---
title: ‘This, my mistress,’ said Sunlight, when she was saddling him, ‘is t… — The Violet Fairy Book · tree and pragmatics
description: ‘This, my mistress,’ said Sunlight, when she was saddling him, ‘is the last and most difficult of your tasks. Who acts: mistress, ‘, your. A sentence of «The Violet Fairy Book» by Andrew Lang, The Girl Who Pretended to Be a Boy, part 3, with its dependency tree and the pragmatics of every clause.
---

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# The Violet Fairy Book, The Girl Who Pretended to Be a Boy, part 3, sentence 59

<!-- .ven lang=en -->
‘This, my mistress,’ said Sunlight, when she was saddling him, ‘is the last and most difficult of your tasks.

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**Who acts:** mistress, ‘, your · **What happens:** say, saddle, be, task · **To what, where:** Sunlight · **Speech:** someone speaks here

<!-- .vabout -->
This is a sentence of «The Violet Fairy Book» by Andrew Lang, The Girl Who Pretended to Be a Boy, part 3. The page gives its syntax tree — a dependency tree in the style of Universal Dependencies — and its pragmatics clause by clause: who acts (mistress, ‘, your), 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:pg641:40:59
# text = ‘This, my mistress,’ said Sunlight, when she was saddling him, ‘is the last and most difficult of your tasks.
1	‘	'	PUNCT	``	_	8	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
2	This	this	DET	DT	Number=Sing|PronType=Dem	5	det	_	SpaceAfter=No
3	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	2	punct	_	_
4	my	my	PRON	PRP$	Case=Gen|Number=Sing|Person=1|Poss=Yes|PronType=Prs	5	nmod:poss	_	_
5	mistress	mistress	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	8	nsubj	_	SpaceAfter=No
6	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	5	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
7	’	'	PUNCT	''	_	5	punct	_	_
8	said	say	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	0	root	_	_
9	Sunlight	Sunlight	PROPN	NNP	Number=Sing	8	nsubj	_	SpaceAfter=No
10	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	14	punct	_	_
11	when	when	ADV	WRB	PronType=Int	14	advmod	_	_
12	she	she	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Gender=Fem|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	14	nsubj	_	_
13	was	be	AUX	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	14	aux	_	_
14	saddling	saddle	VERB	VBG	Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Part	8	advcl	_	_
15	him	he	PRON	PRP	Case=Acc|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	14	obj	_	SpaceAfter=No
16	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	20	punct	_	_
17	‘	‘	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	20	nsubj	_	SpaceAfter=No
18	is	be	AUX	VBZ	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Fin	20	cop	_	_
19	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	20	det	_	_
20	last	last	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	14	conj	_	_
21	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	23	cc	_	_
22	most	most	ADV	RBS	Degree=Sup	23	advmod	_	_
23	difficult	difficult	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	20	conj	_	_
24	of	of	ADP	IN	_	26	case	_	_
25	your	your	PRON	PRP$	Case=Gen|Person=2|Poss=Yes|PronType=Prs	26	nmod:poss	_	_
26	tasks	task	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	23	obl	_	SpaceAfter=No
27	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	8	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

<!-- .fr -->
| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **say** *speech: assert* | past | my mistress |  |  |  |  |  | vn say-37.7-1-1 «NP V that S»: agent=Agent |
| 2 | **saddle** | past · progressive | mistress |  | Sunlight |  |  |  | vn butter-9.9 «NP V NP.destination»: agent=Agent he=Destination |
| 3 | **is** | present | ‘ |  |  |  |  | last *property* | tree rules |
| 4 | **be** |  | ‘ *not said here* |  |  |  |  | of your tasks | tree rules |
| 5 | **task** |  | your |  |  |  |  |  | nom task «act transitive»: 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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