---
title: It was the prettiest little creature they had ever seen--so beautifu… — The Pink Fairy Book · tree and pragmatics
description: It was the prettiest little creature they had ever seen--so beautiful and so wise that it understood everything that was said to it, and so gentle and so full of play that both the man and his wife came to be as fond of it as if it had been their own child. Who acts: calf, children, man. A sentence 
---

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# The Pink Fairy Book, The Pink Fairy Book, part 13, sentence 112

<!-- .ven lang=en -->
It was the prettiest little creature they had ever seen--so beautiful and so wise that it understood everything that was said to it, and so gentle and so full of play that both the man and his wife came to be as fond of it as if it had been their own child.

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**Who acts:** calf, children, man · **What happens:** be, see, understand, say, come · **To what, where:** prettiest little creature, everything, calf, play, own child · **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 13. The page gives its syntax tree — a dependency tree in the style of Universal Dependencies — and its pragmatics clause by clause: who acts (calf, children, man), 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:pg5615:13:112
# text = It was the prettiest little creature they had ever seen--so beautiful and so wise that it understood everything that was said to it, and so gentle and so full of play that both the man and his wife came to be as fond of it as if it had been their own child.
1	It	it	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Gender=Neut|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	6	nsubj	_	_
2	was	be	AUX	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	6	cop	_	_
3	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	6	det	_	_
4	prettiest	pretty	ADJ	JJS	Degree=Sup	6	amod	_	_
5	little	little	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	6	amod	_	_
6	creature	creature	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	0	root	_	_
7	they	they	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Number=Plur|Person=3|PronType=Prs	10	nsubj	_	_
8	had	have	AUX	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Plur|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	10	aux	_	_
9	ever	ever	ADV	RB	PronType=Ind	10	advmod	_	_
10	seen	see	VERB	VBN	Tense=Past|VerbForm=Part	6	acl:relcl	_	SpaceAfter=No
11	--	--	PUNCT	,	_	13	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
12	so	so	ADV	RB	_	13	advmod	_	_
13	beautiful	beautiful	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	6	parataxis	_	_
14	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	16	cc	_	_
15	so	so	ADV	RB	_	16	advmod	_	_
16	wise	wise	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	13	conj	_	_
17	that	that	SCONJ	IN	_	19	mark	_	_
18	it	it	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Gender=Neut|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	19	nsubj	_	_
19	understood	understand	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	16	advcl	_	_
20	everything	everything	PRON	NN	Number=Sing|PronType=Tot	19	obj	_	_
21	that	that	PRON	WDT	PronType=Rel	23	nsubj:pass	_	_
22	was	be	AUX	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	23	aux:pass	_	_
23	said	say	VERB	VBN	Tense=Past|VerbForm=Part|Voice=Pass	20	acl:relcl	_	_
24	to	to	ADP	IN	_	25	case	_	_
25	it	it	PRON	PRP	Case=Acc|Gender=Neut|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	23	obl	_	SpaceAfter=No
26	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	29	punct	_	_
27	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	29	cc	_	_
28	so	so	ADV	RB	_	29	advmod	_	_
29	gentle	gentle	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	13	conj	_	_
30	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	32	cc	_	_
31	so	so	ADV	RB	_	32	advmod	_	_
32	full	full	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	13	conj	_	_
33	of	of	ADP	IN	_	34	case	_	_
34	play	play	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	32	obl	_	_
35	that	that	PRON	WDT	PronType=Rel	42	obl	_	_
36	both	both	DET	DT	PronType=Tot	38	det	_	_
37	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	38	det	_	_
38	man	man	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	42	nsubj	_	_
39	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	41	cc	_	_
40	his	his	PRON	PRP$	Case=Gen|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|Poss=Yes|PronType=Prs	41	nmod:poss	_	_
41	wife	wife	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	38	conj	_	_
42	came	come	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	34	acl:relcl	_	_
43	to	to	PART	TO	_	46	mark	_	_
44	be	be	AUX	VB	VerbForm=Inf	46	cop	_	_
45	as	as	ADP	IN	_	46	case	_	_
46	fond	fond	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	42	ccomp	_	_
47	of	of	ADP	IN	_	48	case	_	_
48	it	it	PRON	PRP	Case=Acc|Gender=Neut|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	46	obl	_	_
49	as	as	SCONJ	IN	_	56	mark	_	_
50	if	if	SCONJ	IN	_	56	mark	_	_
51	it	it	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Gender=Neut|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	56	nsubj	_	_
52	had	have	AUX	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	56	aux	_	_
53	been	be	AUX	VBN	Tense=Past|VerbForm=Part	56	cop	_	_
54	their	their	PRON	PRP$	Case=Gen|Number=Plur|Person=3|Poss=Yes|PronType=Prs	56	nmod:poss	_	_
55	own	own	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	56	amod	_	_
56	child	child	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	46	advcl	_	SpaceAfter=No
57	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	6	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

<!-- .fr -->
| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **is a** | past | calf | the prettiest little creature |  |  |  |  | tree rules |
| 2 | **see** | past · perfect | children *= child* | the prettiest little creature *not said here* |  |  | ever |  | vn comprehend-87.2-1-1 «NP V NP»: agent=Experiencer creature=Stimulus |
| 3 | **understand** | past | calf | everything |  |  |  |  | vn comprehend-87.2-1-1-1 «NP V NP PP.attribute»: agent=Experiencer everything=Stimulus |
| 4 | **say** *speech: assert* | past · passive |  |  | calf |  |  |  | vn say-37.7-1-1 «NP V NP PP.recipient»: subject=Topic to it=Recipient |
| 5 | **come** | past | both man and Peter's wife | play |  |  |  |  | vn escape-51.1-1 «NP V»: agent=Theme |
| 6 | **is** | to-infinitive | both man and Peter's wife *not said here* |  |  |  |  | of calf; fond *property* | tree rules |
| 7 | **is a** | past · perfect | calf | children's own child |  |  |  |  | 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 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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