---
title: Elsa could not understand any of the men’s songs, but one word, she… — The Violet Fairy Book · tree and pragmatics
description: Elsa could not understand any of the men’s songs, but one word, she noticed, came over and over again, and that was ‘Kisika.’ Who acts: Elsa, that, men. 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 65

<!-- .ven lang=en -->
Elsa could not understand any of the men’s songs, but one word, she noticed, came over and over again, and that was ‘Kisika.’

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**Who acts:** Elsa, that, men · **What happens:** not understand, notice, come, be, sing · **To what, where:** any, one word, Kisika

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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, that, men), 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:pg641:2:65
# text = Elsa could not understand any of the men’s songs, but one word, she noticed, came over and over again, and that was ‘Kisika.’
1	Elsa	Elsa	PROPN	NNP	Number=Sing	4	nsubj	_	_
2	could	could	AUX	MD	VerbForm=Fin	4	aux	_	_
3	not	not	PART	RB	Polarity=Neg	4	advmod	_	_
4	understand	understand	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	0	root	_	_
5	any	any	DET	DT	PronType=Ind	4	obj	_	_
6	of	of	ADP	IN	_	10	case	_	_
7	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	8	det	_	_
8	men	man	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	10	nmod:poss	_	SpaceAfter=No
9	’s	's	PART	POS	_	8	case	_	_
10	songs	song	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	5	nmod	_	SpaceAfter=No
11	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	14	punct	_	_
12	but	but	CCONJ	CC	_	14	cc	_	_
13	one	one	NUM	CD	NumForm=Word|NumType=Card	14	nummod	_	_
14	word	word	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	4	obl	_	SpaceAfter=No
15	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	17	punct	_	_
16	she	she	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Gender=Fem|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	17	nsubj	_	_
17	noticed	notice	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	14	acl:relcl	_	SpaceAfter=No
18	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	19	punct	_	_
19	came	come	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	17	conj	_	_
20	over	over	ADV	RB	_	19	advmod	_	_
21	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	23	cc	_	_
22	over	over	ADV	RB	_	23	advmod	_	_
23	again	again	ADV	RB	_	20	conj	_	SpaceAfter=No
24	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	29	punct	_	_
25	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	29	cc	_	_
26	that	that	PRON	DT	Number=Sing|PronType=Dem	29	nsubj	_	_
27	was	be	AUX	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	29	cop	_	_
28	‘	'	PUNCT	``	_	29	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
29	Kisika	Kisika	PROPN	NNP	Number=Sing	14	appos	_	SpaceAfter=No
30	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	29	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
31	’	'	PUNCT	''	_	29	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

<!-- .fr -->
| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **not** **understand** | could | Elsa | any |  |  |  | one word *obl* | vn comprehend-87.2-1-1-1 «NP V NP PP.attribute»: agent=Experiencer any=Stimulus |
| 2 | **notice** | past | Elsa | one word *not said here* |  |  |  |  | vn see-30.1-1 «NP V S»: agent=Experiencer word=Stimulus |
| 3 | **come** | past | Elsa *not said here* |  |  |  |  | over *property* | vn escape-51.1-1 «NP V»: agent=Theme |
| 4 | **is a** | past | that | Kisika |  |  |  |  | tree rules |
| 5 | **sing** |  | the men |  |  |  |  |  | nom song «communication intransitive»: poss=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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