--- title: When he took the cover off the basket, the king and all his courtier… — The Violet Fairy Book · tree and pragmatics description: When he took the cover off the basket, the king and all his courtiers said with one voice that these were the finest pearls they had ever seen, and they could not take their eyes off them. Who acts: king, courtiers, these, pearls. A sentence of «The Violet Fairy Book» by Andrew Lang, Jesper Who Herd --- [Mova](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/) · [this page in HTML](https://mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg641/24/32/) [home](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/) / [corpora](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/) / [tales](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/) / [The Violet Fairy Book](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg641/) / [Jesper Who Herded the Hares](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg641/24/) / 32 # The Violet Fairy Book, Jesper Who Herded the Hares, sentence 32 When he took the cover off the basket, the king and all his courtiers said with one voice that these were the finest pearls they had ever seen, and they could not take their eyes off them. **Who acts:** king, courtiers, these, pearls · **What happens:** take, say, be, see, not take · **To what, where:** cover, basket, finest pearls, one voice, eyes · **Speech:** someone speaks here This is a sentence of «The Violet Fairy Book» by Andrew Lang, Jesper Who Herded the Hares. The page gives its syntax tree — a dependency tree in the style of Universal Dependencies — and its pragmatics clause by clause: who acts (king, courtiers, these, pearls), what happens, when and where, as Mova's frames read it from the tree. **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:pg641:24:32 # text = When he took the cover off the basket, the king and all his courtiers said with one voice that these were the finest pearls they had ever seen, and they could not take their eyes off them. 1 When when ADV WRB PronType=Int 3 advmod _ _ 2 he he PRON PRP Case=Nom|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs 3 nsubj _ _ 3 took take 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 cover cover NOUN NN Number=Sing 3 obj _ _ 6 off off ADP IN _ 8 case _ _ 7 the the DET DT Definite=Def|PronType=Art 8 det _ _ 8 basket basket NOUN NN Number=Sing 3 obl _ SpaceAfter=No 9 , , PUNCT , _ 11 punct _ _ 10 the the DET DT Definite=Def|PronType=Art 11 det _ _ 11 king king NOUN NN Number=Sing 8 appos _ _ 12 and and CCONJ CC _ 16 cc _ _ 13 all all DET PDT PronType=Tot 15 det:predet _ _ 14 his his PRON PRP$ Case=Gen|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|Poss=Yes|PronType=Prs 15 nmod:poss _ _ 15 courtiers courtier NOUN NNS Number=Plur 16 nsubj _ _ 16 said say VERB VBD Mood=Ind|Number=Plur|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin 3 conj _ _ 17 with with ADP IN _ 19 case _ _ 18 one one NUM CD NumForm=Word|NumType=Card 19 nummod _ _ 19 voice voice NOUN NN Number=Sing 16 obl _ _ 20 that that PRON WDT PronType=Rel 29 nsubj _ _ 21 these this PRON DT Number=Plur|PronType=Dem 25 nsubj _ _ 22 were be AUX VBD Mood=Ind|Number=Plur|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin 25 cop _ _ 23 the the DET DT Definite=Def|PronType=Art 25 det _ _ 24 finest fine ADJ JJS Degree=Sup 25 amod _ _ 25 pearls pearl NOUN NNS Number=Plur 29 nsubj:pass _ _ 26 they they PRON PRP Case=Nom|Number=Plur|Person=3|PronType=Prs 29 nsubj _ _ 27 had have AUX VBD Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin 29 aux _ _ 28 ever ever ADV RB PronType=Ind 29 advmod _ _ 29 seen see VERB VBN Tense=Past|VerbForm=Part|Voice=Pass 19 acl:relcl _ SpaceAfter=No 30 , , PUNCT , _ 35 punct _ _ 31 and and CCONJ CC _ 35 cc _ _ 32 they they PRON PRP Case=Nom|Number=Plur|Person=3|PronType=Prs 35 nsubj _ _ 33 could could AUX MD VerbForm=Fin 35 aux _ _ 34 not not PART RB Polarity=Neg 35 advmod _ _ 35 take take VERB VB VerbForm=Inf 3 parataxis _ _ 36 their their PRON PRP$ Case=Gen|Number=Plur|Person=3|Poss=Yes|PronType=Prs 37 nmod:poss _ _ 37 eyes eye NOUN NNS Number=Plur 35 obj _ _ 38 off off ADP IN _ 39 case _ _ 39 them they PRON PRP Case=Acc|Number=Plur|Person=3|PronType=Prs 35 obl _ SpaceAfter=No 40 . . PUNCT . _ 3 punct _ _ ``` ## Pragmatics {#pragmatics} | # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by | | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | | 1 | **take** | past | king | the cover | | the basket | | | vn bring-11.3 «NP V NP PP.initial\_location»: agent=Agent cover=Theme off basket=Initial\_Location | | 2 | **say** *speech: assert* | past | king's courtiers | | | | | with one voice | vn pronounce-29.3.1 «NP V NP PP.manner»: agent=Agent with voice=Manner | | 3 | **is a** | past | these | the finest pearls | | | | | tree rules | | 4 | **see** | past · perfect · passive | | one voice | | | ever | | vn comprehend-87.2-1-1 «NP V NP»: subject=Stimulus | | 5 | **not** **take** | could | pearls *= pearl* | pearls's eyes | | | | off courtiers *= courtier* | vn bring-11.3 «NP V NP PP.initial\_location»: agent=Agent eye=Theme off they=Initial\_Location | 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. **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. - ← previous: [sentence 31](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg641/24/31/) - next →: [sentence 33](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg641/24/33/) - ↑ back to [Jesper Who Herded the Hares](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg641/24/)