--- title: When the mistress heard of it, she sent three slaves, mounted on don… — The Violet Fairy Book · tree and pragmatics description: When the mistress heard of it, she sent three slaves, mounted on donkeys, with a letter to her father the sultan, and when the sultan had read the letter he bowed his head and wept, like a man who had lost his mother. Who acts: mistress, treatment, sultan, man. A sentence of «The Violet Fairy Book» --- [Mova](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/) · [this page in HTML](https://mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg641/15/277/) [home](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/) / [corpora](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/) / [tales](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/) / [The Violet Fairy Book](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg641/) / [The Story of a Gazelle](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg641/15/) / 277 # The Violet Fairy Book, The Story of a Gazelle, sentence 277 When the mistress heard of it, she sent three slaves, mounted on donkeys, with a letter to her father the sultan, and when the sultan had read the letter he bowed his head and wept, like a man who had lost his mother. **Who acts:** mistress, treatment, sultan, man · **What happens:** hear, send, mount, read, bow, weep · **To what, where:** three slaves, sultan, head, mother This is a sentence of «The Violet Fairy Book» by Andrew Lang, The Story of a Gazelle. The page gives its syntax tree — a dependency tree in the style of Universal Dependencies — and its pragmatics clause by clause: who acts (mistress, treatment, sultan, man), what happens, when and where, as Mova's frames read it from the tree. **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:pg641:15:277 # text = When the mistress heard of it, she sent three slaves, mounted on donkeys, with a letter to her father the sultan, and when the sultan had read the letter he bowed his head and wept, like a man who had lost his mother. 1 When when ADV WRB PronType=Int 4 advmod _ _ 2 the the DET DT Definite=Def|PronType=Art 3 det _ _ 3 mistress mistress NOUN NN Number=Sing 4 nsubj _ _ 4 heard hear VERB VBD Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin 9 advcl _ _ 5 of of ADP IN _ 6 case _ _ 6 it it PRON PRP Case=Acc|Gender=Neut|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs 4 obl _ SpaceAfter=No 7 , , PUNCT , _ 4 punct _ _ 8 she she PRON PRP Case=Nom|Gender=Fem|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs 9 nsubj _ _ 9 sent send VERB VBD Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin 0 root _ _ 10 three three NUM CD NumForm=Word|NumType=Card 11 nummod _ _ 11 slaves slave NOUN NNS Number=Plur 9 obj _ SpaceAfter=No 12 , , PUNCT , _ 13 punct _ _ 13 mounted mount VERB VBN Tense=Past|VerbForm=Part|Voice=Pass 11 acl _ _ 14 on on ADP IN _ 15 case _ _ 15 donkeys donkey NOUN NNS Number=Plur 13 obl _ SpaceAfter=No 16 , , PUNCT , _ 19 punct _ _ 17 with with ADP IN _ 19 case _ _ 18 a a DET DT Definite=Ind|PronType=Art 19 det _ _ 19 letter letter NOUN NN Number=Sing 13 obl _ _ 20 to to ADP IN _ 22 case _ _ 21 her her PRON PRP$ Case=Gen|Gender=Fem|Number=Sing|Person=3|Poss=Yes|PronType=Prs 22 nmod:poss _ _ 22 father father NOUN NN Number=Sing 19 nmod _ _ 23 the the DET DT Definite=Def|PronType=Art 24 det _ _ 24 sultan sultan NOUN NN Number=Sing 22 appos _ SpaceAfter=No 25 , , PUNCT , _ 31 punct _ _ 26 and and CCONJ CC _ 31 cc _ _ 27 when when SCONJ WRB _ 31 mark _ _ 28 the the DET DT Definite=Def|PronType=Art 29 det _ _ 29 sultan sultan NOUN NN Number=Sing 31 nsubj:pass _ _ 30 had have AUX VBD Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin 31 aux _ _ 31 read read VERB VBN Tense=Past|VerbForm=Part|Voice=Pass 9 advcl _ _ 32 the the DET DT Definite=Def|PronType=Art 33 det _ _ 33 letter letter NOUN NN Number=Sing 31 obj _ _ 34 he he PRON PRP Case=Nom|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs 35 nsubj _ _ 35 bowed bow VERB VBD Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin 33 acl:relcl _ _ 36 his his PRON PRP$ Case=Gen|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|Poss=Yes|PronType=Prs 37 nmod:poss _ _ 37 head head NOUN NN Number=Sing 35 obj _ _ 38 and and CCONJ CC _ 39 cc _ _ 39 wept weep VERB VBD Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin 35 conj _ SpaceAfter=No 40 , , PUNCT , _ 43 punct _ _ 41 like like ADP IN _ 43 case _ _ 42 a a DET DT Definite=Ind|PronType=Art 43 det _ _ 43 man man NOUN NN Number=Sing 39 obl _ _ 44 who who PRON WP PronType=Rel 46 nsubj _ _ 45 had have AUX VBD Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin 46 aux _ _ 46 lost lose VERB VBN Tense=Past|VerbForm=Part 43 acl:relcl _ _ 47 his his PRON PRP$ Case=Gen|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|Poss=Yes|PronType=Prs 48 nmod:poss _ _ 48 mother mother NOUN NN Number=Sing 46 obj _ SpaceAfter=No 49 . . PUNCT . _ 9 punct _ _ ``` ## Pragmatics {#pragmatics} | # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by | | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | | 1 | **hear** | past | the mistress | | | | | of well | vn see-30.1-1-1 «NP V PP.stimulus»: agent=Experiencer of it=Stimulus | | 2 | **send** | past | treatment | three slaves | | | | | vn confine-92-1 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent slave=Theme | | 3 | **mount** | participle | | three slaves *not said here* | | | | on donkeys; with a letter to treatment's father | vn establish-55.5-1 «NP V NP PP.instrument»: agent=Agent with letter=Instrument | | 4 | **read** | past · perfect · passive | | the sultan | | | | | vn transfer\_mesg-37.1.1-1 «NP V NP-Dative NP»: subject=Recipient letter=Topic | | 5 | **bow** | past | sultan | sultan's head | | | | | vn curtsey-40.3.3 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent head=Topic | | 6 | **weep** | past | sultan *not said here* | | | | | like a man | vn breathe-40.1.2 «NP V»: agent=Agent | | 7 | **lose** | past · perfect | a man | sultan's mother | | | | | vn succeed-74-3-1 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent mother=Eventuality | 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. **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. - ← previous: [sentence 276](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg641/15/276/) - next →: [sentence 278](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg641/15/278/) - ↑ back to [The Story of a Gazelle](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg641/15/)