---
title: The child could not think what she was talking about, but he quite u… — The Violet Fairy Book · tree and pragmatics
description: The child could not think what she was talking about, but he quite understood the soup, which tasted most delicious. Who acts: child, boy, soup. A sentence of «The Violet Fairy Book» by Andrew Lang, The History of Dwarf Long Nose, part 1, with its dependency tree and the pragmatics of every clause.
---

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# The Violet Fairy Book, The History of Dwarf Long Nose, part 1, sentence 71

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The child could not think what she was talking about, but he quite understood the soup, which tasted most delicious.

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**Who acts:** child, boy, soup · **What happens:** not think, talk about, understand, taste · **To what, where:** soup

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This is a sentence of «The Violet Fairy Book» by Andrew Lang, The History of Dwarf Long Nose, part 1. The page gives its syntax tree — a dependency tree in the style of Universal Dependencies — and its pragmatics clause by clause: who acts (child, boy, soup), 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:pg641:26:71
# text = The child could not think what she was talking about, but he quite understood the soup, which tasted most delicious.
1	The	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	2	det	_	_
2	child	child	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	5	nsubj	_	_
3	could	could	AUX	MD	VerbForm=Fin	5	aux	_	_
4	not	not	PART	RB	Polarity=Neg	5	advmod	_	_
5	think	think	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	0	root	_	_
6	what	what	PRON	WP	PronType=Int	5	obj	_	_
7	she	she	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Gender=Fem|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	9	nsubj	_	_
8	was	be	AUX	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	9	aux	_	_
9	talking	talk	VERB	VBG	Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Part	6	acl:relcl	_	_
10	about	about	ADP	IN	_	9	obl	_	SpaceAfter=No
11	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	15	punct	_	_
12	but	but	CCONJ	CC	_	15	cc	_	_
13	he	he	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	15	nsubj	_	_
14	quite	quite	ADV	RB	_	15	advmod	_	_
15	understood	understand	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	5	conj	_	_
16	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	17	det	_	_
17	soup	soup	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	15	obj	_	SpaceAfter=No
18	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	20	punct	_	_
19	which	which	PRON	WDT	PronType=Rel	20	nsubj	_	_
20	tasted	taste	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	17	acl:relcl	_	_
21	most	most	ADV	RBS	Degree=Sup	22	advmod	_	_
22	delicious	delicious	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	20	xcomp	_	SpaceAfter=No
23	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	5	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

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| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **not** **think** *speech: other* | could | the child |  |  |  |  |  | vn wish-62 «NP V NP»: agent=Pivot what=Theme |
| 2 | **talk about** | past · progressive | child |  |  |  |  |  | vn talk-37.5 «NP V»: agent=Agent |
| 3 | **understand** | past | boy | the soup |  |  |  |  | vn comprehend-87.2-1-1-1 «NP V NP PP.attribute»: agent=Experiencer soup=Stimulus |
| 4 | **taste** | past | the soup |  |  |  |  | delicious *property* | vn stimulus\_subject-30.4 «NP V ADJ»: agent=Stimulus |

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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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