---
title: Every time he opened his mouth for the purpose she looked at him ste… — The Violet Fairy Book · tree and pragmatics
description: Every time he opened his mouth for the purpose she looked at him sternly, as if to say, ‘Silence,’ so he could only let his eyes speak for him. Who acts: plenty, mouth, eyes. A sentence of «The Violet Fairy Book» by Andrew Lang, The Grateful Prince, part 1, with its dependency tree and the pragmatic
---

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# The Violet Fairy Book, The Grateful Prince, part 1, sentence 92

<!-- .ven lang=en -->
Every time he opened his mouth for the purpose she looked at him sternly, as if to say, ‘Silence,’ so he could only let his eyes speak for him.

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**Who acts:** plenty, mouth, eyes · **What happens:** open, look, say, let, speak · **To what, where:** mouth, Silence · **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 (plenty, mouth, eyes), 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:pg641:9:92
# text = Every time he opened his mouth for the purpose she looked at him sternly, as if to say, ‘Silence,’ so he could only let his eyes speak for him.
1	Every	every	DET	DT	PronType=Tot	2	det	_	_
2	time	time	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	11	obl:unmarked	_	_
3	he	he	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	4	nsubj	_	_
4	opened	open	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	2	acl:relcl	_	_
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	_	_
7	for	for	ADP	IN	_	9	case	_	_
8	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	9	det	_	_
9	purpose	purpose	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	4	obl	_	_
10	she	she	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Gender=Fem|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	11	nsubj	_	_
11	looked	look	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	0	root	_	_
12	at	at	ADP	IN	_	13	case	_	_
13	him	he	PRON	PRP	Case=Acc|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	11	obl	_	_
14	sternly	sternly	ADV	RB	_	11	advmod	_	SpaceAfter=No
15	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	19	punct	_	_
16	as	as	SCONJ	IN	_	19	mark	_	_
17	if	if	SCONJ	IN	_	19	mark	_	_
18	to	to	PART	TO	_	19	mark	_	_
19	say	say	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	11	conj	_	SpaceAfter=No
20	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	22	punct	_	_
21	‘	'	PUNCT	``	_	22	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
22	Silence	silence	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	19	obj	_	SpaceAfter=No
23	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	22	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
24	’	'	PUNCT	''	_	22	punct	_	_
25	so	so	ADV	RB	_	29	advmod	_	_
26	he	he	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	29	nsubj	_	_
27	could	could	AUX	MD	VerbForm=Fin	29	aux	_	_
28	only	only	ADV	RB	_	29	advmod	_	_
29	let	let	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	19	parataxis	_	_
30	his	his	PRON	PRP$	Case=Gen|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|Poss=Yes|PronType=Prs	31	nmod:poss	_	_
31	eyes	eye	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	32	nsubj	_	_
32	speak	speak	VERB	VBP	Mood=Ind|Number=Plur|Person=3|Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Fin	29	ccomp	_	_
33	for	for	ADP	IN	_	34	case	_	_
34	him	he	PRON	PRP	Case=Acc|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	32	obl	_	SpaceAfter=No
35	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	11	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

<!-- .fr -->
| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **open** | past | plenty | plenty's mouth |  |  |  | for the purpose | vn spatial\_configuration-47.6-1 «PP.location V NP»: agent=Location mouth=Theme |
| 2 | **look** | past | mouth |  |  |  | time | at plenty; sternly *property* | vn peer-30.3 «NP V PP.theme»: agent=Agent at he=Theme |
| 3 | **say** *speech: assert* *a condition, not said to happen* | to-infinitive | mouth *not said here* | Silence |  |  |  |  | vn say-37.7-1-1 «NP V NP.topic»: agent=Agent silence=Topic |
| 4 | **let** | could | plenty |  |  |  |  |  | tree rules |
| 5 | **speak** *speech: other* | present | plenty's eyes |  |  |  |  | for plenty | vn talk-37.5 «NP V»: agent=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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