---
title: ‘I sing the captive’s longing Within his prison wall, Of hearts that… — The Violet Fairy Book · tree and pragmatics
description: ‘I sing the captive’s longing Within his prison wall, Of hearts that sigh when none are nigh To answer to their call. Who acts: I, captive, hearts, none. A sentence of «The Violet Fairy Book» by Andrew Lang, The Lute Player, with its dependency tree and the pragmatics of every clause.
---

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# The Violet Fairy Book, The Lute Player, sentence 67

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‘I sing the captive’s longing Within his prison wall, Of hearts that sigh when none are nigh To answer to their call.

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**Who acts:** I, captive, hearts, none, captives · **What happens:** sing, long, sigh, be, answer, call · **Speech:** someone speaks here

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This is a sentence of «The Violet Fairy Book» by Andrew Lang, The Lute Player. The page gives its syntax tree — a dependency tree in the style of Universal Dependencies — and its pragmatics clause by clause: who acts (I, captive, hearts, none), 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:pg641:8:67
# text = ‘I sing the captive’s longing Within his prison wall, Of hearts that sigh when none are nigh To answer to their call.
1	‘	'	PUNCT	``	_	3	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
2	I	I	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Number=Sing|Person=1|PronType=Prs	3	nsubj	_	_
3	sing	sing	VERB	VBP	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=1|Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Fin	0	root	_	_
4	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	5	det	_	_
5	captive	captive	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	7	nsubj	_	SpaceAfter=No
6	’s	be	AUX	VBZ	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Fin	7	aux	_	_
7	longing	long	VERB	VBG	Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Part	3	ccomp	_	_
8	Within	within	ADP	IN	_	11	case	_	_
9	his	his	PRON	PRP$	Case=Gen|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|Poss=Yes|PronType=Prs	11	nmod:poss	_	_
10	prison	prison	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	11	compound	_	_
11	wall	wall	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	7	obl	_	SpaceAfter=No
12	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	14	punct	_	_
13	Of	of	ADP	IN	_	14	case	_	_
14	hearts	heart	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	3	obl	_	_
15	that	that	PRON	WDT	PronType=Rel	16	nsubj	_	_
16	sigh	sigh	VERB	VBP	Mood=Ind|Number=Plur|Person=3|Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Fin	14	acl:relcl	_	_
17	when	when	SCONJ	WRB	_	20	mark	_	_
18	none	none	PRON	NN	PronType=Neg	20	nsubj	_	_
19	are	be	AUX	VBP	Mood=Ind|Number=Plur|Person=3|Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Fin	20	cop	_	_
20	nigh	nigh	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	16	ccomp	_	_
21	To	to	PART	TO	_	22	mark	_	_
22	answer	answer	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	20	xcomp	_	_
23	to	to	ADP	IN	_	25	case	_	_
24	their	their	PRON	PRP$	Case=Gen|Number=Plur|Person=3|Poss=Yes|PronType=Prs	25	nmod:poss	_	_
25	call	call	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	22	obl	_	SpaceAfter=No
26	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	3	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

<!-- .fr -->
| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **sing** *speech: express* | present | I |  |  |  |  | of hearts | vn manner\_speaking-37.3 «NP V that S»: agent=Agent clause=Topic |
| 2 | **long** | present · progressive | the captive |  |  |  |  | within sire's prison wall | vn long-32.2 «NP V S\_INF»: agent=Pivot |
| 3 | **sigh** | present | hearts |  |  |  |  |  | vn manner\_speaking-37.3 «NP V»: agent=Agent |
| 4 | **is** | present | none |  |  |  |  | nigh *property* | tree rules |
| 5 | **answer** *speech: assert* | to-infinitive | none *not said here* |  |  |  |  | to captives's call | vn subordinate-95.2.1 «NP V PP.co-agent»: agent=Agent to call=Co-Agent |
| 6 | **call** |  | captives *= captive* |  |  |  |  |  | nom call «communication transitive»: poss=agent |

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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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