---
title: He told them how the Dragon had been outwitted by his grandmother, a… — The Yellow Fairy Book · tree and pragmatics
description: He told them how the Dragon had been outwitted by his grandmother, and how he had heard from his own lips the answer to the riddle. Who acts: whale, grandmother. A sentence of «The Yellow Fairy Book» by Andrew Lang, The Dragon and His Grandmother, with its dependency tree and the pragmatics of every
---

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# The Yellow Fairy Book, The Dragon and His Grandmother, sentence 58

<!-- .ven lang=en -->
He told them how the Dragon had been outwitted by his grandmother, and how he had heard from his own lips the answer to the riddle.

<!-- .vintro -->
**Who acts:** whale, grandmother · **What happens:** tell, outwit, hear · **To what, where:** comrades, Dragon, own lips · **Speech:** someone speaks here

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This is a sentence of «The Yellow Fairy Book» by Andrew Lang, The Dragon and His Grandmother. The page gives its syntax tree — a dependency tree in the style of Universal Dependencies — and its pragmatics clause by clause: who acts (whale, grandmother), 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:pg640:9:58
# text = He told them how the Dragon had been outwitted by his grandmother, and how he had heard from his own lips the answer to the riddle.
1	He	he	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	2	nsubj	_	_
2	told	tell	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	0	root	_	_
3	them	they	PRON	PRP	Case=Acc|Number=Plur|Person=3|PronType=Prs	2	iobj	_	_
4	how	how	ADV	WRB	PronType=Int	9	advmod	_	_
5	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	6	det	_	_
6	Dragon	Dragon	PROPN	NNP	Number=Sing	9	nsubj	_	_
7	had	have	AUX	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	9	aux	_	_
8	been	be	AUX	VBN	Tense=Past|VerbForm=Part	9	aux:pass	_	_
9	outwitted	outwit	VERB	VBN	Tense=Past|VerbForm=Part|Voice=Pass	2	ccomp	_	_
10	by	by	ADP	IN	_	12	case	_	_
11	his	his	PRON	PRP$	Case=Gen|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|Poss=Yes|PronType=Prs	12	nmod:poss	_	_
12	grandmother	grandmother	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	9	obl	_	SpaceAfter=No
13	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	18	punct	_	_
14	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	18	cc	_	_
15	how	how	ADV	WRB	PronType=Int	18	advmod	_	_
16	he	he	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	18	nsubj	_	_
17	had	have	AUX	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	18	aux	_	_
18	heard	hear	VERB	VBN	Tense=Past|VerbForm=Part	2	conj	_	_
19	from	from	ADP	IN	_	22	case	_	_
20	his	his	PRON	PRP$	Case=Gen|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|Poss=Yes|PronType=Prs	22	nmod:poss	_	_
21	own	own	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	22	amod	_	_
22	lips	lip	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	18	obl	_	_
23	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	24	det	_	_
24	answer	answer	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	22	conj	_	_
25	to	to	ADP	IN	_	27	case	_	_
26	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	27	det	_	_
27	riddle	riddle	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	24	nmod	_	SpaceAfter=No
28	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	2	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

<!-- .fr -->
| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **tell** *speech: assert* | past | whale |  | comrades *= comrade* |  |  |  | vn transfer\_mesg-37.1.1-1-1 «NP V NP what S»: agent=Agent they=Recipient clause=Topic |
| 2 | **outwit** | past · perfect · passive | whale's grandmother | the Dragon |  |  |  |  | vn exceed-90 «NP V NP»: agent=Pivot subject=Theme |
| 3 | **hear** | past · perfect | whale |  |  | whale's own lips and the answer to the riddle |  |  | vn learn-14-2-1 «NP V PP.source»: agent=Agent from lip=Source |

<!-- .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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