---
title: When he had hit upon a plan he called his wife, and said to her, ‘Ta… — The Pink Fairy Book · tree and pragmatics
description: When he had hit upon a plan he called his wife, and said to her, ‘Take a bladder and fill it with blood, and bind it round your neck. Who acts: band. A sentence of «The Pink Fairy Book» by Andrew Lang, The Pink Fairy Book, part 17, with its dependency tree and the pragmatics of every clause.
---

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# The Pink Fairy Book, The Pink Fairy Book, part 17, sentence 59

<!-- .ven lang=en -->
When he had hit upon a plan he called his wife, and said to her, ‘Take a bladder and fill it with blood, and bind it round your neck.

<!-- .vintro -->
**Who acts:** band · **What happens:** hit, call, say, take, fill, bind · **To what, where:** plan, wife, bladder · **Speech:** someone speaks here

<!-- .vabout -->
This is a sentence of «The Pink Fairy Book» by Andrew Lang, The Pink Fairy Book, part 17. The page gives its syntax tree — a dependency tree in the style of Universal Dependencies — and its pragmatics clause by clause: who acts (band), 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:pg5615:17:59
# text = When he had hit upon a plan he called his wife, and said to her, ‘Take a bladder and fill it with blood, and bind it round your neck.
1	When	when	ADV	WRB	PronType=Int	4	advmod	_	_
2	he	he	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	4	nsubj	_	_
3	had	have	AUX	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	4	aux	_	_
4	hit	hit	VERB	VBN	Tense=Past|VerbForm=Part	0	root	_	_
5	upon	upon	ADP	IN	_	7	case	_	_
6	a	a	DET	DT	Definite=Ind|PronType=Art	7	det	_	_
7	plan	plan	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	4	obl	_	_
8	he	he	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	9	nsubj	_	_
9	called	call	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	7	acl:relcl	_	_
10	his	his	PRON	PRP$	Case=Gen|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|Poss=Yes|PronType=Prs	11	nmod:poss	_	_
11	wife	wife	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	9	obj	_	SpaceAfter=No
12	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	14	punct	_	_
13	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	14	cc	_	_
14	said	say	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	4	conj	_	_
15	to	to	ADP	IN	_	16	case	_	_
16	her	she	PRON	PRP	Case=Acc|Gender=Fem|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	14	obl	_	SpaceAfter=No
17	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	19	punct	_	_
18	‘	'	PUNCT	``	_	19	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
19	Take	take	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	14	ccomp	_	_
20	a	a	DET	DT	Definite=Ind|PronType=Art	21	det	_	_
21	bladder	bladder	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	19	obj	_	_
22	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	23	cc	_	_
23	fill	fill	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	19	conj	_	_
24	it	it	PRON	PRP	Case=Acc|Gender=Neut|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	23	obj	_	_
25	with	with	ADP	IN	_	26	case	_	_
26	blood	blood	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	23	obl	_	SpaceAfter=No
27	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	29	punct	_	_
28	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	29	cc	_	_
29	bind	bind	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	19	conj	_	_
30	it	it	PRON	PRP	Case=Acc|Gender=Neut|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	29	obj	_	_
31	round	round	ADP	IN	_	33	case	_	_
32	your	your	PRON	PRP$	Case=Gen|Person=2|Poss=Yes|PronType=Prs	33	nmod:poss	_	_
33	neck	neck	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	29	obl	_	SpaceAfter=No
34	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	4	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

<!-- .fr -->
| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **hit** | past · perfect | band |  |  |  |  | upon a plan | vn contiguous\_location-47.8-1 «NP V»: agent=Theme |
| 2 | **call** | past | band | a plan *not said here* | band's wife |  |  |  | vn initiate\_communication-37.4.2-1 «NP V NP.recipient»: agent=Agent wife=Recipient |
| 3 | **say** *speech: assert* | past | band *not said here* |  | wife |  |  |  | vn indicate-78-1 «NP V PP.recipient that S»: agent=Pivot to she=Experiencer clause=Topic |
| 4 | **take** | infinitive |  | a bladder |  |  |  |  | vn bring-11.3 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent bladder=Theme |
| 5 | **fill** | infinitive |  | bladder |  |  |  | with blood | vn other\_cos-45.4 «NP V NP PP.instrument»: agent=Agent it=Patient with blood=Instrument |
| 6 | **bind** | infinitive |  | bladder |  |  |  | round your neck | vn shake-22.3-2-1 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent it=Patient |

<!-- .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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