---
title: For in this river dwelt a serpent with seven heads, who threatened t… — The Pink Fairy Book · tree and pragmatics
description: For in this river dwelt a serpent with seven heads, who threatened to lay waste the whole land by breathing fire and flame from his nostrils unless the king sent him every morning a man for his breakfast. Who acts: seven heads, king. A sentence of «The Pink Fairy Book» by Andrew Lang, The Pink Fairy
---

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# The Pink Fairy Book, The Pink Fairy Book, part 22, sentence 142

<!-- .ven lang=en -->
For in this river dwelt a serpent with seven heads, who threatened to lay waste the whole land by breathing fire and flame from his nostrils unless the king sent him every morning a man for his breakfast.

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**Who acts:** seven heads, king · **What happens:** dwell, threaten, lay, breathe, send · **To what, where:** serpent, waste, fire, nostrils, man, brother

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This is a sentence of «The Pink Fairy Book» by Andrew Lang, The Pink Fairy Book, part 22. The page gives its syntax tree — a dependency tree in the style of Universal Dependencies — and its pragmatics clause by clause: who acts (seven heads, king), 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:pg5615:22:142
# text = For in this river dwelt a serpent with seven heads, who threatened to lay waste the whole land by breathing fire and flame from his nostrils unless the king sent him every morning a man for his breakfast.
1	For	for	ADP	IN	_	4	case	_	_
2	in	in	ADP	IN	_	4	case	_	_
3	this	this	DET	DT	Number=Sing|PronType=Dem	4	det	_	_
4	river	river	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	5	obl	_	_
5	dwelt	dwell	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=1|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	0	root	_	_
6	a	a	DET	DT	Definite=Ind|PronType=Art	7	det	_	_
7	serpent	serpent	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	5	obj	_	_
8	with	with	ADP	IN	_	10	case	_	_
9	seven	seven	NUM	CD	NumForm=Word|NumType=Card	10	nummod	_	_
10	heads	head	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	5	obl	_	SpaceAfter=No
11	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	13	punct	_	_
12	who	who	PRON	WP	PronType=Rel	13	nsubj	_	_
13	threatened	threaten	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Plur|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	10	acl:relcl	_	_
14	to	to	PART	TO	_	15	mark	_	_
15	lay	lay	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	13	xcomp	_	_
16	waste	waste	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	15	obj	_	_
17	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	19	det	_	_
18	whole	whole	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	19	amod	_	_
19	land	land	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	15	obj	_	_
20	by	by	SCONJ	IN	_	21	mark	_	_
21	breathing	breathe	VERB	VBG	Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Part	15	advcl	_	_
22	fire	fire	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	21	obj	_	_
23	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	24	cc	_	_
24	flame	flame	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	22	conj	_	_
25	from	from	ADP	IN	_	27	case	_	_
26	his	his	PRON	PRP$	Case=Gen|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|Poss=Yes|PronType=Prs	27	nmod:poss	_	_
27	nostrils	nostril	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	21	obl	_	_
28	unless	unless	SCONJ	IN	_	31	mark	_	_
29	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	30	det	_	_
30	king	king	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	31	nsubj	_	_
31	sent	send	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	5	advcl	_	_
32	him	he	PRON	PRP	Case=Acc|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	31	obj	_	_
33	every	every	DET	DT	PronType=Tot	34	det	_	_
34	morning	morning	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	31	obl:unmarked	_	_
35	a	a	DET	DT	Definite=Ind|PronType=Art	36	det	_	_
36	man	man	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	31	obj	_	_
37	for	for	ADP	IN	_	39	case	_	_
38	his	his	PRON	PRP$	Case=Gen|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|Poss=Yes|PronType=Prs	39	nmod:poss	_	_
39	breakfast	breakfast	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	36	nmod	_	SpaceAfter=No
40	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	5	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

<!-- .fr -->
| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **dwell** | past |  | a serpent |  |  |  | for this river; with seven heads | vn lodge-46 «NP V ADV»: agent=Theme serpent=Location |
| 2 | **threaten** | past | seven heads |  |  |  |  |  | tree rules |
| 3 | **lay** *not said to happen* | to-infinitive | seven heads *not said here* | waste |  |  |  |  | vn put\_spatial-9.2 «NP V NP ADVP»: agent=Agent waste=Theme land=Destination |
| 4 | **breathe** | gerund | seven heads *not said here* | fire and flame |  | brother's nostrils |  |  | vn breathe-40.1.2-1 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent fire=Theme |
| 5 | **send** *a condition, not said to happen* | past | the king | a man | brother |  | morning |  | vn send-11.1-1 «NP V NP-Dative NP»: agent=Agent he=Destination man=Theme |

<!-- .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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