---
title: ‘But instead of replying, the gardener threw himself at my feet and… — The Yellow Fairy Book · tree and pragmatics
description: ‘But instead of replying, the gardener threw himself at my feet and swore that he was innocent. Who acts: gardener. A sentence of «The Yellow Fairy Book» by Andrew Lang, The Witch and Her Servants(22), part 1, with its dependency tree and the pragmatics of every clause.
---

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# The Yellow Fairy Book, The Witch and Her Servants(22), part 1, sentence 17

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‘But instead of replying, the gardener threw himself at my feet and swore that he was innocent.

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**Who acts:** gardener · **What happens:** reply, throw, swear, be · **To what, where:** gardener, feet

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This is a sentence of «The Yellow Fairy Book» by Andrew Lang, The Witch and Her Servants(22), part 1. The page gives its syntax tree — a dependency tree in the style of Universal Dependencies — and its pragmatics clause by clause: who acts (gardener), 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:pg640:30:17
# text = ‘But instead of replying, the gardener threw himself at my feet and swore that he was innocent.
1	‘	'	PUNCT	``	_	5	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
2	But	but	CCONJ	CC	_	5	cc	_	_
3	instead	instead	ADV	RB	ExtPos=SCONJ	5	mark	_	_
4	of	of	ADP	IN	_	3	fixed	_	_
5	replying	reply	VERB	VBG	Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Part	9	advcl	_	SpaceAfter=No
6	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	5	punct	_	_
7	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	8	det	_	_
8	gardener	gardener	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	9	nsubj	_	_
9	threw	throw	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	0	root	_	_
10	himself	himself	PRON	PRP	Case=Acc|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs|Reflex=Yes	9	obj	_	_
11	at	at	ADP	IN	_	13	case	_	_
12	my	my	PRON	PRP$	Case=Gen|Number=Sing|Person=1|Poss=Yes|PronType=Prs	13	nmod:poss	_	_
13	feet	foot	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	9	obl	_	_
14	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	15	cc	_	_
15	swore	swear	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	9	conj	_	_
16	that	that	SCONJ	IN	_	19	mark	_	_
17	he	he	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	19	nsubj	_	_
18	was	be	AUX	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	19	cop	_	_
19	innocent	innocent	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	15	ccomp	_	SpaceAfter=No
20	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	9	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

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| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **reply** *speech: assert* | gerund | the gardener *not said here* |  |  |  |  |  | vn respond-113 «NP V»: agent=Agent |
| 2 | **throw** | past | the gardener | gardener |  | my feet |  |  | vn throw-17.1-1-1 «NP V NP PP.destinations»: agent=Agent himself=Theme at foot=Destination |
| 3 | **swear** | past | the gardener *not said here* |  |  |  |  |  | vn conjecture-29.5 «NP V that S»: agent=Agent |
| 4 | **is** | past | gardener |  |  |  |  | innocent *property* | tree rules |

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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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