---
title: The most mysterious thing was the woman saying ‘and only one is left… — The Yellow Fairy Book · tree and pragmatics
description: The most mysterious thing was the woman saying ‘and only one is left;’ but the nurse guessed that this must mean that only one day was left, since she had come for two days already. Who acts: mysterious thing, nurse, this, woman. A sentence of «The Yellow Fairy Book» by Andrew Lang, The Witch in the
---

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# The Yellow Fairy Book, The Witch in the Stone Boat(31), sentence 49

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The most mysterious thing was the woman saying ‘and only one is left;’ but the nurse guessed that this must mean that only one day was left, since she had come for two days already.

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**Who acts:** mysterious thing, nurse, this, woman · **What happens:** be, leave, guess, mean, come · **To what, where:** one · **Speech:** someone speaks here

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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 (mysterious thing, nurse, this, woman), 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:pg640:47:49
# text = The most mysterious thing was the woman saying ‘and only one is left;’ but the nurse guessed that this must mean that only one day was left, since she had come for two days already.
1	The	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	4	det	_	_
2	most	most	ADV	RBS	Degree=Sup	3	advmod	_	_
3	mysterious	mysterious	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	4	amod	_	_
4	thing	thing	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	8	nsubj:outer	_	_
5	was	be	AUX	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	8	cop	_	_
6	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	7	det	_	_
7	woman	woman	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	8	nsubj	_	_
8	saying	say	VERB	VBG	VerbForm=Ger	0	root	_	_
9	‘	‘	PUNCT	,	_	14	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
10	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	14	cc	_	_
11	only	only	ADV	RB	_	12	advmod	_	_
12	one	one	NUM	CD	NumForm=Word|NumType=Card	14	nsubj:pass	_	_
13	is	be	AUX	VBZ	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Fin	14	aux:pass	_	_
14	left	leave	VERB	VBN	Tense=Past|VerbForm=Part|Voice=Pass	8	ccomp	_	SpaceAfter=No
15	;	;	PUNCT	:	_	14	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
16	’	'	PUNCT	''	_	14	punct	_	_
17	but	but	CCONJ	CC	_	20	cc	_	_
18	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	19	det	_	_
19	nurse	nurse	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	20	nsubj	_	_
20	guessed	guess	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	14	conj	_	_
21	that	that	SCONJ	IN	_	24	mark	_	_
22	this	this	PRON	DT	Number=Sing|PronType=Dem	24	nsubj	_	_
23	must	must	AUX	MD	VerbForm=Fin	24	aux	_	_
24	mean	mean	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	20	ccomp	_	_
25	that	that	SCONJ	IN	_	30	mark	_	_
26	only	only	ADV	RB	_	27	advmod	_	_
27	one	one	NUM	CD	NumForm=Word|NumType=Card	28	nummod	_	_
28	day	day	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	30	obl:unmarked	_	_
29	was	be	AUX	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	30	aux:pass	_	_
30	left	leave	VERB	VBN	Tense=Past|VerbForm=Part|Voice=Pass	24	ccomp	_	SpaceAfter=No
31	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	30	punct	_	_
32	since	since	SCONJ	IN	_	35	mark	_	_
33	she	she	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Gender=Fem|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	35	nsubj	_	_
34	had	have	AUX	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	35	aux	_	_
35	come	come	VERB	VBN	Tense=Past|VerbForm=Part	30	advcl	_	_
36	for	for	ADP	IN	_	38	case	_	_
37	two	two	NUM	CD	NumForm=Word|NumType=Card	38	nummod	_	_
38	days	day	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	35	obl	_	_
39	already	already	ADV	RB	_	35	advmod	_	SpaceAfter=No
40	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	8	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

<!-- .fr -->
| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **be** *speech: assert* | past | the mysterious thing |  |  |  |  | say *property* | tree rules |
| 2 | **leave** | present · passive |  | one |  |  |  |  | vn keep-15.2 «NP V NP»: subject=Theme |
| 3 | **guess** | past | the nurse |  |  |  |  |  | vn conjecture-29.5-1 «NP V that S»: agent=Agent clause=Theme |
| 4 | **mean** | must | this |  |  |  |  |  | vn intend-61.2-1 «NP V S»: agent=Agent clause=Topic |
| 5 | **leave** | past · passive |  |  |  |  | day |  | vn escape-51.1-1-1 «NP V» |
| 6 | **come** | past · perfect | woman |  |  |  | day |  | vn escape-51.1-1 «NP V»: agent=Theme |

<!-- .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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