---
title: The King heard the sad complaint of the White Duck, and called to th… — The Yellow Fairy Book · tree and pragmatics
description: The King heard the sad complaint of the White Duck, and called to the witch: ‘Wife, what a wonder is this? Who acts: King, Wife, White Duck. A sentence of «The Yellow Fairy Book» by Andrew Lang, The White Duck, with its dependency tree and the pragmatics of every clause.
---

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# The Yellow Fairy Book, The White Duck, sentence 50

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The King heard the sad complaint of the White Duck, and called to the witch: ‘Wife, what a wonder is this?

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**Who acts:** King, Wife, White Duck · **What happens:** hear, call, be, complain · **To what, where:** sad complaint, witch, this · **Speech:** someone speaks here

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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 (King, Wife, White Duck), 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:pg640:29:50
# text = The King heard the sad complaint of the White Duck, and called to the witch: ‘Wife, what a wonder is this?
1	The	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	2	det	_	_
2	King	King	PROPN	NNP	Number=Sing	3	nsubj	_	_
3	heard	hear	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	0	root	_	_
4	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	6	det	_	_
5	sad	sad	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	6	amod	_	_
6	complaint	complaint	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	3	obj	_	_
7	of	of	ADP	IN	_	10	case	_	_
8	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	10	det	_	_
9	White	White	ADJ	NNP	Degree=Pos	10	amod	_	_
10	Duck	Duck	PROPN	NNP	Number=Sing	6	nmod	_	SpaceAfter=No
11	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	13	punct	_	_
12	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	13	cc	_	_
13	called	call	VERB	VBN	Tense=Past|VerbForm=Part|Voice=Pass	3	conj	_	_
14	to	to	ADP	IN	_	16	case	_	_
15	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	16	det	_	_
16	witch	witch	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	13	obl	_	SpaceAfter=No
17	:	:	PUNCT	:	_	19	punct	_	_
18	‘	'	PUNCT	``	_	19	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
19	Wife	wife	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	3	parataxis	_	SpaceAfter=No
20	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	25	punct	_	_
21	what	what	PRON	WP	PronType=Int	25	nsubj	_	_
22	a	a	DET	DT	Definite=Ind|PronType=Art	23	det	_	_
23	wonder	wonder	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	25	nsubj	_	_
24	is	be	AUX	VBZ	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Fin	25	cop	_	_
25	this	this	PRON	DT	Number=Sing|PronType=Dem	19	conj	_	SpaceAfter=No
26	?	?	PUNCT	.	_	3	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

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| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **hear** | past | the King | the sad complaint of the White Duck |  |  |  |  | vn see-30.1-1-1 «NP V S»: agent=Experiencer complaint=Stimulus |
| 2 | **call** | participle | the King *not said here* |  | the witch |  |  |  | vn animal\_sounds-38 «NP V PP.recipient»: agent=Agent to witch=Recipient |
| 3 | **is a** | present | Wife | this |  |  |  |  | tree rules |
| 4 | **complain** |  | the White Duck |  |  |  |  |  | nom complaint «state intransitive»: of=agent |

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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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