---
title: They were served by maidens dressed in white, whose feet made no sou… — The Yellow Fairy Book · tree and pragmatics
description: They were served by maidens dressed in white, whose feet made no sound as they moved about, and not a word was spoken during the meal. Who acts: maidens, feet, chairs. A sentence of «The Yellow Fairy Book» by Andrew Lang, The Dragon of the North(2), with its dependency tree and the pragmatics of eve
---

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# The Yellow Fairy Book, The Dragon of the North(2), sentence 79

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They were served by maidens dressed in white, whose feet made no sound as they moved about, and not a word was spoken during the meal.

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**Who acts:** maidens, feet, chairs · **What happens:** serve, dress, make, move about, speak · **To what, where:** chairs, maidens, white, sound, word · **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 (maidens, feet, chairs), 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:pg640:5:79
# text = They were served by maidens dressed in white, whose feet made no sound as they moved about, and not a word was spoken during the meal.
1	They	they	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Number=Plur|Person=3|PronType=Prs	3	nsubj:pass	_	_
2	were	be	AUX	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Plur|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	3	aux:pass	_	_
3	served	serve	VERB	VBN	Tense=Past|VerbForm=Part|Voice=Pass	0	root	_	_
4	by	by	ADP	IN	_	5	case	_	_
5	maidens	maiden	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	3	obl	_	_
6	dressed	dress	VERB	VBN	Tense=Past|VerbForm=Part|Voice=Pass	5	acl	_	_
7	in	in	ADP	IN	_	8	case	_	_
8	white	white	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	6	obl	_	SpaceAfter=No
9	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	12	punct	_	_
10	whose	whose	PRON	WP$	Poss=Yes|PronType=Rel	11	nmod:poss	_	_
11	feet	foot	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	12	nsubj	_	_
12	made	make	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	3	conj	_	_
13	no	no	DET	DT	PronType=Neg	14	det	_	_
14	sound	sound	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	12	obj	_	_
15	as	as	SCONJ	IN	_	17	mark	_	_
16	they	they	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Number=Plur|Person=3|PronType=Prs	17	nsubj	_	_
17	moved	move	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Plur|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	12	advcl	_	_
18	about	about	ADV	RB	_	17	advmod	_	SpaceAfter=No
19	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	25	punct	_	_
20	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	25	cc	_	_
21	not	not	PART	RB	Polarity=Neg	23	advmod	_	_
22	a	a	DET	DT	Definite=Ind|PronType=Art	23	det	_	_
23	word	word	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	25	nsubj:pass	_	_
24	was	be	AUX	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	25	aux:pass	_	_
25	spoken	speak	VERB	VBN	Tense=Past|VerbForm=Part|Voice=Pass	3	parataxis	_	_
26	during	during	ADP	IN	_	28	case	_	_
27	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	28	det	_	_
28	meal	meal	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	25	obl	_	SpaceAfter=No
29	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	3	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

<!-- .fr -->
| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **serve** | past · passive | maidens | chairs *= chair* |  |  |  |  | vn masquerade-29.6-2 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent subject=Attribute |
| 2 | **dress** | participle |  | maidens *not said here* |  | white |  |  | vn dress-41.1.1-1-1 «NP V»: agent=Agent |
| 3 | **make** | past | feet | no sound |  |  |  |  | vn build-26.1-1 «NP.asset V NP»: agent=Asset sound=Product |
| 4 | **move about** | past | chairs *= chair* |  |  |  |  | about *property* | vn roll-51.3.1 «NP.theme V»: agent=Theme |
| 5 | **speak** *speech: other* | past · passive |  | a word |  |  | during the meal |  | tree rules |

<!-- .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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