---
title: The governor took pity on the woman, and ordered his chief secretary… — The Violet Fairy Book · tree and pragmatics
description: The governor took pity on the woman, and ordered his chief secretary to look into the matter. Who acts: governor. A sentence of «The Violet Fairy Book» by Andrew Lang, How a Fish Swam in the Air and a Hare in the Water., with its dependency tree and the pragmatics of every clause.
---

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# The Violet Fairy Book, How a Fish Swam in the Air and a Hare in the Water., sentence 81

<!-- .ven lang=en -->
The governor took pity on the woman, and ordered his chief secretary to look into the matter.

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**Who acts:** governor · **What happens:** take, order, look · **To what, where:** pity, chief secretary

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This is a sentence of «The Violet Fairy Book» by Andrew Lang, How a Fish Swam in the Air and a Hare in the Water.. The page gives its syntax tree — a dependency tree in the style of Universal Dependencies — and its pragmatics clause by clause: who acts (governor), 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:pg641:16:81
# text = The governor took pity on the woman, and ordered his chief secretary to look into the matter.
1	The	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	2	det	_	_
2	governor	governor	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	3	nsubj	_	_
3	took	take	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	0	root	_	_
4	pity	pity	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	3	obj	_	_
5	on	on	ADP	IN	_	7	case	_	_
6	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	7	det	_	_
7	woman	woman	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	3	obl	_	SpaceAfter=No
8	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	10	punct	_	_
9	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	10	cc	_	_
10	ordered	order	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	3	parataxis	_	_
11	his	his	PRON	PRP$	Case=Gen|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|Poss=Yes|PronType=Prs	13	nmod:poss	_	_
12	chief	chief	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	13	amod	_	_
13	secretary	secretary	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	10	obj	_	_
14	to	to	PART	TO	_	15	mark	_	_
15	look	look	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	10	advcl	_	_
16	into	into	ADP	IN	_	18	case	_	_
17	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	18	det	_	_
18	matter	matter	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	15	obl	_	SpaceAfter=No
19	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	3	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

<!-- .fr -->
| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **take** | past | the governor | pity |  |  |  | on the woman | vn bring-11.3 «NP V NP PP.destination»: agent=Agent pity=Theme on woman=Destination |
| 2 | **order** | past |  | governor's chief secretary |  |  |  |  | vn get-13.5.1 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent secretary=Theme |
| 3 | **look** | to-infinitive |  |  |  |  |  | into the matter | vn peer-30.3 «NP V PP.theme»: agent=Agent into matter=Theme |

<!-- .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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