---
title: When they said that a visitor was asking for her, and then proceeded… — The Green Fairy Book · tree and pragmatics
description: When they said that a visitor was asking for her, and then proceeded each one to tell breathlessly a different tale of wonder, in which she could only distinguish the words, ‘oxen,’ ‘gold,’ ‘club,’ ‘giant,’ ‘lion,’ she thought they were all out of their minds. Who acts: laughter, visitor, Queen, won
---

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# The Green Fairy Book, Prince Narcissus and the Princess Potentilla, sentence 129

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When they said that a visitor was asking for her, and then proceeded each one to tell breathlessly a different tale of wonder, in which she could only distinguish the words, ‘oxen,’ ‘gold,’ ‘club,’ ‘giant,’ ‘lion,’ she thought they were all out of their minds.

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**Who acts:** laughter, visitor, Queen, wonder · **What happens:** say, ask, proceed, tell, distinguish, think · **To what, where:** one, different tale, words, lion, minds · **Speech:** someone speaks here

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This is a sentence of «The Green Fairy Book» by Andrew Lang, Prince Narcissus and the Princess Potentilla. The page gives its syntax tree — a dependency tree in the style of Universal Dependencies — and its pragmatics clause by clause: who acts (laughter, visitor, Queen, wonder), 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:pg7277:11:129
# text = When they said that a visitor was asking for her, and then proceeded each one to tell breathlessly a different tale of wonder, in which she could only distinguish the words, ‘oxen,’ ‘gold,’ ‘club,’ ‘giant,’ ‘lion,’ she thought they were all out of their minds.
1	When	when	ADV	WRB	PronType=Int	3	advmod	_	_
2	they	they	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Number=Plur|Person=3|PronType=Prs	3	nsubj	_	_
3	said	say	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Plur|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	56	advcl	_	_
4	that	that	SCONJ	IN	_	8	mark	_	_
5	a	a	DET	DT	Definite=Ind|PronType=Art	6	det	_	_
6	visitor	visitor	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	8	nsubj	_	_
7	was	be	AUX	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	8	aux	_	_
8	asking	ask	VERB	VBG	Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Part	3	ccomp	_	_
9	for	for	ADP	IN	_	10	case	_	_
10	her	she	PRON	PRP	Case=Acc|Gender=Fem|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	8	obl	_	SpaceAfter=No
11	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	14	punct	_	_
12	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	14	cc	_	_
13	then	then	ADV	RB	PronType=Dem	14	advmod	_	_
14	proceeded	proceed	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Plur|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	3	conj	_	_
15	each	each	DET	DT	PronType=Tot	16	det	_	_
16	one	one	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	14	obj	_	_
17	to	to	PART	TO	_	18	mark	_	_
18	tell	tell	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	14	xcomp	_	_
19	breathlessly	breathlessly	ADV	RB	_	18	advmod	_	_
20	a	a	DET	DT	Definite=Ind|PronType=Art	22	det	_	_
21	different	different	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	22	amod	_	_
22	tale	tale	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	18	obj	_	_
23	of	of	ADP	IN	_	24	case	_	_
24	wonder	wonder	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	22	nmod	_	SpaceAfter=No
25	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	31	punct	_	_
26	in	in	ADP	IN	_	27	case	_	_
27	which	which	PRON	WDT	PronType=Rel	31	obl	_	_
28	she	she	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Gender=Fem|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	31	nsubj	_	_
29	could	could	AUX	MD	VerbForm=Fin	31	aux	_	_
30	only	only	ADV	RB	_	31	advmod	_	_
31	distinguish	distinguish	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	18	conj	_	_
32	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	33	det	_	_
33	words	word	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	31	obj	_	SpaceAfter=No
34	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	36	punct	_	_
35	‘	'	PUNCT	``	_	36	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
36	oxen	ox	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	33	conj	_	SpaceAfter=No
37	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	3	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
38	’	'	PUNCT	''	_	3	punct	_	_
39	‘	'	PUNCT	``	_	40	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
40	gold	gold	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	44	compound	_	SpaceAfter=No
41	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	40	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
42	’	'	PUNCT	''	_	40	punct	_	_
43	‘	'	PUNCT	``	_	44	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
44	club	club	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	3	ccomp	_	SpaceAfter=No
45	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	44	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
46	’	'	PUNCT	''	_	44	punct	_	_
47	‘	'	PUNCT	``	_	48	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
48	giant	giant	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	44	acl:relcl	_	SpaceAfter=No
49	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	3	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
50	’	'	PUNCT	''	_	3	punct	_	_
51	‘	'	PUNCT	``	_	52	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
52	lion	lion	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	56	obl	_	SpaceAfter=No
53	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	52	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
54	’	'	PUNCT	''	_	52	punct	_	_
55	she	she	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Gender=Fem|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	56	nsubj	_	_
56	thought	think	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	0	root	_	_
57	they	they	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Number=Plur|Person=3|PronType=Prs	63	nsubj	_	_
58	were	be	AUX	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Plur|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	63	cop	_	_
59	all	all	ADV	RB	_	63	advmod	_	_
60	out	out	ADP	IN	_	63	case	_	_
61	of	of	ADP	IN	_	63	case	_	_
62	their	their	PRON	PRP$	Case=Gen|Number=Plur|Person=3|Poss=Yes|PronType=Prs	63	nmod:poss	_	_
63	minds	mind	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	56	ccomp	_	SpaceAfter=No
64	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	56	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

<!-- .fr -->
| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **say** *speech: assert* | past | laughter |  |  |  |  |  | vn say-37.7-1-1 «NP V that S»: agent=Agent clause=Topic |
| 2 | **ask** *speech: ask* | past · progressive | a visitor |  |  |  |  | for Queen | vn inquire-37.1.2 «NP V»: agent=Agent |
| 3 | **proceed** | past | laughter *not said here* | each one |  |  | then |  | tree rules |
| 4 | **tell** *speech: assert* | to-infinitive | laughter *not said here* | a different tale of wonder |  |  |  | breathlessly *property* | vn transfer\_mesg-37.1.1-1-1 «NP V NP.recipient»: agent=Agent tale=Recipient |
| 5 | **distinguish** | could | Queen | the words and oxen |  |  |  |  | vn distinguish-23.5-1 «NP V NP PP»: agent=Attribute word=Theme |
| 6 | **think** *speech: other* | past | Queen | lion |  |  |  |  | vn focus-87.1-1 «NP V»: agent=Agent |
| 7 | **is** | past | laughter |  |  | laughter's minds |  | all *property* | tree rules |
| 8 | **tell** |  | wonder |  |  |  |  |  | nom tale «communication intransitive»: of=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 Green Fairy Book» by Andrew Lang, Project Gutenberg book 7277 (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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