---
title: Several of the servant girls heard the conversation, and were greatl… — The Pink Fairy Book · tree and pragmatics
description: Several of the servant girls heard the conversation, and were greatly surprised at it, and thought that it would be worth while to catch the bird next evening and see into the matter a little more closely. Who acts: Several servant girls, it. A sentence of «The Pink Fairy Book» by Andrew Lang, The P
---

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# The Pink Fairy Book, The Pink Fairy Book, part 31, sentence 105

<!-- .ven lang=en -->
Several of the servant girls heard the conversation, and were greatly surprised at it, and thought that it would be worth while to catch the bird next evening and see into the matter a little more closely.

<!-- .vintro -->
**Who acts:** Several servant girls, it · **What happens:** hear, surprise, think, be, catch, see · **To what, where:** conversation, bird, matter · **Speech:** someone speaks here

<!-- .vabout -->
This is a sentence of «The Pink Fairy Book» by Andrew Lang, The Pink Fairy Book, part 31. The page gives its syntax tree — a dependency tree in the style of Universal Dependencies — and its pragmatics clause by clause: who acts (Several servant girls, it), 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:pg5615:31:105
# text = Several of the servant girls heard the conversation, and were greatly surprised at it, and thought that it would be worth while to catch the bird next evening and see into the matter a little more closely.
1	Several	several	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	5	amod	_	_
2	of	of	ADP	IN	_	4	case	_	_
3	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	4	det	_	_
4	servant	servant	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	5	compound	_	_
5	girls	girl	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	6	nsubj	_	_
6	heard	hear	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Plur|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	0	root	_	_
7	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	8	det	_	_
8	conversation	conversation	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	6	obj	_	SpaceAfter=No
9	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	13	punct	_	_
10	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	13	cc	_	_
11	were	be	AUX	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Plur|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	13	aux:pass	_	_
12	greatly	greatly	ADV	RB	_	13	advmod	_	_
13	surprised	surprise	VERB	VBN	Tense=Past|VerbForm=Part|Voice=Pass	6	conj	_	_
14	at	at	ADP	IN	_	15	case	_	_
15	it	it	PRON	PRP	Case=Acc|Gender=Neut|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	13	obl	_	SpaceAfter=No
16	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	18	punct	_	_
17	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	18	cc	_	_
18	thought	think	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Plur|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	6	conj	_	_
19	that	that	SCONJ	IN	_	23	mark	_	_
20	it	it	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Gender=Neut|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	23	nsubj	_	_
21	would	would	AUX	MD	VerbForm=Fin	23	aux	_	_
22	be	be	AUX	VB	VerbForm=Inf	23	cop	_	_
23	worth	worth	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	18	ccomp	_	_
24	while	while	SCONJ	IN	_	26	mark	_	_
25	to	to	PART	TO	_	26	mark	_	_
26	catch	catch	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	23	csubj	_	_
27	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	28	det	_	_
28	bird	bird	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	26	obj	_	_
29	next	next	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	30	amod	_	_
30	evening	evening	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	26	obl:unmarked	_	_
31	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	32	cc	_	_
32	see	see	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	26	conj	_	_
33	into	into	ADP	IN	_	35	case	_	_
34	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	35	det	_	_
35	matter	matter	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	32	obl	_	_
36	a	a	DET	DT	Definite=Ind|PronType=Art	37	det	_	_
37	little	little	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	38	obl:unmarked	_	_
38	more	more	ADV	RBR	Degree=Cmp	39	advmod	_	_
39	closely	closely	ADV	RB	_	35	advmod	_	SpaceAfter=No
40	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	6	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

<!-- .fr -->
| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **hear** | past | Several servant girls | the conversation |  |  |  |  | vn see-30.1-1-1 «NP V S»: agent=Experiencer conversation=Stimulus |
| 2 | **surprise** | past · passive | Several servant girls *not said here* |  |  | conversation |  | greatly *property* | vn amuse-31.1 «NP V ADV-Middle» |
| 3 | **think** *speech: other* | past | Several servant girls *not said here* |  |  |  |  |  | vn focus-87.1-1 «NP V»: agent=Agent |
| 4 | **is** | would | it |  |  |  |  | worth *property* | tree rules |
| 5 | **catch** | to-infinitive |  | the bird |  |  | evening |  | vn get-13.5.1 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent bird=Theme |
| 6 | **see** | infinitive |  |  |  | the matter |  |  | vn comprehend-87.2-1-1 «NP V»: agent=Experiencer |

<!-- .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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