---
title: Stand a little on one side, and then, when the serpent rises to the… — The Pink Fairy Book · tree and pragmatics
description: Stand a little on one side, and then, when the serpent rises to the surface, I will say to him, “O serpent, to-day you can eat two people. Who acts: you, serpent, I. A sentence of «The Pink Fairy Book» by Andrew Lang, The Pink Fairy Book, part 23, with its dependency tree and the pragmatics of every
---

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[Mova](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/) · [this page in HTML](https://mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg5615/23/9/)

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# The Pink Fairy Book, The Pink Fairy Book, part 23, sentence 9

<!-- .ven lang=en -->
Stand a little on one side, and then, when the serpent rises to the surface, I will say to him, “O serpent, to-day you can eat two people.

<!-- .vintro -->
**Who acts:** you, serpent, I · **What happens:** stand, rise, say, eat · **To what, where:** little, one side, surface, serpent, two people · **Speech:** someone speaks here

<!-- .vabout -->
This is a sentence of «The Pink Fairy Book» by Andrew Lang, The Pink Fairy Book, part 23. The page gives its syntax tree — a dependency tree in the style of Universal Dependencies — and its pragmatics clause by clause: who acts (you, serpent, I), 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:pg5615:23:9
# text = Stand a little on one side, and then, when the serpent rises to the surface, I will say to him, “O serpent, to-day you can eat two people.
1	Stand	stand	VERB	VB	Mood=Imp|VerbForm=Fin	0	root	_	_
2	a	a	DET	DT	Definite=Ind|PronType=Art	3	det	_	_
3	little	little	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	1	obl:unmarked	_	_
4	on	on	ADP	IN	_	6	case	_	_
5	one	one	NUM	CD	NumForm=Word|NumType=Card	6	nummod	_	_
6	side	side	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	1	obl	_	SpaceAfter=No
7	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	21	punct	_	_
8	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	21	cc	_	_
9	then	then	ADV	RB	PronType=Dem	21	advmod	_	SpaceAfter=No
10	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	9	punct	_	_
11	when	when	SCONJ	WRB	_	14	mark	_	_
12	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	13	det	_	_
13	serpent	serpent	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	14	nsubj	_	_
14	rises	rise	VERB	VBZ	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Fin	21	advcl	_	_
15	to	to	ADP	IN	_	17	case	_	_
16	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	17	det	_	_
17	surface	surface	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	14	obl	_	SpaceAfter=No
18	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	14	punct	_	_
19	I	I	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Number=Sing|Person=1|PronType=Prs	21	nsubj	_	_
20	will	will	AUX	MD	VerbForm=Fin	21	aux	_	_
21	say	say	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	1	conj	_	_
22	to	to	ADP	IN	_	23	case	_	_
23	him	he	PRON	PRP	Case=Acc|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	21	obl	_	SpaceAfter=No
24	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	27	punct	_	_
25	“	"	PUNCT	``	_	27	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
26	O	o	INTJ	UH	_	27	discourse	_	_
27	serpent	serpent	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	1	obl	_	SpaceAfter=No
28	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	34	punct	_	_
29	to	to	ADP	IN	_	31	case	_	SpaceAfter=No
30	-	-	PUNCT	HYPH	_	29	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
31	day	day	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	34	obl	_	_
32	you	you	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Person=2|PronType=Prs	34	nsubj	_	_
33	can	can	AUX	MD	VerbForm=Fin	34	aux	_	_
34	eat	eat	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	1	conj	_	_
35	two	two	NUM	CD	NumForm=Word|NumType=Card	36	nummod	_	_
36	people	people	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	34	obj	_	SpaceAfter=No
37	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	1	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

<!-- .fr -->
| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **stand** | imperative | you *not said here* | a little |  | one side |  | serpent *obl* | vn assuming\_position-50 «NP V PP.location»: agent=Agent on side=Location |
| 2 | **rise** | present | the serpent |  |  | the surface |  |  | vn escape-51.1-1 «NP V PP.initial\_location»: agent=Theme to surface=Initial\_Location |
| 3 | **say** *speech: assert* | future | I |  | serpent |  | then |  | vn say-37.7-1-1 «NP V PP.recipient S-Quote»: agent=Agent to he=Recipient |
| 4 | **eat** *in a quote* | can | serpent | two people |  |  | day |  | vn eat-39.1-1 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent people=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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