---
title: When the three slaves went and told their mistress what the sultan h… — The Violet Fairy Book · tree and pragmatics
description: When the three slaves went and told their mistress what the sultan had done, and how all the people were weeping, she answered: Who acts: three slaves, sultan, people, news. A sentence of «The Violet Fairy Book» by Andrew Lang, The Story of a Gazelle, with its dependency tree and the pragmatics of e
---

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# The Violet Fairy Book, The Story of a Gazelle, sentence 283

<!-- .ven lang=en -->
When the three slaves went and told their mistress what the sultan had done, and how all the people were weeping, she answered:

<!-- .vintro -->
**Who acts:** three slaves, sultan, people, news · **What happens:** go, tell, do, weep, answer · **To what, where:** mistress · **Speech:** someone speaks here

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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 (three slaves, sultan, people, news), 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:pg641:15:283
# text = When the three slaves went and told their mistress what the sultan had done, and how all the people were weeping, she answered:
1	When	when	SCONJ	WRB	_	5	mark	_	_
2	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	4	det	_	_
3	three	three	NUM	CD	NumForm=Word|NumType=Card	4	nummod	_	_
4	slaves	slave	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	5	nsubj	_	_
5	went	go	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Plur|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	25	advcl	_	_
6	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	7	cc	_	_
7	told	tell	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Plur|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	5	conj	_	_
8	their	their	PRON	PRP$	Case=Gen|Number=Plur|Person=3|Poss=Yes|PronType=Prs	9	nmod:poss	_	_
9	mistress	mistress	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	7	iobj	_	_
10	what	what	PRON	WP	PronType=Int	14	obj	_	_
11	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	12	det	_	_
12	sultan	sultan	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	14	nsubj	_	_
13	had	have	AUX	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	14	aux	_	_
14	done	do	VERB	VBN	Tense=Past|VerbForm=Part	7	ccomp	_	SpaceAfter=No
15	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	22	punct	_	_
16	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	22	cc	_	_
17	how	how	ADV	WRB	PronType=Int	18	advmod	_	_
18	all	all	DET	PDT	PronType=Tot	20	det:predet	_	_
19	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	20	det	_	_
20	people	people	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	22	nsubj	_	_
21	were	be	AUX	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Plur|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	22	aux	_	_
22	weeping	weep	VERB	VBG	Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Part	5	advcl	_	SpaceAfter=No
23	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	5	punct	_	_
24	she	she	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Gender=Fem|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	25	nsubj	_	_
25	answered	answer	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	0	root	_	SpaceAfter=No
26	:	:	PUNCT	:	_	25	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

<!-- .fr -->
| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **go** | past | the three slaves |  |  |  |  |  | vn disappearance-48.2-1 «NP V»: agent=Theme |
| 2 | **tell** *speech: assert* | past | the three slaves *not said here* |  | Gazelles's mistress |  |  |  | vn transfer\_mesg-37.1.1-1-1 «NP V NP what S»: agent=Agent mistress=Recipient clause=Topic |
| 3 | **do** | past · perfect | the sultan |  |  |  |  |  | vn act-114-1 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent what=Eventuality |
| 4 | **weep** | past · progressive | all people |  |  |  |  |  | vn breathe-40.1.2 «NP V»: agent=Agent |
| 5 | **answer** *speech: assert* | past | news |  |  |  |  |  | vn reciprocate-112-1 «NP V»: agent=Agent |

<!-- .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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