---
title: Then the greybeard opened his mouth, and said: ‘The kettle is boilin… — The Violet Fairy Book · tree and pragmatics
description: Then the greybeard opened his mouth, and said: ‘The kettle is boiling; we are expected at home.’ Who acts: greybeard, kettle. A sentence of «The Violet Fairy Book» by Andrew Lang, The Grateful Prince, part 1, with its dependency tree and the pragmatics of every clause.
---

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# The Violet Fairy Book, The Grateful Prince, part 1, sentence 71

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Then the greybeard opened his mouth, and said: ‘The kettle is boiling; we are expected at home.’

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**Who acts:** greybeard, kettle · **What happens:** open, say, boil, expect · **To what, where:** mouth, we, home · **Speech:** someone speaks here

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This is a sentence of «The Violet Fairy Book» by Andrew Lang, The Grateful Prince, part 1. The page gives its syntax tree — a dependency tree in the style of Universal Dependencies — and its pragmatics clause by clause: who acts (greybeard, kettle), 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:pg641:9:71
# text = Then the greybeard opened his mouth, and said: ‘The kettle is boiling; we are expected at home.’
1	Then	then	ADV	RB	PronType=Dem	4	advmod	_	_
2	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	3	det	_	_
3	greybeard	greybeard	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	4	nsubj	_	_
4	opened	open	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	0	root	_	_
5	his	his	PRON	PRP$	Case=Gen|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|Poss=Yes|PronType=Prs	6	nmod:poss	_	_
6	mouth	mouth	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	4	obj	_	SpaceAfter=No
7	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	9	punct	_	_
8	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	9	cc	_	_
9	said	say	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	4	conj	_	SpaceAfter=No
10	:	:	PUNCT	:	_	15	punct	_	_
11	‘	'	PUNCT	``	_	15	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
12	The	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	13	det	_	_
13	kettle	kettle	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	15	nsubj	_	_
14	is	be	AUX	VBZ	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Fin	15	aux	_	_
15	boiling	boil	VERB	VBG	Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Part	9	ccomp	_	SpaceAfter=No
16	;	;	PUNCT	:	_	19	punct	_	_
17	we	we	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Number=Plur|Person=1|PronType=Prs	19	nsubj:pass	_	_
18	are	be	AUX	VBP	Mood=Ind|Number=Plur|Person=1|Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Fin	19	aux:pass	_	_
19	expected	expect	VERB	VBN	Tense=Past|VerbForm=Part|Voice=Pass	4	advcl	_	_
20	at	at	ADP	IN	_	21	case	_	_
21	home	home	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	19	obl	_	SpaceAfter=No
22	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	4	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
23	’	'	PUNCT	''	_	4	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

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| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **open** | past | the greybeard | greybeard's mouth |  |  | then |  | vn spatial\_configuration-47.6-1 «PP.location V NP»: agent=Location mouth=Theme |
| 2 | **say** *speech: assert* | past | the greybeard *not said here* |  |  |  |  |  | vn say-37.7-1-1 «NP V that S»: agent=Agent clause=Topic |
| 3 | **boil** | present · progressive | the kettle |  |  |  |  |  | vn cooking-45.3 «NP.patient V»: agent=Patient |
| 4 | **expect** | present · passive |  | we |  | home |  |  | vn conjecture-29.5-1 «NP V NP»: subject=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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