---
title: It seemed as if she were going to do something wrong, but she only w… — The Pink Fairy Book · tree and pragmatics
description: It seemed as if she were going to do something wrong, but she only wanted to know if it were little Kay. Who acts: It, Gerda, light. A sentence of «The Pink Fairy Book» by Andrew Lang, The Pink Fairy Book, part 9, with its dependency tree and the pragmatics of every clause.
---

<!-- md -->
[Mova](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/) · [this page in HTML](https://mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg5615/9/127/)

<!-- crumbs -->
[home](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/) / [corpora](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/) / [tales](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/) / [The Pink Fairy Book](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg5615/) / [The Pink Fairy Book, part 9](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg5615/9/) / 127

# The Pink Fairy Book, The Pink Fairy Book, part 9, sentence 127

<!-- .ven lang=en -->
It seemed as if she were going to do something wrong, but she only wanted to know if it were little Kay.

<!-- .vintro -->
**Who acts:** It, Gerda, light · **What happens:** seem, go, do, want, know, be · **To what, where:** something, little Kay

<!-- .vabout -->
This is a sentence of «The Pink Fairy Book» by Andrew Lang, The Pink Fairy Book, part 9. The page gives its syntax tree — a dependency tree in the style of Universal Dependencies — and its pragmatics clause by clause: who acts (It, Gerda, light), 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:pg5615:9:127
# text = It seemed as if she were going to do something wrong, but she only wanted to know if it were little Kay.
1	It	it	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Gender=Neut|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	2	nsubj	_	_
2	seemed	seem	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	0	root	_	_
3	as	as	SCONJ	IN	_	7	mark	_	_
4	if	if	SCONJ	IN	_	7	mark	_	_
5	she	she	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Gender=Fem|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	7	nsubj	_	_
6	were	be	AUX	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	7	aux	_	_
7	going	go	VERB	VBG	Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Part	2	xcomp	_	_
8	to	to	PART	TO	_	9	mark	_	_
9	do	do	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	7	xcomp	_	_
10	something	something	PRON	NN	Number=Sing|PronType=Ind	9	obj	_	_
11	wrong	wrong	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	10	amod	_	SpaceAfter=No
12	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	16	punct	_	_
13	but	but	CCONJ	CC	_	16	cc	_	_
14	she	she	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Gender=Fem|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	16	nsubj	_	_
15	only	only	ADV	RB	_	16	advmod	_	_
16	wanted	want	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	2	parataxis	_	_
17	to	to	PART	TO	_	18	mark	_	_
18	know	know	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	16	xcomp	_	_
19	if	if	SCONJ	IN	_	23	mark	_	_
20	it	it	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Gender=Neut|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	23	nsubj	_	_
21	were	be	AUX	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	23	cop	_	_
22	little	little	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	23	amod	_	_
23	Kay	Kay	PROPN	NNP	Number=Sing	18	ccomp	_	SpaceAfter=No
24	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	2	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

<!-- .fr -->
| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **seem** | past | It |  |  |  |  |  | vn seem-109-1-1-1 «NP V S\_INF»: agent=Theme clause=Attribute |
| 2 | **go** *a condition, not said to happen* | past · progressive | Gerda |  |  |  |  |  | vn say-37.7 «NP V S-Quote»: agent=Agent clause=Topic |
| 3 | **do** | to-infinitive | Gerda *not said here* | something |  |  |  |  | vn act-114-1 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent something=Eventuality |
| 4 | **want** | past | Gerda |  |  |  |  |  | vn want-32.1-1-1 «NP V NP S\_INF»: agent=Pivot clause=Theme |
| 5 | **know** *not said to happen* | to-infinitive | Gerda *not said here* |  |  |  |  |  | vn comprehend-87.2-1-1-1 «NP V»: agent=Experiencer |
| 6 | **is a** *a condition, not said to happen* | past | light | little Kay |  |  |  |  | tree rules |

<!-- .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.

<!-- div src -->

**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.

<!-- /div -->

<!-- pn -->
- ← previous: [sentence 126](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg5615/9/126/)
- next →: [sentence 128](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg5615/9/128/)
- ↑ back to [The Pink Fairy Book, part 9](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg5615/9/)