---
title: The girl tried to speak, but before she could sob out her thanks the… — The Violet Fairy Book · tree and pragmatics
description: The girl tried to speak, but before she could sob out her thanks the old man had touched her softly on the head three times with his silver staff. Who acts: girl. A sentence of «The Violet Fairy Book» by Andrew Lang, A Tale of the Tontlawald, with its dependency tree and the pragmatics of every clau
---

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# The Violet Fairy Book, A Tale of the Tontlawald, sentence 170

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The girl tried to speak, but before she could sob out her thanks the old man had touched her softly on the head three times with his silver staff.

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**Who acts:** girl · **What happens:** try, speak, sob out, touch · **To what, where:** thanks · **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 (girl), 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:pg641:2:170
# text = The girl tried to speak, but before she could sob out her thanks the old man had touched her softly on the head three times with his silver staff.
1	The	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	2	det	_	_
2	girl	girl	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	3	nsubj	_	_
3	tried	try	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	0	root	_	_
4	to	to	PART	TO	_	5	mark	_	_
5	speak	speak	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	3	xcomp	_	SpaceAfter=No
6	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	11	punct	_	_
7	but	but	CCONJ	CC	_	11	cc	_	_
8	before	before	SCONJ	IN	_	11	mark	_	_
9	she	she	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Gender=Fem|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	11	nsubj	_	_
10	could	could	AUX	MD	VerbForm=Fin	11	aux	_	_
11	sob	sob	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	3	conj	_	_
12	out	out	ADP	RP	_	11	compound:prt	_	_
13	her	her	PRON	PRP$	Case=Gen|Gender=Fem|Number=Sing|Person=3|Poss=Yes|PronType=Prs	14	nmod:poss	_	_
14	thanks	thanks	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	19	nsubj:pass	_	_
15	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	17	det	_	_
16	old	old	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	17	amod	_	_
17	man	man	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	19	nsubj	_	_
18	had	have	AUX	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	19	aux	_	_
19	touched	touch	VERB	VBN	Tense=Past|VerbForm=Part|Voice=Pass	11	advcl	_	_
20	her	her	PRON	PRP$	Case=Gen|Gender=Fem|Number=Sing|Person=3|Poss=Yes|PronType=Prs	21	nmod:poss	_	_
21	softly	softly	ADV	RB	_	19	advmod	_	_
22	on	on	ADP	IN	_	24	case	_	_
23	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	24	det	_	_
24	head	head	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	19	obl	_	_
25	three	three	NUM	CD	NumForm=Word|NumType=Card	26	nummod	_	_
26	times	time	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	19	obl:unmarked	_	_
27	with	with	ADP	IN	_	30	case	_	_
28	his	his	PRON	PRP$	Case=Gen|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|Poss=Yes|PronType=Prs	30	nmod:poss	_	_
29	silver	silver	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	30	compound	_	_
30	staff	staff	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	26	nmod	_	SpaceAfter=No
31	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	3	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

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| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **try** | past | the girl |  |  |  |  |  | vn try-61.1 «NP V S\_INF»: agent=Agent clause=Eventuality |
| 2 | **speak** *speech: other* *not said to happen* | to-infinitive | the girl *not said here* |  |  |  |  |  | vn talk-37.5 «NP V»: agent=Agent |
| 3 | **sob out** | could | girl |  |  |  |  |  | vn nonverbal\_expression-40.2 «NP V»: agent=Agent |
| 4 | **touch** | past · perfect · passive |  | girl's thanks |  |  | time | on the head; softly *property* | vn touch-20-1 «NP V NP PP.theme PP.instrument»: subject=Experiencer on head=Theme |

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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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