---
title: Peter was at a loss what to answer, for so far he had always thought… — The Green Fairy Book · tree and pragmatics
description: Peter was at a loss what to answer, for so far he had always thought that fortune would drop into his mouth like a ripe cherry. Who acts: Peter, fortune. A sentence of «The Green Fairy Book» by Andrew Lang, The Magic Swan, with its dependency tree and the pragmatics of every clause.
---

<!-- md -->
[Mova](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/) · [this page in HTML](https://mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg7277/23/11/)

<!-- crumbs -->
[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 Green Fairy Book](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg7277/) / [The Magic Swan](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg7277/23/) / 11

# The Green Fairy Book, The Magic Swan, sentence 11

<!-- .ven lang=en -->
Peter was at a loss what to answer, for so far he had always thought that fortune would drop into his mouth like a ripe cherry.

<!-- .vintro -->
**Who acts:** Peter, fortune · **What happens:** be, answer, think, drop · **To what, where:** loss, mouth

<!-- .vabout -->
This is a sentence of «The Green Fairy Book» by Andrew Lang, The Magic Swan. The page gives its syntax tree — a dependency tree in the style of Universal Dependencies — and its pragmatics clause by clause: who acts (Peter, fortune), 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:pg7277:23:11
# text = Peter was at a loss what to answer, for so far he had always thought that fortune would drop into his mouth like a ripe cherry.
1	Peter	Peter	PROPN	NNP	Number=Sing	5	nsubj	_	_
2	was	be	AUX	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	5	cop	_	_
3	at	at	ADP	IN	_	5	case	_	_
4	a	a	DET	DT	Definite=Ind|PronType=Art	5	det	_	_
5	loss	loss	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	0	root	_	_
6	what	what	PRON	WP	PronType=Int	8	obj	_	_
7	to	to	PART	TO	_	8	mark	_	_
8	answer	answer	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	5	acl	_	SpaceAfter=No
9	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	20	punct	_	_
10	for	for	SCONJ	IN	_	16	mark	_	_
11	so	so	ADV	RB	_	12	advmod	_	_
12	far	far	ADV	RB	Degree=Pos	16	advmod	_	_
13	he	he	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	16	nsubj	_	_
14	had	have	AUX	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	16	aux	_	_
15	always	always	ADV	RB	PronType=Tot	16	advmod	_	_
16	thought	think	VERB	VBN	Tense=Past|VerbForm=Part	20	advcl	_	_
17	that	that	DET	DT	Number=Sing|PronType=Dem	18	det	_	_
18	fortune	fortune	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	20	nsubj	_	_
19	would	would	AUX	MD	VerbForm=Fin	20	aux	_	_
20	drop	drop	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	8	advcl	_	_
21	into	into	ADP	IN	_	23	case	_	_
22	his	his	PRON	PRP$	Case=Gen|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|Poss=Yes|PronType=Prs	23	nmod:poss	_	_
23	mouth	mouth	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	20	obl	_	_
24	like	like	ADP	IN	_	27	case	_	_
25	a	a	DET	DT	Definite=Ind|PronType=Art	27	det	_	_
26	ripe	ripe	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	27	amod	_	_
27	cherry	cherry	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	20	obl	_	SpaceAfter=No
28	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	5	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

<!-- .fr -->
| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **is** | past | Peter |  |  | a loss |  |  | tree rules |
| 2 | **answer** *speech: assert* | to-infinitive |  | a loss |  |  |  |  | vn reciprocate-112-1 «NP V PP»: agent=Agent what=Eventuality |
| 3 | **think** *speech: other* | past · perfect | Peter |  |  |  |  | always, far *property* | vn focus-87.1-1 «NP V»: agent=Agent |
| 4 | **drop** | would | that fortune |  |  | Peter's mouth |  | like a ripe cherry | vn roll-51.3.1 «NP V PP.trajectory»: agent=Theme into mouth=Trajectory |

<!-- .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.

<!-- div src -->

**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.

<!-- /div -->

<!-- pn -->
- ← previous: [sentence 10](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg7277/23/10/)
- next →: [sentence 12](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg7277/23/12/)
- ↑ back to [The Magic Swan](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg7277/23/)