---
title: Then he felt a pair of little hands softly clasping his arm; he open… — The Pink Fairy Book · tree and pragmatics
description: Then he felt a pair of little hands softly clasping his arm; he opened his eyes, and saw his queen and her children. Who acts: king. A sentence of «The Pink Fairy Book» by Andrew Lang, The Pink Fairy Book, part 34, with its dependency tree and the pragmatics of every clause.
---

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# The Pink Fairy Book, The Pink Fairy Book, part 34, sentence 20

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Then he felt a pair of little hands softly clasping his arm; he opened his eyes, and saw his queen and her children.

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**Who acts:** king · **What happens:** feel, clasp, open, see · **To what, where:** pair, arm, eyes, queen

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This is a sentence of «The Pink Fairy Book» by Andrew Lang, The Pink Fairy Book, part 34. The page gives its syntax tree — a dependency tree in the style of Universal Dependencies — and its pragmatics clause by clause: who acts (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:pg5615:34:20
# text = Then he felt a pair of little hands softly clasping his arm; he opened his eyes, and saw his queen and her children.
1	Then	then	ADV	RB	PronType=Dem	3	advmod	_	_
2	he	he	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	3	nsubj	_	_
3	felt	feel	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	0	root	_	_
4	a	a	DET	DT	Definite=Ind|PronType=Art	5	det	_	_
5	pair	pair	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	3	obj	_	_
6	of	of	ADP	IN	_	8	case	_	_
7	little	little	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	8	amod	_	_
8	hands	hand	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	5	nmod	_	_
9	softly	softly	ADV	RB	_	10	advmod	_	_
10	clasping	clasp	VERB	VBG	Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Part	3	advcl	_	_
11	his	his	PRON	PRP$	Case=Gen|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|Poss=Yes|PronType=Prs	12	nmod:poss	_	_
12	arm	arm	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	10	obj	_	SpaceAfter=No
13	;	;	PUNCT	:	_	15	punct	_	_
14	he	he	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	15	nsubj	_	_
15	opened	open	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	3	parataxis	_	_
16	his	his	PRON	PRP$	Case=Gen|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|Poss=Yes|PronType=Prs	17	nmod:poss	_	_
17	eyes	eye	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	15	obj	_	SpaceAfter=No
18	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	20	punct	_	_
19	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	20	cc	_	_
20	saw	see	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	15	conj	_	_
21	his	his	PRON	PRP$	Case=Gen|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|Poss=Yes|PronType=Prs	22	nmod:poss	_	_
22	queen	queen	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	20	obj	_	_
23	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	25	cc	_	_
24	her	her	PRON	PRP$	Case=Gen|Gender=Fem|Number=Sing|Person=3|Poss=Yes|PronType=Prs	25	nmod:poss	_	_
25	children	child	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	22	conj	_	SpaceAfter=No
26	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	3	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

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| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **feel** | past | king | a pair of little hands |  |  | then |  | vn hunt-35.1 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent pair=Theme |
| 2 | **clasp** | gerund | king *not said here* | king's arm |  |  |  | softly *property* | vn hold-15.1-1 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent arm=Theme |
| 3 | **open** | past | king | king's eyes |  |  |  |  | vn spatial\_configuration-47.6-1 «PP.location V NP»: agent=Location eye=Theme |
| 4 | **see** | past | king *not said here* | king's queen and woman's children |  |  |  |  | vn comprehend-87.2-1-1 «NP V NP»: agent=Experiencer queen=Stimulus |

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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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