---
title: Bitter were the tears she shed, while her husband sought in vain to… — The Yellow Fairy Book · tree and pragmatics
description: Bitter were the tears she shed, while her husband sought in vain to soothe her with words of comfort and counsel, warning her, above all things, never to leave the castle, to hold no intercourse with strangers, to beware of evil counsellors, and especially to be on her guard against strange women. W
---

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# The Yellow Fairy Book, The White Duck, sentence 3

<!-- .ven lang=en -->
Bitter were the tears she shed, while her husband sought in vain to soothe her with words of comfort and counsel, warning her, above all things, never to leave the castle, to hold no intercourse with strangers, to beware of evil counsellors, and especially to be on her guard against strange women.

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**Who acts:** Bitter tears, husband · **What happens:** be, shed, seek, soothe, warn, not leave · **To what, where:** Bitter tears, vain, honeymoon, castle, intercourse, guard

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This is a sentence of «The Yellow Fairy Book» by Andrew Lang, The White Duck. The page gives its syntax tree — a dependency tree in the style of Universal Dependencies — and its pragmatics clause by clause: who acts (Bitter tears, husband), 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:pg640:29:3
# text = Bitter were the tears she shed, while her husband sought in vain to soothe her with words of comfort and counsel, warning her, above all things, never to leave the castle, to hold no intercourse with strangers, to beware of evil counsellors, and especially to be on her guard against strange women.
1	Bitter	bitter	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	4	compound	_	_
2	were	be	AUX	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	4	cop	_	_
3	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	4	det	_	_
4	tears	tear	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	6	nsubj	_	_
5	she	she	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Gender=Fem|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	6	nsubj	_	_
6	shed	shed	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Plur|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	0	root	_	SpaceAfter=No
7	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	11	punct	_	_
8	while	while	SCONJ	IN	_	11	mark	_	_
9	her	her	PRON	PRP$	Case=Gen|Gender=Fem|Number=Sing|Person=3|Poss=Yes|PronType=Prs	10	nmod:poss	_	_
10	husband	husband	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	11	nsubj	_	_
11	sought	seek	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	6	conj	_	_
12	in	in	ADP	IN	_	13	case	_	_
13	vain	vain	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	11	obl	_	_
14	to	to	PART	TO	_	15	mark	_	_
15	soothe	soothe	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	11	xcomp	_	_
16	her	she	PRON	PRP	Case=Acc|Gender=Fem|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	15	obj	_	_
17	with	with	ADP	IN	_	18	case	_	_
18	words	word	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	15	obl	_	_
19	of	of	ADP	IN	_	20	case	_	_
20	comfort	comfort	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	18	nmod	_	_
21	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	22	cc	_	_
22	counsel	counsel	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	20	conj	_	SpaceAfter=No
23	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	24	punct	_	_
24	warning	warn	VERB	VBG	Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Part	15	advcl	_	_
25	her	she	PRON	PRP	Case=Acc|Gender=Fem|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	24	obj	_	SpaceAfter=No
26	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	29	punct	_	_
27	above	above	ADP	IN	_	29	case	_	_
28	all	all	DET	DT	PronType=Tot	29	det	_	_
29	things	thing	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	11	conj	_	SpaceAfter=No
30	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	33	punct	_	_
31	never	never	ADV	RB	PronType=Neg	33	advmod	_	_
32	to	to	PART	TO	_	33	mark	_	_
33	leave	leave	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	29	parataxis	_	_
34	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	35	det	_	_
35	castle	castle	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	33	obj	_	SpaceAfter=No
36	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	38	punct	_	_
37	to	to	PART	TO	_	38	mark	_	_
38	hold	hold	VERB	VB	Mood=Imp|VerbForm=Fin	33	parataxis	_	_
39	no	no	DET	DT	PronType=Neg	40	det	_	_
40	intercourse	intercourse	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	38	obj	_	_
41	with	with	ADP	IN	_	42	case	_	_
42	strangers	stranger	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	38	obl	_	SpaceAfter=No
43	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	45	punct	_	_
44	to	to	PART	TO	_	45	mark	_	_
45	beware	beware	VERB	VB	Mood=Imp|VerbForm=Fin	38	conj	_	_
46	of	of	ADP	IN	_	48	case	_	_
47	evil	evil	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	48	amod	_	_
48	counsellors	counsellor	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	45	obl	_	SpaceAfter=No
49	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	56	punct	_	_
50	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	56	cc	_	_
51	especially	especially	ADV	RB	_	56	advmod	_	_
52	to	to	PART	TO	_	56	mark	_	_
53	be	be	AUX	VB	VerbForm=Inf	56	cop	_	_
54	on	on	ADP	IN	_	56	case	_	_
55	her	her	PRON	PRP$	Case=Gen|Gender=Fem|Number=Sing|Person=3|Poss=Yes|PronType=Prs	56	nmod:poss	_	_
56	guard	guard	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	6	obl	_	_
57	against	against	ADP	IN	_	59	case	_	_
58	strange	strange	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	59	amod	_	_
59	women	woman	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	56	nmod	_	SpaceAfter=No
60	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	6	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

<!-- .fr -->
| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **is a** | past |  | the Bitter tears |  |  |  |  | tree rules |
| 2 | **shed** | past | the Bitter tears |  |  |  |  |  | vn substance\_emission-43.4-1 «NP V»: agent=Source |
| 3 | **seek** | past | honeymoon's husband |  |  | vain |  |  | tree rules |
| 4 | **soothe** *not said to happen* | to-infinitive | honeymoon's husband *not said here* | honeymoon |  |  |  | with words of comfort and counsel | vn amuse-31.1 «NP V NP»: agent=Stimulus she=Experiencer |
| 5 | **warn** *speech: warn* | gerund | honeymoon's husband *not said here* |  | honeymoon |  |  |  | vn advise-37.9-1 «NP V NP.recipient»: agent=Agent she=Recipient |
| 6 | **not** **leave** | to-infinitive |  | the castle |  |  |  |  | vn keep-15.2 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent castle=Theme |
| 7 | **hold** | to-infinitive |  | no intercourse |  |  |  | with strangers | vn keep-15.2 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent intercourse=Theme |
| 8 | **beware** | to-infinitive |  |  |  |  |  | of evil counsellors | vn marvel-31.3 «NP V»: agent=Experiencer |
| 9 | **is** | to-infinitive |  |  |  | honeymoon's guard |  | against strange women; especially *property* | tree rules |
| 10 | **word** |  |  | comfort and counsel |  |  |  |  | nom word «communication transitive»: of=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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