---
title: At first he would tell her nothing; but once, when he was in a yield… — The Yellow Fairy Book · tree and pragmatics
description: At first he would tell her nothing; but once, when he was in a yielding mood, she approached him with a winning smile on her lovely face, and, speaking flattering words to him, she gave him a potion to drink, with a sweet, strong taste. Who acts: husband, feast. A sentence of «The Yellow Fairy Book»
---

<!-- md -->
[Mova](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/) · [this page in HTML](https://mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg640/33/136/)

<!-- crumbs -->
[home](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/) / [corpora](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/) / [tales](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/) / [The Yellow Fairy Book](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg640/) / [The Magic Ring](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg640/33/) / 136

# The Yellow Fairy Book, The Magic Ring, sentence 136

<!-- .ven lang=en -->
At first he would tell her nothing; but once, when he was in a yielding mood, she approached him with a winning smile on her lovely face, and, speaking flattering words to him, she gave him a potion to drink, with a sweet, strong taste.

<!-- .vintro -->
**Who acts:** husband, feast · **What happens:** tell, yield, be, approach, win, speak · **To what, where:** nothing, yielding mood, husband, flattering words, potion · **Speech:** someone speaks here

<!-- .vabout -->
This is a sentence of «The Yellow Fairy Book» by Andrew Lang, The Magic Ring. The page gives its syntax tree — a dependency tree in the style of Universal Dependencies — and its pragmatics clause by clause: who acts (husband, feast), 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:pg640:33:136
# text = At first he would tell her nothing; but once, when he was in a yielding mood, she approached him with a winning smile on her lovely face, and, speaking flattering words to him, she gave him a potion to drink, with a sweet, strong taste.
1	At	at	ADP	IN	_	2	case	_	_
2	first	first	ADV	RB	NumForm=Word|NumType=Ord	5	obl	_	_
3	he	he	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	5	nsubj	_	_
4	would	would	AUX	MD	VerbForm=Fin	5	aux	_	_
5	tell	tell	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	0	root	_	_
6	her	her	PRON	PRP$	Case=Gen|Gender=Fem|Number=Sing|Person=3|Poss=Yes|PronType=Prs	7	nmod:poss	_	_
7	nothing	nothing	PRON	NN	Number=Sing|PronType=Neg	5	obj	_	SpaceAfter=No
8	;	;	PUNCT	,	_	10	punct	_	_
9	but	but	CCONJ	CC	_	10	cc	_	_
10	once	once	ADV	RB	NumForm=Word|NumType=Mult	5	advmod	_	SpaceAfter=No
11	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	18	punct	_	_
12	when	when	ADV	WRB	PronType=Int	18	advmod	_	_
13	he	he	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	18	nsubj	_	_
14	was	be	AUX	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	18	cop	_	_
15	in	in	ADP	IN	_	18	case	_	_
16	a	a	DET	DT	Definite=Ind|PronType=Art	18	det	_	_
17	yielding	yield	VERB	VBG	VerbForm=Ger	18	amod	_	_
18	mood	mood	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	5	conj	_	SpaceAfter=No
19	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	21	punct	_	_
20	she	she	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Gender=Fem|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	21	nsubj	_	_
21	approached	approach	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	5	parataxis	_	_
22	him	he	PRON	PRP	Case=Acc|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	21	obj	_	_
23	with	with	ADP	IN	_	26	case	_	_
24	a	a	DET	DT	Definite=Ind|PronType=Art	26	det	_	_
25	winning	win	VERB	VBG	VerbForm=Ger	26	amod	_	_
26	smile	smile	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	21	obl	_	_
27	on	on	ADP	IN	_	30	case	_	_
28	her	her	PRON	PRP$	Case=Gen|Gender=Fem|Number=Sing|Person=3|Poss=Yes|PronType=Prs	30	nmod:poss	_	_
29	lovely	lovely	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	30	amod	_	_
30	face	face	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	26	nmod	_	SpaceAfter=No
31	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	41	punct	_	_
32	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	41	cc	_	SpaceAfter=No
33	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	34	punct	_	_
34	speaking	speak	VERB	VBG	Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Part	41	advcl	_	_
35	flattering	flatter	VERB	VBG	VerbForm=Ger	36	amod	_	_
36	words	word	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	34	obj	_	_
37	to	to	ADP	IN	_	38	case	_	_
38	him	he	PRON	PRP	Case=Acc|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	34	obl	_	SpaceAfter=No
39	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	34	punct	_	_
40	she	she	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Gender=Fem|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	41	nsubj	_	_
41	gave	give	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	21	conj	_	_
42	him	he	PRON	PRP	Case=Acc|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	41	iobj	_	_
43	a	a	DET	DT	Definite=Ind|PronType=Art	44	det	_	_
44	potion	potion	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	41	obj	_	_
45	to	to	PART	TO	_	46	mark	_	_
46	drink	drink	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	44	acl	_	SpaceAfter=No
47	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	53	punct	_	_
48	with	with	ADP	IN	_	53	case	_	_
49	a	a	DET	DT	Definite=Ind|PronType=Art	53	det	_	_
50	sweet	sweet	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	53	amod	_	SpaceAfter=No
51	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	50	punct	_	_
52	strong	strong	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	53	amod	_	_
53	taste	taste	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	41	obl	_	SpaceAfter=No
54	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	5	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

<!-- .fr -->
| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **tell** *speech: assert* | would | husband | nothing |  |  |  | once *property* | vn transfer\_mesg-37.1.1-1-1 «NP V NP.recipient»: agent=Agent nothing=Recipient |
| 2 | **yield** | gerund |  |  |  |  |  |  | vn acquiesce-95.1-1 «NP V»: agent=Agent |
| 3 | **is** | past | husband |  |  | a yielding mood |  |  | tree rules |
| 4 | **approach** | past | feast | husband |  |  |  | with a winning smile on feast's lovely face | vn confront-98 «NP V NP PP.instrument»: agent=Agent he=Theme with smile=Instrument |
| 5 | **win** | gerund |  |  |  |  |  |  | vn succeed-74-2 «NP V»: agent=Agent |
| 6 | **speak** *speech: other* | gerund | feast *not said here* | flattering words | husband |  |  |  | tree rules |
| 7 | **flatter** | gerund |  |  |  |  |  |  | vn amuse-31.1 «NP V ADV-Middle»: agent=Experiencer |
| 8 | **give** | past | feast | a potion | husband |  |  | with a sweet strong taste | vn give-13.1-1 «NP V NP-Dative NP»: agent=Agent he=Recipient potion=Theme |
| 9 | **drink** | to-infinitive | feast *not said here* | a potion *not said here* |  |  |  |  | vn eat-39.1-1 «NP V»: agent=Agent |

<!-- .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.

<!-- div src -->

**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.

<!-- /div -->

<!-- pn -->
- ← previous: [sentence 135](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg640/33/135/)
- next →: [sentence 137](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg640/33/137/)
- ↑ back to [The Magic Ring](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg640/33/)