaceAfter=No
5	’s	's	PART	POS	_	4	case	_	_
6	whole	whole	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	7	amod	_	_
7	history	history	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	3	obj	_	SpaceAfter=No
8	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	12	punct	_	_
9	but	but	CCONJ	CC	_	12	cc	_	_
10	first	first	ADV	RB	NumForm=Word|NumType=Ord	12	advmod	_	_
11	he	he	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	12	nsubj	_	_
12	told	tell	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	3	parataxis	_	_
13	his	his	PRON	PRP$	Case=Gen|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|Poss=Yes|PronType=Prs	14	nmod:poss	_	_
14	own	own	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	12	obj	_	SpaceAfter=No
15	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	18	punct	_	_
16	for	for	ADP	IN	_	17	case	_	_
17	that	that	PRON	DT	Number=Sing|PronType=Dem	18	obl	_	_
18	seemed	seem	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	12	ccomp	_	_
19	to	to	ADP	IN	_	20	case	_	_
20	him	he	PRON	PRP	Case=Acc|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	18	obl	_	_
21	much	much	ADV	RB	_	22	advmod	_	_
22	more	more	ADV	RBR	Degree=Cmp	23	advmod	_	_
23	important	important	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	18	xcomp	_	SpaceAfter=No
24	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	29	punct	_	_
25	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	29	cc	_	_
26	Gerda	Gerda	PROPN	NNP	Number=Sing	29	nsubj	_	_
27	was	be	AUX	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	29	cop	_	_
28	so	so	ADV	RB	_	29	advmod	_	_
29	cold	cold	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	3	parataxis	_	_
30	that	that	SCONJ	IN	_	34	mark	_	_
31	she	she	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Gender=Fem|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	34	nsubj	_	_
32	could	could	AUX	MD	VerbForm=Fin	34	aux	_	_
33	not	not	PART	RB	Polarity=Neg	34	advmod	_	_
34	speak	speak	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	29	advcl	_	SpaceAfter=No
35	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	3	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

<!-- .fr -->
| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **tell** *speech: assert* | past | the reindeer | Gerda's whole history |  |  |  |  | vn transfer\_mesg-37.1.1-1-1 «NP V NP.recipient»: agent=Agent history=Recipient |
| 2 | **tell** *speech: assert* | past | fish | fish's own |  |  |  | first *property* | vn transfer\_mesg-37.1.1-1-1 «NP V NP S\_INF»: agent=Agent own=Recipient clause=Topic |
| 3 | **seem** | past |  |  | fish |  |  | for that; important *property* | vn seem-109-1-1-1 «NP V S\_INF»: agent=Theme |
| 4 | **is** | past | Gerda |  |  |  |  | cold *property* | tree rules |
| 5 | **not** **speak** *speech: other* | could | Gerda |  |  |  |  |  | vn talk-37.5 «NP V»: agent=Agent |

<!-- .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 Pink Fairy Book» by Andrew Lang, Project Gutenberg book 5615 (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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