---
title: The girl must, however, have told her mother what Elsa had said, for… — The Violet Fairy Book · tree and pragmatics
description: The girl must, however, have told her mother what Elsa had said, for a few days later she spoke to Elsa seriously: Who acts: Elsa. A sentence of «The Violet Fairy Book» by Andrew Lang, A Tale of the Tontlawald, with its dependency tree and the pragmatics of every clause.
---

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# The Violet Fairy Book, A Tale of the Tontlawald, sentence 122

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The girl must, however, have told her mother what Elsa had said, for a few days later she spoke to Elsa seriously:

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**Who acts:** Elsa · **What happens:** tell, say, speak · **To what, where:** girl, mother, Elsa · **Speech:** someone speaks here

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This is a sentence of «The Violet Fairy Book» by Andrew Lang, A Tale of the Tontlawald. The page gives its syntax tree — a dependency tree in the style of Universal Dependencies — and its pragmatics clause by clause: who acts (Elsa), 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:pg641:2:122
# text = The girl must, however, have told her mother what Elsa had said, for a few days later she spoke to Elsa seriously:
1	The	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	2	det	_	_
2	girl	girl	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	8	nsubj:pass	_	_
3	must	must	AUX	MD	VerbForm=Fin	8	aux	_	SpaceAfter=No
4	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	3	punct	_	_
5	however	however	ADV	RB	_	8	advmod	_	SpaceAfter=No
6	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	5	punct	_	_
7	have	have	AUX	VBP	Mood=Ind|Number=Plur|Person=3|Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Fin	8	aux	_	_
8	told	tell	VERB	VBN	Tense=Past|VerbForm=Part|Voice=Pass	0	root	_	_
9	her	her	PRON	PRP$	Case=Gen|Gender=Fem|Number=Sing|Person=3|Poss=Yes|PronType=Prs	10	nmod:poss	_	_
10	mother	mother	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	8	iobj	_	_
11	what	what	PRON	WP	PronType=Int	14	obj	_	_
12	Elsa	Elsa	PROPN	NNP	Number=Sing	14	nsubj:pass	_	_
13	had	have	AUX	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	14	aux	_	_
14	said	say	VERB	VBN	Tense=Past|VerbForm=Part|Voice=Pass	8	conj	_	SpaceAfter=No
15	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	19	punct	_	_
16	for	for	ADP	IN	_	19	case	_	_
17	a	a	DET	DT	Definite=Ind|PronType=Art	19	det	_	_
18	few	few	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	19	amod	_	_
19	days	day	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	20	obl:unmarked	_	_
20	later	late	ADV	RBR	Degree=Cmp	14	advmod	_	_
21	she	she	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Gender=Fem|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	22	nsubj	_	_
22	spoke	speak	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	8	parataxis	_	_
23	to	to	ADP	IN	_	24	case	_	_
24	Elsa	Elsa	PROPN	NNP	Number=Sing	22	obl	_	_
25	seriously	seriously	ADV	RB	_	22	advmod	_	SpaceAfter=No
26	:	:	PUNCT	:	_	8	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

<!-- .fr -->
| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **tell** *speech: assert* | must · perfect · passive |  | the girl | girl's mother |  |  | however *property* | vn transfer\_mesg-37.1.1-1-1 «NP V NP-Dative NP»: subject=Recipient mother=Topic |
| 2 | **say** *speech: assert* | past · perfect · passive |  | Elsa |  |  |  | late *property* | vn pronounce-29.3.1 «NP V NP NP»: subject=Theme what=Manner |
| 3 | **speak** *speech: other* | past | Elsa |  | Elsa |  |  | seriously *property* | vn talk-37.5 «NP V PP.co-agent»: agent=Agent to elsa=Co-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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