--- title: Not knowing if it was proper to receive him or not, the slaves retur… — The Violet Fairy Book · tree and pragmatics description: Not knowing if it was proper to receive him or not, the slaves returned to their mistress and told her all they had seen, but not before she had caught sight of the merchant from the roof of her palace. Who acts: slaves, it. A sentence of «The Violet Fairy Book» by Andrew Lang, The Girl Who Pretende --- [Mova](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/) · [this page in HTML](https://mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg641/39/88/) [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/) / [The Girl Who Pretended to Be a Boy, pa…](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg641/39/) / 88 # The Violet Fairy Book, The Girl Who Pretended to Be a Boy, part 2, sentence 88 Not knowing if it was proper to receive him or not, the slaves returned to their mistress and told her all they had seen, but not before she had caught sight of the merchant from the roof of her palace. **Who acts:** slaves, it · **What happens:** not know, be, receive, return, tell, see · **To what, where:** merchant, mistress · **Speech:** someone speaks here This is a sentence of «The Violet Fairy Book» by Andrew Lang, The Girl Who Pretended to Be a Boy, part 2. The page gives its syntax tree — a dependency tree in the style of Universal Dependencies — and its pragmatics clause by clause: who acts (slaves, it), 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:pg641:39:88 # text = Not knowing if it was proper to receive him or not, the slaves returned to their mistress and told her all they had seen, but not before she had caught sight of the merchant from the roof of her palace. 1 Not not PART RB Polarity=Neg 2 advmod _ _ 2 knowing know VERB VBG Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Part 15 advcl _ _ 3 if if SCONJ IN _ 6 mark _ _ 4 it it PRON PRP Case=Nom|Gender=Neut|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs 6 nsubj _ _ 5 was be AUX VBD Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin 6 cop _ _ 6 proper proper ADJ JJ Degree=Pos 2 ccomp _ _ 7 to to PART TO _ 8 mark _ _ 8 receive receive VERB VB VerbForm=Inf 6 csubj _ _ 9 him he PRON PRP Case=Acc|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs 8 obj _ _ 10 or or CCONJ CC _ 11 cc _ _ 11 not not PART RB Polarity=Neg 6 conj _ SpaceAfter=No 12 , , PUNCT , _ 2 punct _ _ 13 the the DET DT Definite=Def|PronType=Art 14 det _ _ 14 slaves slave NOUN NNS Number=Plur 15 nsubj _ _ 15 returned return VERB VBD Mood=Ind|Number=Plur|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin 0 root _ _ 16 to to ADP IN _ 18 case _ _ 17 their their PRON PRP$ Case=Gen|Number=Plur|Person=3|Poss=Yes|PronType=Prs 18 nmod:poss _ _ 18 mistress mistress NOUN NN Number=Sing 15 obl _ _ 19 and and CCONJ CC _ 20 cc _ _ 20 told tell VERB VBD Mood=Ind|Number=Plur|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin 15 conj _ _ 21 her she PRON PRP Case=Acc|Gender=Fem|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs 20 iobj _ _ 22 all all DET DT PronType=Tot 21 det _ _ 23 they they PRON PRP Case=Nom|Number=Plur|Person=3|PronType=Prs 25 nsubj _ _ 24 had have AUX VBD Mood=Ind|Number=Plur|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin 25 aux _ _ 25 seen see VERB VBN Tense=Past|VerbForm=Part 20 ccomp _ SpaceAfter=No 26 , , PUNCT , _ 32 punct _ _ 27 but but CCONJ CC _ 32 cc _ _ 28 not not PART RB Polarity=Neg 32 advmod _ _ 29 before before SCONJ IN _ 32 mark _ _ 30 she she PRON PRP Case=Nom|Gender=Fem|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs 32 nsubj:pass _ _ 31 had have AUX VBD Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin 32 aux _ _ 32 caught catch VERB VBN Tense=Past|VerbForm=Part|Voice=Pass 25 conj _ _ 33 sight sight NOUN NN Number=Sing 32 obj _ _ 34 of of ADP IN _ 36 case _ _ 35 the the DET DT Definite=Def|PronType=Art 36 det _ _ 36 merchant merchant NOUN NN Number=Sing 33 nmod _ _ 37 from from ADP IN _ 39 case _ _ 38 the the DET DT Definite=Def|PronType=Art 39 det _ _ 39 roof roof NOUN NN Number=Sing 36 nmod _ _ 40 of of ADP IN _ 42 case _ _ 41 her her PRON PRP$ Case=Gen|Gender=Fem|Number=Sing|Person=3|Poss=Yes|PronType=Prs 42 nmod:poss _ _ 42 palace palace NOUN NN Number=Sing 39 nmod _ SpaceAfter=No 43 . . PUNCT . _ 15 punct _ _ ``` ## Pragmatics {#pragmatics} | # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by | | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | | 1 | **not** **know** | gerund | the slaves *not said here* | | | | | | vn comprehend-87.2-1-1-1 «NP V»: agent=Experiencer | | 2 | **is** *a condition, not said to happen* | past | it | | | | | proper *property* | tree rules | | 3 | **receive** | to-infinitive | | merchant | | | | | vn obtain-13.5.2 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent he=Theme | | 4 | **return** | past | the slaves | | | | | to slaves's mistress *result* | vn convert-26.6.2-1 «NP V S\_ING»: agent=Patient to mistress=Result | | 5 | **tell** *speech: assert* | past | the slaves *not said here* | | mistress | | | | vn transfer\_mesg-37.1.1-1-1 «NP V NP S\_INF»: agent=Agent she=Recipient clause=Topic | | 6 | **see** | past · perfect | slaves *= slave* | | | | | | vn comprehend-87.2-1-1 «NP V»: agent=Experiencer | | 7 | **not** **catch** | past · perfect · passive | | mistress | | | | | vn get-13.5.1 «NP V NP.beneficiary NP»: subject=Beneficiary sight=Theme | | 8 | **sight** | | | the merchant from the roof of mistress's palace | | | | | nom sight «cognition transitive»: of=patient | 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 87](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg641/39/87/) - next →: [sentence 89](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg641/39/89/) - ↑ back to [The Girl Who Pretended to Be a Boy, part 2](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg641/39/)