---
title: But the ring was so tiny that even those who had the smallest hands… — The Green Fairy Book · tree and pragmatics
description: But the ring was so tiny that even those who had the smallest hands could only get it on their little fingers. Who acts: ring, those. A sentence of «The Green Fairy Book» by Andrew Lang, The Dirty Shepherdess, 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/pg7277/24/36/)

<!-- 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 Dirty Shepherdess](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg7277/24/) / 36

# The Green Fairy Book, The Dirty Shepherdess, sentence 36

<!-- .ven lang=en -->
But the ring was so tiny that even those who had the smallest hands could only get it on their little fingers.

<!-- .vintro -->
**Who acts:** ring, those · **What happens:** be, have, get · **To what, where:** smallest hands, claim, little fingers

<!-- .vabout -->
This is a sentence of «The Green Fairy Book» by Andrew Lang, The Dirty Shepherdess. The page gives its syntax tree — a dependency tree in the style of Universal Dependencies — and its pragmatics clause by clause: who acts (ring, those), 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:pg7277:24:36
# text = But the ring was so tiny that even those who had the smallest hands could only get it on their little fingers.
1	But	but	CCONJ	CC	_	6	cc	_	_
2	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	3	det	_	_
3	ring	ring	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	6	nsubj	_	_
4	was	be	AUX	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	6	cop	_	_
5	so	so	ADV	RB	_	6	advmod	_	_
6	tiny	tiny	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	0	root	_	_
7	that	that	SCONJ	IN	_	17	mark	_	_
8	even	even	ADV	RB	_	9	advmod	_	_
9	those	that	PRON	DT	Number=Plur|PronType=Dem	17	nsubj	_	_
10	who	who	PRON	WP	PronType=Rel	11	nsubj	_	_
11	had	have	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Plur|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	9	acl:relcl	_	_
12	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	14	det	_	_
13	smallest	small	ADJ	JJS	Degree=Sup	14	amod	_	_
14	hands	hand	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	11	obj	_	_
15	could	could	AUX	MD	VerbForm=Fin	17	aux	_	_
16	only	only	ADV	RB	_	17	advmod	_	_
17	get	get	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	6	advcl	_	_
18	it	it	PRON	PRP	Case=Acc|Gender=Neut|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	17	obj	_	_
19	on	on	ADP	IN	_	22	case	_	_
20	their	their	PRON	PRP$	Case=Gen|Number=Plur|Person=3|Poss=Yes|PronType=Prs	22	nmod:poss	_	_
21	little	little	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	22	amod	_	_
22	fingers	finger	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	17	obl	_	SpaceAfter=No
23	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	6	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

<!-- .fr -->
| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **is** | past | the ring |  |  |  |  | tiny *property* | tree rules |
| 2 | **have** | past |  | the smallest hands |  |  |  |  | vn birth-28.2-1 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent hand=Patient |
| 3 | **get** | could | those | claim |  | rings's little fingers |  |  | vn get-13.5.1-1 «NP V NP PP.source»: agent=Agent it=Theme on finger=Source |

<!-- .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 35](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg7277/24/35/)
- next →: [sentence 37](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg7277/24/37/)
- ↑ back to [The Dirty Shepherdess](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg7277/24/)