---
title: Then he asked the maiden to show him how to split stones and rocks w… — The Yellow Fairy Book · tree and pragmatics
description: Then he asked the maiden to show him how to split stones and rocks with the help of the ring. Who acts: finger, maiden. A sentence of «The Yellow Fairy Book» by Andrew Lang, The Dragon of the North(2), with its dependency tree and the pragmatics of every clause.
---

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# The Yellow Fairy Book, The Dragon of the North(2), sentence 125

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Then he asked the maiden to show him how to split stones and rocks with the help of the ring.

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**Who acts:** finger, maiden · **What happens:** ask, show, split, help · **To what, where:** maiden, finger, stones, ring · **Speech:** someone speaks here

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This is a sentence of «The Yellow Fairy Book» by Andrew Lang, The Dragon of the North(2). The page gives its syntax tree — a dependency tree in the style of Universal Dependencies — and its pragmatics clause by clause: who acts (finger, maiden), 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:pg640:5:125
# text = Then he asked the maiden to show him how to split stones and rocks with the help of the ring.
1	Then	then	ADV	RB	PronType=Dem	3	advmod	_	_
2	he	he	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	3	nsubj	_	_
3	asked	ask	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	0	root	_	_
4	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	5	det	_	_
5	maiden	maiden	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	3	obj	_	_
6	to	to	PART	TO	_	7	mark	_	_
7	show	show	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	3	xcomp	_	_
8	him	he	PRON	PRP	Case=Acc|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	7	iobj	_	_
9	how	how	ADV	WRB	PronType=Int	11	advmod	_	_
10	to	to	PART	TO	_	11	mark	_	_
11	split	split	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	7	ccomp	_	_
12	stones	stone	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	11	obj	_	_
13	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	14	cc	_	_
14	rocks	rock	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	12	conj	_	_
15	with	with	ADP	IN	_	17	case	_	_
16	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	17	det	_	_
17	help	help	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	11	obl	_	_
18	of	of	ADP	IN	_	20	case	_	_
19	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	20	det	_	_
20	ring	ring	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	17	nmod	_	SpaceAfter=No
21	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	3	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

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| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **ask** *speech: ask* | past | finger | the maiden |  |  | then |  | vn inquire-37.1.2 «NP V NP whether S\_INF»: agent=Agent maiden=Recipient clause=Topic |
| 2 | **show** *not said to happen* | to-infinitive | the maiden *not said here* |  | finger |  |  |  | vn transfer\_mesg-37.1.1-1-1 «NP V NP S\_INF»: agent=Agent he=Recipient clause=Topic |
| 3 | **split** | to-infinitive |  | stones and rocks |  |  |  | with the help of the ring | vn break-45.1 «NP V NP PP.instrument»: agent=Agent stone=Patient with help=Instrument |
| 4 | **help** |  |  | the ring |  |  |  |  | nom help «act transitive»: of=patient |

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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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