---
title: No sooner had she said these words than, to her intense surprise, th… — The Green Fairy Book · tree and pragmatics
description: No sooner had she said these words than, to her intense surprise, the little snake looked up into her face and spoke: ‘Since you have no children, be a mother to me instead, and I promise you will never repent it, for I will love you as if I were your own son.’ Who acts: snake, words, you, I. A sent
---

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# The Green Fairy Book, The Enchanted Snake, sentence 4

<!-- .ven lang=en -->
No sooner had she said these words than, to her intense surprise, the little snake looked up into her face and spoke: ‘Since you have no children, be a mother to me instead, and I promise you will never repent it, for I will love you as if I were your own son.’

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**Who acts:** snake, words, you, I · **What happens:** have, say, look up, speak, be, promise · **To what, where:** children, mother, me, child, you, own son · **Speech:** someone speaks here

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This is a sentence of «The Green Fairy Book» by Andrew Lang, The Enchanted Snake. The page gives its syntax tree — a dependency tree in the style of Universal Dependencies — and its pragmatics clause by clause: who acts (snake, words, you, I), 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:pg7277:25:4
# text = No sooner had she said these words than, to her intense surprise, the little snake looked up into her face and spoke: ‘Since you have no children, be a mother to me instead, and I promise you will never repent it, for I will love you as if I were your own son.’
1	No	no	DET	DT	PronType=Neg	2	det	_	_
2	sooner	soon	ADV	RBR	Degree=Cmp	3	advmod	_	_
3	had	have	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=1|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	0	root	_	_
4	she	she	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Gender=Fem|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	5	nsubj	_	_
5	said	say	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	3	ccomp	_	_
6	these	this	DET	DT	Number=Plur|PronType=Dem	7	det	_	_
7	words	word	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	18	nsubj	_	_
8	than	than	ADP	IN	_	13	case	_	SpaceAfter=No
9	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	13	punct	_	_
10	to	to	ADP	IN	_	13	case	_	_
11	her	her	PRON	PRP$	Case=Gen|Gender=Fem|Number=Sing|Person=3|Poss=Yes|PronType=Prs	13	nmod:poss	_	_
12	intense	intense	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	13	amod	_	_
13	surprise	surprise	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	7	nmod	_	SpaceAfter=No
14	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	17	punct	_	_
15	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	17	det	_	_
16	little	little	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	17	amod	_	_
17	snake	snake	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	13	conj	_	_
18	looked	look	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Plur|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	5	ccomp	_	_
19	up	up	ADP	RP	_	18	compound:prt	_	_
20	into	into	ADP	IN	_	22	case	_	_
21	her	her	PRON	PRP$	Case=Gen|Gender=Fem|Number=Sing|Person=3|Poss=Yes|PronType=Prs	22	nmod:poss	_	_
22	face	face	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	18	obl	_	_
23	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	24	cc	_	_
24	spoke	speak	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Plur|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	18	conj	_	SpaceAfter=No
25	:	:	PUNCT	:	_	35	punct	_	_
26	‘	'	PUNCT	``	_	35	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
27	Since	since	SCONJ	IN	_	29	mark	_	_
28	you	you	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Person=2|PronType=Prs	29	nsubj	_	_
29	have	have	VERB	VBP	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=2|Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Fin	35	advcl	_	_
30	no	no	DET	DT	PronType=Neg	31	det	_	_
31	children	child	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	29	obj	_	SpaceAfter=No
32	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	29	punct	_	_
33	be	be	AUX	VB	VerbForm=Inf	35	cop	_	_
34	a	a	DET	DT	Definite=Ind|PronType=Art	35	det	_	_
35	mother	mother	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	24	obl	_	_
36	to	to	ADP	IN	_	37	case	_	_
37	me	I	PRON	PRP	Case=Acc|Number=Sing|Person=1|PronType=Prs	35	nmod	_	_
38	instead	instead	ADV	RB	_	24	advmod	_	SpaceAfter=No
39	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	42	punct	_	_
40	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	42	cc	_	_
41	I	I	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Number=Sing|Person=1|PronType=Prs	42	nsubj	_	_
42	promise	promise	VERB	VBP	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=1|Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Fin	3	conj	_	_
43	you	you	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Person=2|PronType=Prs	46	nsubj	_	_
44	will	will	AUX	MD	VerbForm=Fin	46	aux	_	_
45	never	never	ADV	RB	PronType=Neg	46	advmod	_	_
46	repent	repent	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	42	ccomp	_	_
47	it	it	PRON	PRP	Case=Acc|Gender=Neut|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	46	obj	_	SpaceAfter=No
48	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	52	punct	_	_
49	for	for	SCONJ	IN	_	52	mark	_	_
50	I	I	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Number=Sing|Person=1|PronType=Prs	52	nsubj	_	_
51	will	will	AUX	MD	VerbForm=Fin	52	aux	_	_
52	love	love	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	46	conj	_	_
53	you	you	PRON	PRP	Case=Acc|Person=2|PronType=Prs	52	obj	_	_
54	as	as	SCONJ	IN	_	60	mark	_	_
55	if	if	SCONJ	IN	_	60	mark	_	_
56	I	I	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Number=Sing|Person=1|PronType=Prs	60	nsubj	_	_
57	were	be	AUX	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	60	cop	_	_
58	your	your	PRON	PRP$	Case=Gen|Person=2|Poss=Yes|PronType=Prs	60	nmod:poss	_	_
59	own	own	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	60	amod	_	_
60	son	son	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	52	advcl	_	SpaceAfter=No
61	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	3	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
62	’	'	PUNCT	''	_	3	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

<!-- .fr -->
| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **have** | past |  |  |  |  |  | soon *property* | tree rules |
| 2 | **say** *speech: assert* | past | snake |  |  |  |  |  | vn say-37.7-1-1 «NP V that S»: agent=Agent clause=Topic |
| 3 | **look up** | past | this words than snake's intense surprise and the little snake |  |  |  |  | into snake's face | vn peer-30.3 «NP V PP.theme»: agent=Agent into face=Theme |
| 4 | **speak** *speech: other* | past | this words than snake's intense surprise and the little snake *not said here* |  |  |  |  | instead *property* | vn talk-37.5 «NP V»: agent=Agent |
| 5 | **have** | present | you | no children |  |  |  |  | vn birth-28.2-1 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent child=Patient |
| 6 | **is a** | infinitive |  | a mother | me |  |  |  | tree rules |
| 7 | **promise** *speech: promise* | present | I |  |  |  |  |  | vn promise-37.13 «NP V that S»: agent=Agent clause=Topic |
| 8 | **not** **repent** | future | you | child |  |  |  |  | tree rules |
| 9 | **love** | future | I | you |  |  |  |  | vn admire-31.2-1 «NP V NP»: agent=Experiencer you=Stimulus |
| 10 | **is a** | past | I | your own son |  |  |  |  | tree rules |
| 11 | **surprise** |  | snake |  |  |  |  |  | nom surprise «feeling transitive»: poss=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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