---
title: Then she told the girl to come near, and stroked her cheeks and spok… — The Violet Fairy Book · tree and pragmatics
description: Then she told the girl to come near, and stroked her cheeks and spoke kindly to her, asking if her parents were alive, and if she really would like to stay with them. Who acts: mother, parents. A sentence of «The Violet Fairy Book» by Andrew Lang, A Tale of the Tontlawald, with its dependency tree a
---

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# The Violet Fairy Book, A Tale of the Tontlawald, sentence 39

<!-- .ven lang=en -->
Then she told the girl to come near, and stroked her cheeks and spoke kindly to her, asking if her parents were alive, and if she really would like to stay with them.

<!-- .vintro -->
**Who acts:** mother, parents · **What happens:** tell, come, stroke, speak, ask, be · **To what, where:** girl, cheeks, mother · **Speech:** someone speaks here

<!-- .vabout -->
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 (mother, parents), 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:pg641:2:39
# text = Then she told the girl to come near, and stroked her cheeks and spoke kindly to her, asking if her parents were alive, and if she really would like to stay with them.
1	Then	then	ADV	RB	PronType=Dem	3	advmod	_	_
2	she	she	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Gender=Fem|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	3	nsubj	_	_
3	told	tell	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	0	root	_	_
4	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	5	det	_	_
5	girl	girl	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	3	iobj	_	_
6	to	to	PART	TO	_	7	mark	_	_
7	come	come	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	3	xcomp	_	_
8	near	near	ADV	RB	_	7	advmod	_	SpaceAfter=No
9	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	11	punct	_	_
10	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	11	cc	_	_
11	stroked	stroke	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	3	parataxis	_	_
12	her	her	PRON	PRP$	Case=Gen|Gender=Fem|Number=Sing|Person=3|Poss=Yes|PronType=Prs	13	nmod:poss	_	_
13	cheeks	cheek	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	11	obj	_	_
14	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	15	cc	_	_
15	spoke	speak	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=1|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	11	conj	_	_
16	kindly	kindly	ADV	RB	_	15	advmod	_	_
17	to	to	ADP	IN	_	18	case	_	_
18	her	she	PRON	PRP	Case=Acc|Gender=Fem|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	15	obl	_	SpaceAfter=No
19	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	20	punct	_	_
20	asking	ask	VERB	VBG	Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Part	15	advcl	_	_
21	if	if	SCONJ	IN	_	25	mark	_	_
22	her	her	PRON	PRP$	Case=Gen|Gender=Fem|Number=Sing|Person=3|Poss=Yes|PronType=Prs	23	nmod:poss	_	_
23	parents	parent	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	25	nsubj	_	_
24	were	be	AUX	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Plur|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	25	cop	_	_
25	alive	alive	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	20	ccomp	_	SpaceAfter=No
26	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	32	punct	_	_
27	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	32	cc	_	_
28	if	if	SCONJ	IN	_	32	mark	_	_
29	she	she	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Gender=Fem|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	32	nsubj	_	_
30	really	really	ADV	RB	_	32	advmod	_	_
31	would	would	AUX	MD	VerbForm=Fin	32	aux	_	_
32	like	like	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	3	conj	_	_
33	to	to	PART	TO	_	34	mark	_	_
34	stay	stay	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	32	xcomp	_	_
35	with	with	ADP	IN	_	36	case	_	_
36	them	they	PRON	PRP	Case=Acc|Number=Plur|Person=3|PronType=Prs	34	obl	_	SpaceAfter=No
37	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	3	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

<!-- .fr -->
| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **tell** *speech: assert* | past | mother |  | the girl |  | then |  | vn transfer\_mesg-37.1.1-1-1 «NP V NP S\_INF»: agent=Agent girl=Recipient clause=Topic |
| 2 | **come** *not said to happen* | to-infinitive | mother *not said here* |  |  |  |  | near *property* | vn escape-51.1-1 «NP V»: agent=Theme |
| 3 | **stroke** | past |  | mother's cheeks |  |  |  |  | vn touch-20-1 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent cheek=Experiencer |
| 4 | **speak** *speech: other* | past |  |  | mother |  |  | kindly *property* | vn talk-37.5 «NP V PP.co-agent»: agent=Agent to she=Co-Agent |
| 5 | **ask** *speech: ask* | gerund |  |  |  |  |  |  | vn inquire-37.1.2 «NP V»: agent=Agent |
| 6 | **is** *a condition, not said to happen* | past | mother's parents |  |  |  |  | alive *property* | tree rules |
| 7 | **like** *a condition, not said to happen* | would | mother |  |  |  |  |  | vn want-32.1-1-1 «NP V NP S\_INF»: agent=Pivot clause=Theme |
| 8 | **stay** *not said to happen* | to-infinitive | mother *not said here* |  |  |  |  | with parents *= parent* | vn lodge-46 «NP V PP.location»: agent=Theme with they=Location |

<!-- .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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