---
title: The Seven-headed Serpent came without his train of beasts, saw his p… — The Yellow Fairy Book · tree and pragmatics
description: The Seven-headed Serpent came without his train of beasts, saw his prey waiting for him, and devoured it at one mouthful. Who acts: headed Serpent, prey. A sentence of «The Yellow Fairy Book» by Andrew Lang, The Donkey Cabbage, part 3, with its dependency tree and the pragmatics of every clause.
---

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# The Yellow Fairy Book, The Donkey Cabbage, part 3, sentence 92

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The Seven-headed Serpent came without his train of beasts, saw his prey waiting for him, and devoured it at one mouthful.

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**Who acts:** headed Serpent, prey · **What happens:** come, see, wait, devour · **To what, where:** prey, one mouthful

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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 (headed Serpent, prey), 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:pg640:12:92
# text = The Seven-headed Serpent came without his train of beasts, saw his prey waiting for him, and devoured it at one mouthful.
1	The	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	5	det	_	_
2	Seven	seven	NUM	CD	NumForm=Word|NumType=Card	4	compound	_	SpaceAfter=No
3	-	-	PUNCT	HYPH	_	2	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
4	headed	headed	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	5	amod	_	_
5	Serpent	serpent	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	6	nsubj	_	_
6	came	come	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	0	root	_	_
7	without	without	ADP	IN	_	9	case	_	_
8	his	his	PRON	PRP$	Case=Gen|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|Poss=Yes|PronType=Prs	9	nmod:poss	_	_
9	train	train	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	6	obl	_	_
10	of	of	ADP	IN	_	11	case	_	_
11	beasts	beast	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	9	nmod	_	SpaceAfter=No
12	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	13	punct	_	_
13	saw	see	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	6	conj	_	_
14	his	his	PRON	PRP$	Case=Gen|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|Poss=Yes|PronType=Prs	15	nmod:poss	_	_
15	prey	prey	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	13	obj	_	_
16	waiting	wait	VERB	VBG	VerbForm=Ger	15	acl	_	_
17	for	for	ADP	IN	_	18	case	_	_
18	him	he	PRON	PRP	Case=Acc|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	16	obl	_	SpaceAfter=No
19	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	21	punct	_	_
20	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	21	cc	_	_
21	devoured	devour	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	6	conj	_	_
22	it	it	PRON	PRP	Case=Acc|Gender=Neut|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	21	obj	_	_
23	at	at	ADP	IN	_	25	case	_	_
24	one	one	NUM	CD	NumForm=Word|NumType=Card	25	nummod	_	_
25	mouthful	mouthful	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	21	obl	_	SpaceAfter=No
26	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	6	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

<!-- .fr -->
| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **come** | past | the headed Serpent |  |  |  |  | without SERPENT's train of beasts | vn escape-51.1-1 «NP V»: agent=Theme |
| 2 | **see** | past | the headed Serpent *not said here* | SERPENT's prey |  |  |  |  | vn comprehend-87.2-1-1 «NP V NP»: agent=Experiencer prey=Stimulus |
| 3 | **wait** | gerund | SERPENT's prey *not said here* |  |  |  |  | for SERPENT | vn exist-47.1 «NP V»: agent=Theme |
| 4 | **devour** | past | the headed Serpent *not said here* | prey |  | one mouthful |  |  | vn devour-39.4 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent it=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 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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