---
title: On Dotterine’s tenth birthday her nurse handed her over the cradle,… — The Violet Fairy Book · tree and pragmatics
description: On Dotterine’s tenth birthday her nurse handed her over the cradle, and repeated to her her mother’s dying words; but the child was too young to understand the value of such a gift, and at first thought little about it. Who acts: nurse, child, mother. A sentence of «The Violet Fairy Book» by Andrew 
---

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# The Violet Fairy Book, The Child Who Came From an Egg, sentence 63

<!-- .ven lang=en -->
On Dotterine’s tenth birthday her nurse handed her over the cradle, and repeated to her her mother’s dying words; but the child was too young to understand the value of such a gift, and at first thought little about it.

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**Who acts:** nurse, child, mother · **What happens:** hand, repeat, die, be, understand, think · **To what, where:** queen, tenth birthday, value, little, gift

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This is a sentence of «The Violet Fairy Book» by Andrew Lang, The Child Who Came From an Egg. The page gives its syntax tree — a dependency tree in the style of Universal Dependencies — and its pragmatics clause by clause: who acts (nurse, child, mother), 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:pg641:12:63
# text = On Dotterine’s tenth birthday her nurse handed her over the cradle, and repeated to her her mother’s dying words; but the child was too young to understand the value of such a gift, and at first thought little about it.
1	On	on	ADP	IN	_	5	case	_	_
2	Dotterine	Dotterine	PROPN	NNP	Number=Sing	5	nmod:poss	_	SpaceAfter=No
3	’s	's	PART	POS	_	2	case	_	_
4	tenth	tenth	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	5	amod	_	_
5	birthday	birthday	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	8	obl	_	_
6	her	her	PRON	PRP$	Case=Gen|Gender=Fem|Number=Sing|Person=3|Poss=Yes|PronType=Prs	7	nmod:poss	_	_
7	nurse	nurse	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	8	nsubj	_	_
8	handed	hand	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	0	root	_	_
9	her	she	PRON	PRP	Case=Acc|Gender=Fem|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	8	iobj	_	_
10	over	over	ADP	IN	_	12	case	_	_
11	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	12	det	_	_
12	cradle	cradle	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	8	obl	_	SpaceAfter=No
13	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	15	punct	_	_
14	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	15	cc	_	_
15	repeated	repeat	VERB	VBN	Tense=Past|VerbForm=Part|Voice=Pass	8	conj	_	_
16	to	to	ADP	IN	_	22	case	_	_
17	her	her	PRON	PRP$	Case=Gen|Gender=Fem|Number=Sing|Person=3|Poss=Yes|PronType=Prs	19	nmod:poss	_	_
18	her	her	PRON	PRP$	Case=Gen|Gender=Fem|Number=Sing|Person=3|Poss=Yes|PronType=Prs	19	nmod:poss	_	_
19	mother	mother	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	22	nmod:poss	_	SpaceAfter=No
20	’s	's	PART	POS	_	19	case	_	_
21	dying	die	VERB	VBG	VerbForm=Ger	22	amod	_	_
22	words	word	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	15	obl	_	SpaceAfter=No
23	;	;	PUNCT	,	_	29	punct	_	_
24	but	but	CCONJ	CC	_	29	cc	_	_
25	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	26	det	_	_
26	child	child	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	29	nsubj	_	_
27	was	be	AUX	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	29	cop	_	_
28	too	too	ADV	RB	_	29	advmod	_	_
29	young	young	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	8	conj	_	_
30	to	to	PART	TO	_	31	mark	_	_
31	understand	understand	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	29	advcl	_	_
32	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	33	det	_	_
33	value	value	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	31	obj	_	_
34	of	of	ADP	IN	_	37	case	_	_
35	such	such	DET	PDT	PronType=Ind	37	det:predet	_	_
36	a	a	DET	DT	Definite=Ind|PronType=Art	37	det	_	_
37	gift	gift	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	33	nmod	_	SpaceAfter=No
38	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	42	punct	_	_
39	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	42	cc	_	_
40	at	at	ADP	IN	_	41	case	_	_
41	first	first	ADV	RB	NumForm=Word|NumType=Ord	42	obl	_	_
42	thought	think	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	8	conj	_	_
43	little	little	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	42	obj	_	_
44	about	about	ADP	IN	_	45	case	_	_
45	it	it	PRON	PRP	Case=Acc|Gender=Neut|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	43	nmod	_	SpaceAfter=No
46	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	8	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

<!-- .fr -->
| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **hand** | past | queen's nurse |  | queen | Dotterine's tenth birthday |  | over the cradle | vn send-11.1-1 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent she=Theme |
| 2 | **repeat** | participle | queen's nurse *not said here* |  |  |  |  | to queen's mother's dying words | vn begin-55.1-1-1 «NP.eventuality V»: agent=Eventuality |
| 3 | **die** | gerund |  |  |  |  |  |  | vn calibratable\_cos-45.6.1 «NP.attribute V»: agent=Attribute |
| 4 | **is** | past | the child |  |  |  |  | young *property* | tree rules |
| 5 | **understand** | to-infinitive | the child *not said here* | the value of such gift |  |  |  |  | vn comprehend-87.2-1-1-1 «NP V NP PP.attribute»: agent=Experiencer value=Stimulus |
| 6 | **think** *speech: other* | past | queen's nurse *not said here* | little |  |  |  | about gift | vn wish-62 «NP V NP»: agent=Pivot little=Theme |
| 7 | **word** |  | queen's mother |  |  |  |  |  | nom word «communication transitive»: poss=agent |
| 8 | **value** |  |  | such gift |  |  |  |  | nom value «cognition transitive»: of=patient |

<!-- .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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