---
title: They assembled in the water round the green stalk which supported th… — The Yellow Fairy Book · tree and pragmatics
description: They assembled in the water round the green stalk which supported the leaf on which she was sitting, and nibbled the stem in two. Who acts: fishes, green stalk, leaf. A sentence of «The Yellow Fairy Book» by Andrew Lang, The Witch in the Stone Boat(31), with its dependency tree and the pragmatics of
---

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# The Yellow Fairy Book, The Witch in the Stone Boat(31), sentence 104

<!-- .ven lang=en -->
They assembled in the water round the green stalk which supported the leaf on which she was sitting, and nibbled the stem in two.

<!-- .vintro -->
**Who acts:** fishes, green stalk, leaf · **What happens:** assemble, support, sit, nibble · **To what, where:** water, leaf, stem, two

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This is a sentence of «The Yellow Fairy Book» by Andrew Lang, The Witch in the Stone Boat(31). The page gives its syntax tree — a dependency tree in the style of Universal Dependencies — and its pragmatics clause by clause: who acts (fishes, green stalk, leaf), 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:pg640:47:104
# text = They assembled in the water round the green stalk which supported the leaf on which she was sitting, and nibbled the stem in two.
1	They	they	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Number=Plur|Person=3|PronType=Prs	2	nsubj	_	_
2	assembled	assemble	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Plur|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	0	root	_	_
3	in	in	ADP	IN	_	5	case	_	_
4	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	5	det	_	_
5	water	water	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	2	obl	_	_
6	round	round	ADP	IN	_	9	case	_	_
7	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	9	det	_	_
8	green	green	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	9	amod	_	_
9	stalk	stalk	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	2	obl	_	_
10	which	which	PRON	WDT	PronType=Rel	11	nsubj	_	_
11	supported	support	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	9	acl:relcl	_	_
12	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	13	det	_	_
13	leaf	leaf	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	11	obj	_	_
14	on	on	ADP	IN	_	15	case	_	_
15	which	which	PRON	WDT	PronType=Rel	18	obl	_	_
16	she	she	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Gender=Fem|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	18	nsubj	_	_
17	was	be	AUX	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	18	aux	_	_
18	sitting	sit	VERB	VBG	Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Part	13	acl:relcl	_	SpaceAfter=No
19	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	21	punct	_	_
20	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	21	cc	_	_
21	nibbled	nibble	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Plur|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	2	conj	_	_
22	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	23	det	_	_
23	stem	stem	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	21	obj	_	_
24	in	in	ADP	IN	_	25	case	_	_
25	two	two	NUM	CD	NumForm=Word|NumType=Card	21	obl	_	SpaceAfter=No
26	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	2	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

<!-- .fr -->
| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **assemble** | past | fishes *= fish* |  |  | the water |  | round the green stalk | vn herd-47.5.2 «NP V»: agent=Theme |
| 2 | **support** | past | the green stalk | the leaf |  |  |  |  | vn admire-31.2 «NP V NP»: agent=Experiencer leaf=Stimulus |
| 3 | **sit** | past · progressive | leaf |  |  | the leaf |  |  | vn assuming\_position-50 «NP V PP.location»: agent=Agent on which=Location |
| 4 | **nibble** | past | fishes *= fish* *not said here* | the stem |  | two |  |  | vn chew-39.2 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent stem=Patient |

<!-- .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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