---
title: They were astonished though at how greedily the Queen devoured the m… — The Yellow Fairy Book · tree and pragmatics
description: They were astonished though at how greedily the Queen devoured the meat, and how much she ate of it, and were no longer surprised that she took so little when she sat at table with the King. Who acts: Queen. A sentence of «The Yellow Fairy Book» by Andrew Lang, The Witch in the Stone Boat(31), with 
---

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# The Yellow Fairy Book, The Witch in the Stone Boat(31), sentence 41

<!-- .ven lang=en -->
They were astonished though at how greedily the Queen devoured the meat, and how much she ate of it, and were no longer surprised that she took so little when she sat at table with the King.

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**Who acts:** Queen · **What happens:** astonish, devour, eat, be, take, sit · **To what, where:** fellows, meat, little, table

<!-- .vabout -->
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 (Queen), 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:pg640:47:41
# text = They were astonished though at how greedily the Queen devoured the meat, and how much she ate of it, and were no longer surprised that she took so little when she sat at table with the King.
1	They	they	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Number=Plur|Person=3|PronType=Prs	3	nsubj	_	_
2	were	be	AUX	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Plur|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	3	aux:pass	_	_
3	astonished	astonish	VERB	VBN	Tense=Past|VerbForm=Part|Voice=Pass	0	root	_	_
4	though	though	ADV	RB	_	3	advmod	_	_
5	at	at	ADP	IN	_	10	case	_	_
6	how	how	ADV	WRB	PronType=Int	7	advmod	_	_
7	greedily	greedily	ADV	RB	_	10	advmod	_	_
8	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	9	det	_	_
9	Queen	Queen	PROPN	NNP	Number=Sing	10	nsubj	_	_
10	devoured	devour	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	3	conj	_	_
11	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	12	det	_	_
12	meat	meat	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	10	obj	_	SpaceAfter=No
13	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	18	punct	_	_
14	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	18	cc	_	_
15	how	how	ADV	WRB	PronType=Int	16	advmod	_	_
16	much	much	ADV	RB	_	18	advmod	_	_
17	she	she	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Gender=Fem|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	18	nsubj	_	_
18	ate	eat	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	3	parataxis	_	_
19	of	of	ADP	IN	_	20	case	_	_
20	it	it	PRON	PRP	Case=Acc|Gender=Neut|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	18	obl	_	SpaceAfter=No
21	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	26	punct	_	_
22	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	26	cc	_	_
23	were	be	AUX	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	26	cop	_	_
24	no	no	ADV	RB	_	25	advmod	_	_
25	longer	long	ADV	RBR	Degree=Cmp	26	advmod	_	_
26	surprised	surprise	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	18	conj	_	_
27	that	that	SCONJ	IN	_	29	mark	_	_
28	she	she	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Gender=Fem|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	29	nsubj	_	_
29	took	take	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	26	ccomp	_	_
30	so	so	ADV	RB	_	31	advmod	_	_
31	little	little	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	29	obj	_	_
32	when	when	ADV	WRB	PronType=Int	34	advmod	_	_
33	she	she	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Gender=Fem|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	34	nsubj	_	_
34	sat	sit	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	29	advcl	_	_
35	at	at	ADP	IN	_	36	case	_	_
36	table	table	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	34	obl	_	_
37	with	with	ADP	IN	_	39	case	_	_
38	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	39	det	_	_
39	King	King	PROPN	NNP	Number=Sing	34	obl	_	SpaceAfter=No
40	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	3	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

<!-- .fr -->
| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **astonish** | past · passive |  | fellows *= fellow* |  |  |  | though *property* | vn amuse-31.1 «NP V NP»: subject=Experiencer |
| 2 | **devour** | past | the Queen | the meat |  |  |  | greedily *property* | vn devour-39.4 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent meat=Patient |
| 3 | **eat** | past | Queen |  |  |  |  | of meat | vn eat-39.1-1 «NP V PP.source»: agent=Agent of it=Source |
| 4 | **is** | past | Queen *not said here* |  |  |  |  | long, surprise *property* | tree rules |
| 5 | **take** | past | Queen | little |  |  |  |  | vn bring-11.3 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent little=Theme |
| 6 | **sit** | past | Queen |  |  | table |  | with the King | vn assuming\_position-50 «NP V PP.location»: agent=Agent at table=Location |

<!-- .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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