---
title: The Serpent glided over the clothes which were spread for him, came… — The Yellow Fairy Book · tree and pragmatics
description: The Serpent glided over the clothes which were spread for him, came to the Lake, and asked it who had strewed those soft things on the path? Who acts: Serpent. A sentence of «The Yellow Fairy Book» by Andrew Lang, The Donkey Cabbage, part 3, with its dependency tree and the pragmatics of every claus
---

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# The Yellow Fairy Book, The Donkey Cabbage, part 3, sentence 78

<!-- .ven lang=en -->
The Serpent glided over the clothes which were spread for him, came to the Lake, and asked it who had strewed those soft things on the path?

<!-- .vintro -->
**Who acts:** Serpent · **What happens:** glide, spread, come, ask, strew · **To what, where:** clothes, Lake, lion, soft things, path · **Speech:** someone speaks here

<!-- .vabout -->
This is a sentence of «The Yellow Fairy Book» by Andrew Lang, The Donkey Cabbage, part 3. The page gives its syntax tree — a dependency tree in the style of Universal Dependencies — and its pragmatics clause by clause: who acts (Serpent), 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:pg640:12:78
# text = The Serpent glided over the clothes which were spread for him, came to the Lake, and asked it who had strewed those soft things on the path?
1	The	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	2	det	_	_
2	Serpent	Serpent	PROPN	NNP	Number=Sing	3	nsubj	_	_
3	glided	glide	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	0	root	_	_
4	over	over	ADP	IN	_	6	case	_	_
5	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	6	det	_	_
6	clothes	clothes	NOUN	NNS	Number=Ptan	3	obl	_	_
7	which	which	PRON	WDT	PronType=Rel	9	nsubj:pass	_	_
8	were	be	AUX	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Plur|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	9	aux:pass	_	_
9	spread	spread	VERB	VBN	Tense=Past|VerbForm=Part|Voice=Pass	6	acl:relcl	_	_
10	for	for	ADP	IN	_	11	case	_	_
11	him	he	PRON	PRP	Case=Acc|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	9	obl	_	SpaceAfter=No
12	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	13	punct	_	_
13	came	come	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	3	conj	_	_
14	to	to	ADP	IN	_	16	case	_	_
15	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	16	det	_	_
16	Lake	Lake	PROPN	NNP	Number=Sing	13	obl	_	SpaceAfter=No
17	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	19	punct	_	_
18	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	19	cc	_	_
19	asked	ask	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	3	parataxis	_	_
20	it	it	PRON	PRP	Case=Acc|Gender=Neut|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	19	obj	_	_
21	who	who	PRON	WP	PronType=Rel	23	nsubj	_	_
22	had	have	AUX	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Plur|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	23	aux	_	_
23	strewed	strew	VERB	VBN	Tense=Past|VerbForm=Part	19	ccomp	_	_
24	those	that	DET	DT	Number=Plur|PronType=Dem	26	det	_	_
25	soft	soft	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	26	amod	_	_
26	things	thing	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	23	obj	_	_
27	on	on	ADP	IN	_	29	case	_	_
28	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	29	det	_	_
29	path	path	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	23	obl	_	SpaceAfter=No
30	?	?	PUNCT	.	_	3	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

<!-- .fr -->
| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **glide** | past | the Serpent |  |  | the clothes |  |  | vn run-51.3.2-2 «NP V PP.location»: agent=Theme over clothes=Trajectory |
| 2 | **spread** | past · passive |  | the clothes |  |  |  | for SERPENT | vn appear-48.1.1 «PP.location V NP»: subject=Theme |
| 3 | **come** | past | the Serpent *not said here* |  |  | the Lake |  |  | vn escape-51.1-1 «NP V PP.initial\_location»: agent=Theme to lake=Initial\_Location |
| 4 | **ask** *speech: ask* | past |  |  | lion |  |  |  | vn inquire-37.1.2 «NP V NP whether S»: agent=Agent it=Recipient clause=Topic |
| 5 | **strew** | past · perfect |  | that soft things |  | the path |  |  | vn spray-9.7-1 «NP V NP PP.destination»: agent=Agent thing=Theme on path=Destination |

<!-- .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 Yellow Fairy Book» by Andrew Lang, Project Gutenberg book 640 (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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