---
title: ‘Nothing,’ said they; ‘the plain was quite empty, save for a brook a… — The Violet Fairy Book · tree and pragmatics
description: ‘Nothing,’ said they; ‘the plain was quite empty, save for a brook and a fish swimming in it.’ Who acts: brook, plain, fish. A sentence of «The Violet Fairy Book» by Andrew Lang, The Grateful Prince, part 3, with its dependency tree and the pragmatics of every clause.
---

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# The Violet Fairy Book, The Grateful Prince, part 3, sentence 15

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‘Nothing,’ said they; ‘the plain was quite empty, save for a brook and a fish swimming in it.’

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**Who acts:** brook, plain, fish · **What happens:** say, be, save, swim · **Speech:** someone speaks here

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This is a sentence of «The Violet Fairy Book» by Andrew Lang, The Grateful Prince, part 3. The page gives its syntax tree — a dependency tree in the style of Universal Dependencies — and its pragmatics clause by clause: who acts (brook, plain, fish), 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:pg641:11:15
# text = ‘Nothing,’ said they; ‘the plain was quite empty, save for a brook and a fish swimming in it.’
1	‘	'	PUNCT	``	_	2	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
2	Nothing	nothing	PRON	NN	Number=Sing|PronType=Neg	5	ccomp	_	SpaceAfter=No
3	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	2	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
4	’	'	PUNCT	''	_	2	punct	_	_
5	said	say	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Plur|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	0	root	_	_
6	they	they	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Number=Plur|Person=3|PronType=Prs	5	nsubj	_	SpaceAfter=No
7	;	;	PUNCT	:	_	13	punct	_	_
8	‘	'	PUNCT	``	_	13	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
9	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	10	det	_	_
10	plain	plain	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	13	nsubj	_	_
11	was	be	AUX	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	13	cop	_	_
12	quite	quite	ADV	RB	_	13	advmod	_	_
13	empty	empty	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	5	parataxis	_	SpaceAfter=No
14	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	15	punct	_	_
15	save	save	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	13	advcl	_	_
16	for	for	ADP	IN	_	18	case	_	_
17	a	a	DET	DT	Definite=Ind|PronType=Art	18	det	_	_
18	brook	brook	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	15	obl	_	_
19	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	21	cc	_	_
20	a	a	DET	DT	Definite=Ind|PronType=Art	21	det	_	_
21	fish	fish	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	18	conj	_	_
22	swimming	swim	VERB	VBG	VerbForm=Ger	21	acl	_	_
23	in	in	ADP	IN	_	24	case	_	_
24	it	it	PRON	PRP	Case=Acc|Gender=Neut|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	22	obl	_	SpaceAfter=No
25	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	5	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
26	’	'	PUNCT	''	_	5	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

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| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **say** *speech: assert* | past | brook |  |  |  |  |  | vn say-37.7-1-1 «NP V that S»: agent=Agent |
| 2 | **is** | past | the plain |  |  |  |  | empty *property* | tree rules |
| 3 | **save** | infinitive | the plain *not said here* |  |  |  |  | for a brook and a fish | vn get-13.5.1-1 «NP V NP PP.source»: agent=Agent for brook=Source |
| 4 | **swim** | gerund | a fish *not said here* |  |  |  |  | in fish | vn run-51.3.2-1 «NP V PP.location»: agent=Theme in it=Trajectory |

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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 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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