---
title: The miller thought she must mean one of his puppies or kittens, so p… — The Yellow Fairy Book · tree and pragmatics
description: The miller thought she must mean one of his puppies or kittens, so promised the nixy at once what she asked, and returned to his mill full of hope. Who acts: miller, NIXY. A sentence of «The Yellow Fairy Book» by Andrew Lang, How Six Men Travelled Through the Wide World, part 2, with its dependency 
---

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# The Yellow Fairy Book, How Six Men Travelled Through the Wide World, part 2, sentence 82

<!-- .ven lang=en -->
The miller thought she must mean one of his puppies or kittens, so promised the nixy at once what she asked, and returned to his mill full of hope.

<!-- .vintro -->
**Who acts:** miller, NIXY · **What happens:** think, mean, promise, ask, return · **To what, where:** one, nixy · **Speech:** someone speaks here

<!-- .vabout -->
This is a sentence of «The Yellow Fairy Book» by Andrew Lang, How Six Men Travelled Through the Wide World, part 2. The page gives its syntax tree — a dependency tree in the style of Universal Dependencies — and its pragmatics clause by clause: who acts (miller, NIXY), 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:pg640:20:82
# text = The miller thought she must mean one of his puppies or kittens, so promised the nixy at once what she asked, and returned to his mill full of hope.
1	The	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	2	det	_	_
2	miller	miller	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	3	nsubj	_	_
3	thought	think	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	0	root	_	_
4	she	she	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Gender=Fem|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	6	nsubj	_	_
5	must	must	AUX	MD	VerbForm=Fin	6	aux	_	_
6	mean	mean	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	3	ccomp	_	_
7	one	one	NUM	CD	NumForm=Word|NumType=Card	6	obj	_	_
8	of	of	ADP	IN	_	10	case	_	_
9	his	his	PRON	PRP$	Case=Gen|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|Poss=Yes|PronType=Prs	10	nmod:poss	_	_
10	puppies	puppy	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	7	nmod	_	_
11	or	or	CCONJ	CC	_	12	cc	_	_
12	kittens	kitten	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	10	conj	_	SpaceAfter=No
13	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	15	punct	_	_
14	so	so	ADV	RB	_	15	advmod	_	_
15	promised	promise	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	3	conj	_	_
16	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	17	det	_	_
17	nixy	nixy	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	15	obj	_	_
18	at	at	ADP	IN	_	19	case	_	_
19	once	once	ADV	RB	NumForm=Word|NumType=Mult	15	obl	_	_
20	what	what	PRON	WP	PronType=Int	15	obj	_	_
21	she	she	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Gender=Fem|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	22	nsubj	_	_
22	asked	ask	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	20	acl:relcl	_	SpaceAfter=No
23	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	25	punct	_	_
24	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	25	cc	_	_
25	returned	return	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	3	conj	_	_
26	to	to	ADP	IN	_	28	case	_	_
27	his	his	PRON	PRP$	Case=Gen|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|Poss=Yes|PronType=Prs	28	nmod:poss	_	_
28	mill	mill	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	25	obl	_	_
29	full	full	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	28	amod	_	_
30	of	of	ADP	IN	_	31	case	_	_
31	hope	hope	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	29	obl	_	SpaceAfter=No
32	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	3	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

<!-- .fr -->
| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **think** *speech: other* | past | the miller |  |  |  |  |  | vn consider-29.9-2 «NP V how S»: agent=Agent clause=Theme |
| 2 | **mean** | must | NIXY | one of miller's puppies or kittens |  |  |  |  | vn intend-61.2-1 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent one=Topic |
| 3 | **promise** *speech: promise* | past | the miller *not said here* | the nixy |  |  |  |  | vn future\_having-13.3 «NP V NP.goal NP»: agent=Agent nixy=Goal what=Theme |
| 4 | **ask** *speech: ask* | past | NIXY |  |  |  |  |  | vn inquire-37.1.2 «NP V»: agent=Agent |
| 5 | **return** | past | the miller *not said here* |  |  |  |  | to miller's mill *result* | vn convert-26.6.2-1 «NP V S\_ING»: agent=Patient to mill=Result |

<!-- .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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