--- title: The eel wagged ‘No’ with her tail, and the queen told her husband to… — The Violet Fairy Book · tree and pragmatics description: The eel wagged ‘No’ with her tail, and the queen told her husband to put a drop of water from the pool into a bottle, because it was only by that means that she could seize hold of her daughter. Who acts: eel, queen, it. A sentence of «The Violet Fairy Book» by Andrew Lang, The Prince Who Wanted to --- [Mova](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/) · [this page in HTML](https://mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg641/42/74/) [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 Prince Who Wanted to See the World](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg641/42/) / 74 # The Violet Fairy Book, The Prince Who Wanted to See the World, sentence 74 The eel wagged ‘No’ with her tail, and the queen told her husband to put a drop of water from the pool into a bottle, because it was only by that means that she could seize hold of her daughter. **Who acts:** eel, queen, it · **What happens:** wag, tell, put, mean, seize, hold · **To what, where:** ’, husband, drop, pool, hold, daughter · **Speech:** someone speaks here 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 (eel, queen, 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:pg641:42:74 # text = The eel wagged ‘No’ with her tail, and the queen told her husband to put a drop of water from the pool into a bottle, because it was only by that means that she could seize hold of her daughter. 1 The the DET DT Definite=Def|PronType=Art 2 det _ _ 2 eel eel NOUN NN Number=Sing 3 nsubj _ _ 3 wagged wag VERB VBD Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin 0 root _ _ 4 ‘ ' PUNCT `` _ 6 punct _ SpaceAfter=No 5 No no DET DT PronType=Neg 6 det _ SpaceAfter=No 6 ’ ' NOUN NN Number=Sing 3 obl _ _ 7 with with ADP IN _ 9 case _ _ 8 her her PRON PRP$ Case=Gen|Gender=Fem|Number=Sing|Person=3|Poss=Yes|PronType=Prs 9 nmod:poss _ _ 9 tail tail NOUN NN Number=Sing 6 nmod _ SpaceAfter=No 10 , , PUNCT , _ 14 punct _ _ 11 and and CCONJ CC _ 14 cc _ _ 12 the the DET DT Definite=Def|PronType=Art 13 det _ _ 13 queen queen NOUN NN Number=Sing 14 nsubj _ _ 14 told tell VERB VBD Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin 3 conj _ _ 15 her her PRON PRP$ Case=Gen|Gender=Fem|Number=Sing|Person=3|Poss=Yes|PronType=Prs 16 nmod:poss _ _ 16 husband husband NOUN NN Number=Sing 14 iobj _ _ 17 to to PART TO _ 18 mark _ _ 18 put put VERB VB VerbForm=Inf 14 xcomp _ _ 19 a a DET DT Definite=Ind|PronType=Art 20 det _ _ 20 drop drop NOUN NN Number=Sing 18 obj _ _ 21 of of ADP IN _ 22 case _ _ 22 water water NOUN NN Number=Sing 20 nmod _ _ 23 from from ADP IN _ 25 case _ _ 24 the the DET DT Definite=Def|PronType=Art 25 det _ _ 25 pool pool NOUN NN Number=Sing 18 obl _ _ 26 into into ADP IN _ 28 case _ _ 27 a a DET DT Definite=Ind|PronType=Art 28 det _ _ 28 bottle bottle NOUN NN Number=Sing 18 obl _ SpaceAfter=No 29 , , PUNCT , _ 36 punct _ _ 30 because because SCONJ IN _ 36 mark _ _ 31 it it PRON PRP Case=Nom|Gender=Neut|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs 36 nsubj _ _ 32 was be AUX VBD Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin 36 nsubj _ _ 33 only only ADV RB _ 36 advmod _ _ 34 by by ADP IN _ 35 case _ _ 35 that that PRON DT Number=Sing|PronType=Dem 36 nsubj _ _ 36 means mean VERB VBZ Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Fin 14 ccomp _ _ 37 that that SCONJ IN _ 40 mark _ _ 38 she she PRON PRP Case=Nom|Gender=Fem|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs 40 nsubj _ _ 39 could could AUX MD VerbForm=Fin 40 aux _ _ 40 seize seize VERB VB VerbForm=Inf 36 ccomp _ _ 41 hold hold NOUN NN Number=Sing 40 obj _ _ 42 of of ADP IN _ 44 case _ _ 43 her her PRON PRP$ Case=Gen|Gender=Fem|Number=Sing|Person=3|Poss=Yes|PronType=Prs 44 nmod:poss _ _ 44 daughter daughter NOUN NN Number=Sing 41 nmod _ SpaceAfter=No 45 . . PUNCT . _ 3 punct _ _ ``` ## Pragmatics {#pragmatics} | # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by | | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | | 1 | **wag** | past | the eel | no ’ with eel's tail | | | | | vn crane-40.3.2 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent | | 2 | **tell** *speech: assert* | past | the queen | | eel's husband | | | | vn transfer\_mesg-37.1.1-1-1 «NP V NP S\_INF»: agent=Agent husband=Recipient clause=Topic | | 3 | **put** *not said to happen* | to-infinitive | the queen *not said here* | a drop of water | | the pool | | into a bottle | vn invest-13.5.4-1 «NP V PP»: agent=Agent drop=Goal | | 4 | **mean** | present | it | | | | | | vn intend-61.2-1 «NP V S»: agent=Agent clause=Topic | | 5 | **seize** | could | queen | hold of eel's daughter | | | | | vn obtain-13.5.2 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent hold=Theme | | 6 | **hold** | | | eel's daughter | | | | | nom hold «act 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 73](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg641/42/73/) - next →: [sentence 75](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg641/42/75/) - ↑ back to [The Prince Who Wanted to See the World](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg641/42/)