---
title: But when he saw Thumbelina, he was delighted, for she was the most b… — The Yellow Fairy Book · tree and pragmatics
description: But when he saw Thumbelina, he was delighted, for she was the most beautiful girl he had ever seen. Who acts: man, THUMBELINA. 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 every clause.
---

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# The Yellow Fairy Book, The Witch in the Stone Boat(31), sentence 242

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But when he saw Thumbelina, he was delighted, for she was the most beautiful girl he had ever seen.

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**Who acts:** man, THUMBELINA · **What happens:** see, be · **To what, where:** Thumbelina, beautiful girl

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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 (man, THUMBELINA), 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:pg640:47:242
# text = But when he saw Thumbelina, he was delighted, for she was the most beautiful girl he had ever seen.
1	But	but	CCONJ	CC	_	9	cc	_	_
2	when	when	ADV	WRB	PronType=Int	4	advmod	_	_
3	he	he	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	4	nsubj	_	_
4	saw	see	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	9	advcl	_	_
5	Thumbelina	Thumbelina	PROPN	NNP	Number=Sing	4	obj	_	SpaceAfter=No
6	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	4	punct	_	_
7	he	he	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	9	nsubj	_	_
8	was	be	AUX	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	9	cop	_	_
9	delighted	delighted	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	0	root	_	SpaceAfter=No
10	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	17	punct	_	_
11	for	for	ADP	IN	_	17	case	_	_
12	she	she	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Gender=Fem|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	17	nsubj	_	_
13	was	be	AUX	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	17	cop	_	_
14	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	17	det	_	_
15	most	most	ADV	RBS	Degree=Sup	16	advmod	_	_
16	beautiful	beautiful	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	17	amod	_	_
17	girl	girl	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	9	advcl	_	_
18	he	he	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	21	nsubj	_	_
19	had	have	AUX	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	21	aux	_	_
20	ever	ever	ADV	RB	PronType=Ind	21	advmod	_	_
21	seen	see	VERB	VBN	Tense=Past|VerbForm=Part	17	acl:relcl	_	SpaceAfter=No
22	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	9	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

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| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **see** | past | man | Thumbelina |  |  |  |  | vn comprehend-87.2-1-1 «NP V NP»: agent=Experiencer thumbelina=Stimulus |
| 2 | **is** | past | man |  |  |  |  | delighted *property* | tree rules |
| 3 | **is** | past | THUMBELINA |  |  |  |  | for the beautiful girl | tree rules |
| 4 | **see** | past · perfect | man | the beautiful girl *not said here* |  |  | ever |  | vn comprehend-87.2-1-1 «NP V NP»: agent=Experiencer girl=Stimulus |

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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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