---
title: The dove then spoke for the first time and said, ‘Take that knife an… — The Violet Fairy Book · tree and pragmatics
description: The dove then spoke for the first time and said, ‘Take that knife and cut off my head, but be careful that not a single drop of blood falls to the ground. Who acts: dove, single drop. A sentence of «The Violet Fairy Book» by Andrew Lang, The Prince Who Wanted to See the World, with its dependency tr
---

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# The Violet Fairy Book, The Prince Who Wanted to See the World, sentence 36

<!-- .ven lang=en -->
The dove then spoke for the first time and said, ‘Take that knife and cut off my head, but be careful that not a single drop of blood falls to the ground.

<!-- .vintro -->
**Who acts:** dove, single drop · **What happens:** speak, say, take, cut off, be, fall · **To what, where:** knife, head · **Speech:** someone speaks here

<!-- .vabout -->
This is a sentence of «The Violet Fairy Book» by Andrew Lang, The Prince Who Wanted to See the World. The page gives its syntax tree — a dependency tree in the style of Universal Dependencies — and its pragmatics clause by clause: who acts (dove, single drop), 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:pg641:42:36
# text = The dove then spoke for the first time and said, ‘Take that knife and cut off my head, but be careful that not a single drop of blood falls to the ground.
1	The	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	2	det	_	_
2	dove	dove	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	4	nsubj	_	_
3	then	then	ADV	RB	PronType=Dem	4	advmod	_	_
4	spoke	speak	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	0	root	_	_
5	for	for	ADP	IN	_	8	case	_	_
6	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	8	det	_	_
7	first	first	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos|NumForm=Word|NumType=Ord	8	amod	_	_
8	time	time	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	4	obl	_	_
9	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	10	cc	_	_
10	said	say	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	4	conj	_	SpaceAfter=No
11	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	13	punct	_	_
12	‘	'	PUNCT	``	_	13	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
13	Take	take	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	10	ccomp	_	_
14	that	that	DET	DT	Number=Sing|PronType=Dem	15	det	_	_
15	knife	knife	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	13	obj	_	_
16	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	17	cc	_	_
17	cut	cut	VERB	VBN	Tense=Past|VerbForm=Part|Voice=Pass	13	conj	_	_
18	off	off	ADP	RP	_	17	compound:prt	_	_
19	my	my	PRON	PRP$	Case=Gen|Number=Sing|Person=1|Poss=Yes|PronType=Prs	20	nmod:poss	_	_
20	head	head	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	17	obj	_	SpaceAfter=No
21	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	24	punct	_	_
22	but	but	CCONJ	CC	_	24	cc	_	_
23	be	be	AUX	VB	VerbForm=Inf	24	cop	_	_
24	careful	careful	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	13	advcl	_	_
25	that	that	SCONJ	IN	_	32	mark	_	_
26	not	not	PART	RB	Polarity=Neg	29	advmod	_	_
27	a	a	DET	DT	Definite=Ind|PronType=Art	29	det	_	_
28	single	single	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	29	amod	_	_
29	drop	drop	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	32	nsubj	_	_
30	of	of	ADP	IN	_	31	case	_	_
31	blood	blood	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	29	nmod	_	_
32	falls	fall	VERB	VBZ	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Fin	24	advcl	_	_
33	to	to	ADP	IN	_	35	case	_	_
34	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	35	det	_	_
35	ground	ground	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	32	obl	_	SpaceAfter=No
36	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	4	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

<!-- .fr -->
| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **speak** *speech: other* | past | the dove |  |  |  | then; time |  | vn talk-37.5 «NP V»: agent=Agent |
| 2 | **say** *speech: assert* | past | the dove *not said here* |  |  |  |  |  | vn say-37.7-1-1 «NP V that S»: agent=Agent clause=Topic |
| 3 | **take** | infinitive |  | that knife |  |  |  |  | vn bring-11.3 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent knife=Theme |
| 4 | **cut off** | participle |  | my head |  |  |  |  | vn stop-55.4-1 «NP V NP.eventuality»: agent=Affector head=Eventuality |
| 5 | **is** | infinitive |  |  |  |  |  | careful *property* | tree rules |
| 6 | **fall** | present | a single drop of blood |  |  |  |  | to the ground | vn acquiesce-95.1-1 «NP V PP.theme»: agent=Agent to ground=Theme |

<!-- .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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