---
title: ‘With a little water,’ replied the man; ‘only sprinkle a few drops o… — The Yellow Fairy Book · tree and pragmatics
description: ‘With a little water,’ replied the man; ‘only sprinkle a few drops over me and I shall feel better.’ Who acts: I. A sentence of «The Yellow Fairy Book» by Andrew Lang, The Witch and Her Servants(22), part 2, 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 2, sentence 29

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‘With a little water,’ replied the man; ‘only sprinkle a few drops over me and I shall feel better.’

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**Who acts:** I · **What happens:** reply, sprinkle, feel · **To what, where:** man, few drops

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This is a sentence of «The Yellow Fairy Book» by Andrew Lang, The Witch and Her Servants(22), 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 (I), 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:pg640:31:29
# text = ‘With a little water,’ replied the man; ‘only sprinkle a few drops over me and I shall feel better.’
1	‘	'	PUNCT	``	_	8	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
2	With	with	ADP	IN	_	5	case	_	_
3	a	a	DET	DT	Definite=Ind|PronType=Art	5	det	_	_
4	little	little	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	5	amod	_	_
5	water	water	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	8	obl	_	SpaceAfter=No
6	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	5	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
7	’	'	PUNCT	''	_	8	punct	_	_
8	replied	reply	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=1|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	0	root	_	_
9	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	10	det	_	_
10	man	man	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	8	obj	_	SpaceAfter=No
11	;	;	PUNCT	,	_	14	punct	_	_
12	‘	'	PUNCT	``	_	14	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
13	only	only	ADV	RB	_	14	advmod	_	_
14	sprinkle	sprinkle	VERB	VB	Mood=Imp|VerbForm=Fin	8	parataxis	_	_
15	a	a	DET	DT	Definite=Ind|PronType=Art	17	det	_	_
16	few	few	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	17	amod	_	_
17	drops	drop	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	14	obj	_	_
18	over	over	ADP	IN	_	19	case	_	_
19	me	I	PRON	PRP	Case=Acc|Number=Sing|Person=1|PronType=Prs	14	obl	_	_
20	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	23	cc	_	_
21	I	I	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Number=Sing|Person=1|PronType=Prs	23	nsubj	_	_
22	shall	shall	AUX	MD	VerbForm=Fin	23	aux	_	_
23	feel	feel	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	14	conj	_	_
24	better	good	ADJ	JJR	Degree=Cmp	23	xcomp	_	SpaceAfter=No
25	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	8	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
26	’	'	PUNCT	''	_	8	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

<!-- .fr -->
| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **reply** *speech: assert* | past |  | the man |  |  |  | with a little water | vn say-37.7-1 «NP V NP.topic»: agent=Agent man=Topic |
| 2 | **sprinkle** | infinitive |  | a few drops |  |  |  | over me | vn spray-9.7-1 «NP V NP PP.destination»: agent=Agent drop=Theme over i=Destination |
| 3 | **feel** | shall | I |  |  |  |  | good *property* | vn stimulus\_subject-30.4 «NP V ADJ»: agent=Stimulus |

<!-- .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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