---
title: ‘Oh, nothing,’ answered he; ‘I am only heating a pair of tongs in ca… — The Violet Fairy Book · tree and pragmatics
description: ‘Oh, nothing,’ answered he; ‘I am only heating a pair of tongs in case you may not feel inclined to give as much milk as I want.’ Who acts: nothing, I, you. A sentence of «The Violet Fairy Book» by Andrew Lang, The Grateful Prince, part 2, with its dependency tree and the pragmatics of every clause.
---

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# The Violet Fairy Book, The Grateful Prince, part 2, sentence 41

<!-- .ven lang=en -->
‘Oh, nothing,’ answered he; ‘I am only heating a pair of tongs in case you may not feel inclined to give as much milk as I want.’

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**Who acts:** nothing, I, you · **What happens:** answer, heat, not feel, give, want · **To what, where:** maiden, pair, much milk · **Speech:** someone speaks here

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This is a sentence of «The Violet Fairy Book» by Andrew Lang, The Grateful Prince, part 2. The page gives its syntax tree — a dependency tree in the style of Universal Dependencies — and its pragmatics clause by clause: who acts (nothing, I, you), 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:pg641:10:41
# text = ‘Oh, nothing,’ answered he; ‘I am only heating a pair of tongs in case you may not feel inclined to give as much milk as I want.’
1	‘	'	PUNCT	``	_	4	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
2	Oh	oh	INTJ	UH	_	4	discourse	_	SpaceAfter=No
3	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	2	punct	_	_
4	nothing	nothing	PRON	NN	Number=Sing|PronType=Neg	7	nsubj	_	SpaceAfter=No
5	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	4	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
6	’	'	PUNCT	''	_	4	punct	_	_
7	answered	answer	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	0	root	_	_
8	he	he	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	7	obj	_	SpaceAfter=No
9	;	;	PUNCT	:	_	14	punct	_	_
10	‘	'	PUNCT	``	_	14	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
11	I	I	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Number=Sing|Person=1|PronType=Prs	14	nsubj	_	_
12	am	be	AUX	VBP	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=1|Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Fin	14	aux	_	_
13	only	only	ADV	RB	_	14	advmod	_	_
14	heating	heat	VERB	VBG	Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Part	7	ccomp	_	_
15	a	a	DET	DT	Definite=Ind|PronType=Art	16	det	_	_
16	pair	pair	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	14	obj	_	_
17	of	of	ADP	IN	_	18	case	_	_
18	tongs	tong	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	16	nmod	_	_
19	in	in	SCONJ	IN	ExtPos=SCONJ	24	mark	_	_
20	case	case	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	19	fixed	_	_
21	you	you	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Person=2|PronType=Prs	24	nsubj	_	_
22	may	may	AUX	MD	VerbForm=Fin	24	aux	_	_
23	not	not	PART	RB	Polarity=Neg	24	advmod	_	_
24	feel	feel	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	14	advcl	_	_
25	inclined	inclined	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	24	xcomp	_	_
26	to	to	PART	TO	_	27	mark	_	_
27	give	give	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	25	xcomp	_	_
28	as	as	ADV	RB	_	29	advmod	_	_
29	much	much	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	30	amod	_	_
30	milk	milk	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	27	obj	_	_
31	as	as	SCONJ	IN	_	33	mark	_	_
32	I	I	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Number=Sing|Person=1|PronType=Prs	33	nsubj	_	_
33	want	want	VERB	VBP	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=1|Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Fin	27	advcl	_	SpaceAfter=No
34	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	14	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
35	’	'	PUNCT	''	_	14	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

<!-- .fr -->
| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **answer** *speech: assert* | past | nothing |  | maiden |  |  |  | tree rules |
| 2 | **heat** | present · progressive | I | a pair of tongs |  |  |  |  | vn cooking-45.3 «NP V NP.patient»: agent=Agent pair=Patient |
| 3 | **not** **feel** | may | you |  |  |  |  | inclined *property* | vn stimulus\_subject-30.4 «NP V ADJ»: agent=Stimulus |
| 4 | **give** | to-infinitive | you *not said here* | much milk |  |  |  |  | vn give-13.1-1 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent milk=Theme |
| 5 | **want** | present | I |  |  |  |  |  | vn want-32.1-1-1 «NP V NP S\_INF»: agent=Pivot |

<!-- .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 Violet Fairy Book» by Andrew Lang, Project Gutenberg book 641 (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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