---
title: One day she gave Helena twelve pounds of mixed feathers and bade her… — The Green Fairy Book · tree and pragmatics
description: One day she gave Helena twelve pounds of mixed feathers and bade her separate them all before evening, threatening her with heavy punishment if she failed to do so. Who acts: HELENA. A sentence of «The Green Fairy Book» by Andrew Lang, The Biter Bit, part 3, with its dependency tree and the pragmati
---

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# The Green Fairy Book, The Biter Bit, part 3, sentence 113

<!-- .ven lang=en -->
One day she gave Helena twelve pounds of mixed feathers and bade her separate them all before evening, threatening her with heavy punishment if she failed to do so.

<!-- .vintro -->
**Who acts:** HELENA · **What happens:** give, mix, separate, threaten, fail, not do · **To what, where:** twelve pounds, Helena, pounds

<!-- .vabout -->
This is a sentence of «The Green Fairy Book» by Andrew Lang, The Biter Bit, part 3. The page gives its syntax tree — a dependency tree in the style of Universal Dependencies — and its pragmatics clause by clause: who acts (HELENA), 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:pg7277:28:113
# text = One day she gave Helena twelve pounds of mixed feathers and bade her separate them all before evening, threatening her with heavy punishment if she failed to do so.
1	One	one	NUM	CD	NumForm=Word|NumType=Card	2	nummod	_	_
2	day	day	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	4	obl:unmarked	_	_
3	she	she	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Gender=Fem|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	4	nsubj	_	_
4	gave	give	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	0	root	_	_
5	Helena	Helena	PROPN	NNP	Number=Sing	4	iobj	_	_
6	twelve	twelve	NUM	CD	NumForm=Word|NumType=Card	7	nummod	_	_
7	pounds	pound	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	4	obj	_	_
8	of	of	ADP	IN	_	10	case	_	_
9	mixed	mix	VERB	VBN	Tense=Past|VerbForm=Part|Voice=Pass	10	amod	_	_
10	feathers	feather	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	7	nmod	_	_
11	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	12	cc	_	_
12	bade	bade	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	7	conj	_	_
13	her	her	PRON	PRP$	Case=Gen|Gender=Fem|Number=Sing|Person=3|Poss=Yes|PronType=Prs	12	acl	_	_
14	separate	separate	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	4	advcl	_	_
15	them	they	PRON	PRP	Case=Acc|Number=Plur|Person=3|PronType=Prs	14	obj	_	_
16	all	all	ADV	RB	_	18	advmod	_	_
17	before	before	ADP	IN	_	18	case	_	_
18	evening	evening	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	14	obl:unmarked	_	SpaceAfter=No
19	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	20	punct	_	_
20	threatening	threaten	VERB	VBG	Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Part	14	advcl	_	_
21	her	she	PRON	PRP	Case=Acc|Gender=Fem|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	20	obj	_	_
22	with	with	ADP	IN	_	24	case	_	_
23	heavy	heavy	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	24	amod	_	_
24	punishment	punishment	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	20	obl	_	_
25	if	if	SCONJ	IN	_	27	mark	_	_
26	she	she	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Gender=Fem|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	27	nsubj	_	_
27	failed	fail	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	20	advcl	_	_
28	to	to	PART	TO	_	29	mark	_	_
29	do	do	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	27	xcomp	_	_
30	so	so	ADV	RB	_	29	advmod	_	SpaceAfter=No
31	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	4	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

<!-- .fr -->
| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **give** | past | HELENA | twelve pounds of mixed feathers and bade | Helena |  | day |  | vn give-13.1-1 «NP V NP-Dative NP»: agent=Agent helena=Recipient pound=Theme |
| 2 | **mix** | participle |  |  |  |  |  |  | vn mix-22.1-1-1 «NP V»: agent=Patient |
| 3 | **separate** | infinitive | HELENA *not said here* | pounds *= pound* |  |  | evening |  | vn separate-23.1-1-1 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent they=Patient |
| 4 | **threaten** | gerund | HELENA *not said here* | HELENA |  |  |  | with heavy punishment | vn amuse-31.1 «NP V NP»: agent=Stimulus she=Experiencer |
| 5 | **fail** *a condition, not said to happen* | past | HELENA |  |  |  |  |  | vn succeed-74-3-1-1 «NP V S\_INF»: agent=Agent clause=Eventuality |
| 6 | **not** **do** | to-infinitive | HELENA *not said here* |  |  |  |  |  | vn act-114-1 «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 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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