---
title: Then a tiny icicle detached itself from the roof, and dropped into t… — The Yellow Fairy Book · tree and pragmatics
description: Then a tiny icicle detached itself from the roof, and dropped into the woman’s mouth, who swallowed it with a smile, and said, ‘Perhaps I shall give birth to a snow child now!’ Who acts: tiny icicle, mouth, I. A sentence of «The Yellow Fairy Book» by Andrew Lang, The Snow-daughter and the Fire-son(2
---

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# The Yellow Fairy Book, The Snow-daughter and the Fire-son(25), sentence 7

<!-- .ven lang=en -->
Then a tiny icicle detached itself from the roof, and dropped into the woman’s mouth, who swallowed it with a smile, and said, ‘Perhaps I shall give birth to a snow child now!’

<!-- .vintro -->
**Who acts:** tiny icicle, mouth, I · **What happens:** detach, drop, swallow, say, give · **To what, where:** couple, mouth, birth, snow child · **Speech:** someone speaks here

<!-- .vabout -->
This is a sentence of «The Yellow Fairy Book» by Andrew Lang, The Snow-daughter and the Fire-son(25). The page gives its syntax tree — a dependency tree in the style of Universal Dependencies — and its pragmatics clause by clause: who acts (tiny icicle, mouth, I), 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:pg640:36:7
# text = Then a tiny icicle detached itself from the roof, and dropped into the woman’s mouth, who swallowed it with a smile, and said, ‘Perhaps I shall give birth to a snow child now!’
1	Then	then	ADV	RB	PronType=Dem	5	advmod	_	_
2	a	a	DET	DT	Definite=Ind|PronType=Art	4	det	_	_
3	tiny	tiny	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	4	amod	_	_
4	icicle	icicle	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	5	nsubj	_	_
5	detached	detach	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	0	root	_	_
6	itself	itself	PRON	PRP	Case=Acc|Gender=Neut|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs|Reflex=Yes	5	obj	_	_
7	from	from	ADP	IN	_	9	case	_	_
8	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	9	det	_	_
9	roof	roof	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	5	obl	_	SpaceAfter=No
10	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	12	punct	_	_
11	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	12	cc	_	_
12	dropped	drop	VERB	VBN	Tense=Past|VerbForm=Part|Voice=Pass	5	parataxis	_	_
13	into	into	ADP	IN	_	17	case	_	_
14	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	15	det	_	_
15	woman	woman	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	17	nmod:poss	_	SpaceAfter=No
16	’s	's	PART	POS	_	15	case	_	_
17	mouth	mouth	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	12	obl	_	SpaceAfter=No
18	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	20	punct	_	_
19	who	who	PRON	WP	PronType=Rel	20	nsubj	_	_
20	swallowed	swallow	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	17	acl:relcl	_	_
21	it	it	PRON	PRP	Case=Acc|Gender=Neut|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	20	obj	_	_
22	with	with	ADP	IN	_	24	case	_	_
23	a	a	DET	DT	Definite=Ind|PronType=Art	24	det	_	_
24	smile	smile	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	20	obl	_	SpaceAfter=No
25	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	27	punct	_	_
26	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	27	cc	_	_
27	said	say	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	5	conj	_	SpaceAfter=No
28	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	33	punct	_	_
29	‘	'	PUNCT	``	_	33	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
30	Perhaps	perhaps	ADV	RB	_	33	advmod	_	_
31	I	I	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Number=Sing|Person=1|PronType=Prs	33	nsubj	_	_
32	shall	shall	AUX	MD	VerbForm=Fin	33	aux	_	_
33	give	give	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	27	ccomp	_	_
34	birth	birth	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	33	obj	_	_
35	to	to	ADP	IN	_	38	case	_	_
36	a	a	DET	DT	Definite=Ind|PronType=Art	38	det	_	_
37	snow	snow	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	38	compound	_	_
38	child	child	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	33	obl	_	_
39	now	now	ADV	RB	PronType=Dem	33	advmod	_	SpaceAfter=No
40	!	!	PUNCT	.	_	33	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
41	’	'	PUNCT	''	_	33	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

<!-- .fr -->
| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **detach** | past | a tiny icicle | couple |  |  | then | from the roof | vn disassemble-23.3 «NP V NP PP.co-patient»: agent=Agent itself=Patient from roof=Co-Patient |
| 2 | **drop** | participle |  |  |  | the woman's mouth |  |  | vn roll-51.3.1 «NP V PP.trajectory»: agent=Theme into mouth=Trajectory |
| 3 | **swallow** | past | the woman's mouth | couple |  |  |  | with a smile | vn gobble-39.3 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent it=Patient |
| 4 | **say** *speech: assert* | past | a tiny icicle *not said here* |  |  |  |  |  | vn say-37.7-1-1 «NP V that S»: agent=Agent clause=Topic |
| 5 | **give** | shall | I | birth | a snow child |  | now | perhaps *property* | vn give-13.1-1 «NP V NP PP.recipient»: agent=Agent birth=Theme to child=Recipient |

<!-- .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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