---
title: Then they oiled the corners of their mouths so that they might be ab… — The Yellow Fairy Book · tree and pragmatics
description: Then they oiled the corners of their mouths so that they might be able to speak more fluently. Who acts: others. A sentence of «The Yellow Fairy Book» by Andrew Lang, The Steadfast Tin-soldier, with its dependency tree and the pragmatics of every clause.
---

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# The Yellow Fairy Book, The Steadfast Tin-soldier, sentence 91

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Then they oiled the corners of their mouths so that they might be able to speak more fluently.

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**Who acts:** others · **What happens:** oil, be, speak · **To what, where:** corners · **Speech:** someone speaks here

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This is a sentence of «The Yellow Fairy Book» by Andrew Lang, The Steadfast Tin-soldier. The page gives its syntax tree — a dependency tree in the style of Universal Dependencies — and its pragmatics clause by clause: who acts (others), 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:pg640:50:91
# text = Then they oiled the corners of their mouths so that they might be able to speak more fluently.
1	Then	then	ADV	RB	PronType=Dem	3	advmod	_	_
2	they	they	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Number=Plur|Person=3|PronType=Prs	3	nsubj	_	_
3	oiled	oil	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Plur|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	0	root	_	_
4	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	5	det	_	_
5	corners	corner	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	3	obj	_	_
6	of	of	ADP	IN	_	8	case	_	_
7	their	their	PRON	PRP$	Case=Gen|Number=Plur|Person=3|Poss=Yes|PronType=Prs	8	nmod:poss	_	_
8	mouths	mouth	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	5	nmod	_	_
9	so	so	SCONJ	IN	_	14	mark	_	_
10	that	that	SCONJ	IN	_	14	mark	_	_
11	they	they	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Number=Plur|Person=3|PronType=Prs	14	nsubj	_	_
12	might	might	AUX	MD	VerbForm=Fin	14	aux	_	_
13	be	be	AUX	VB	VerbForm=Inf	14	cop	_	_
14	able	able	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	3	advcl	_	_
15	to	to	PART	TO	_	16	mark	_	_
16	speak	speak	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	14	xcomp	_	_
17	more	more	ADV	RBR	Degree=Cmp	18	advmod	_	_
18	fluently	fluently	ADV	RB	_	16	advmod	_	SpaceAfter=No
19	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	3	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

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| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **oil** | past | others *= other* | the corners of others's mouths |  |  | then |  | vn butter-9.9 «NP V NP.destination»: agent=Agent corner=Destination |
| 2 | **is** | might | others *= other* |  |  |  |  | able *property* | tree rules |
| 3 | **speak** *speech: other* | to-infinitive | others *= other* *not said here* |  |  |  |  | fluently *property* | vn talk-37.5 «NP V»: agent=Agent |

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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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