---
title: Full of despair and misery, she was in the act of throwing the spoon… — The Green Fairy Book · tree and pragmatics
description: Full of despair and misery, she was in the act of throwing the spoon away, when suddenly the kind Fairy stood before her again, and asked her why she was so unhappy? Who acts: HELENA, act, kind Fairy. A sentence of «The Green Fairy Book» by Andrew Lang, The Biter Bit, part 3, with its dependency tre
---

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# The Green Fairy Book, The Biter Bit, part 3, sentence 127

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Full of despair and misery, she was in the act of throwing the spoon away, when suddenly the kind Fairy stood before her again, and asked her why she was so unhappy?

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**Who acts:** HELENA, act, kind Fairy · **What happens:** be, throw away, stand, ask · **To what, where:** act, spoon, HELENA

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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, act, kind Fairy), 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:pg7277:28:127
# text = Full of despair and misery, she was in the act of throwing the spoon away, when suddenly the kind Fairy stood before her again, and asked her why she was so unhappy?
1	Full	full	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	0	root	_	_
2	of	of	ADP	IN	_	3	case	_	_
3	despair	despair	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	1	obl	_	_
4	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	5	cc	_	_
5	misery	misery	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	3	conj	_	SpaceAfter=No
6	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	11	punct	_	_
7	she	she	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Gender=Fem|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	11	nsubj	_	_
8	was	be	AUX	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	11	cop	_	_
9	in	in	ADP	IN	_	11	case	_	_
10	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	11	det	_	_
11	act	act	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	3	appos	_	_
12	of	of	SCONJ	IN	_	13	mark	_	_
13	throwing	throw	VERB	VBG	VerbForm=Ger	11	acl	_	_
14	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	15	det	_	_
15	spoon	spoon	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	13	obj	_	_
16	away	away	ADV	RB	_	13	advmod	_	SpaceAfter=No
17	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	23	punct	_	_
18	when	when	ADV	WRB	PronType=Int	23	advmod	_	_
19	suddenly	suddenly	ADV	RB	_	22	advmod	_	_
20	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	22	det	_	_
21	kind	kind	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	22	amod	_	_
22	Fairy	Fairy	PROPN	NNP	Number=Sing	23	nsubj	_	_
23	stood	stand	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	1	conj	_	_
24	before	before	SCONJ	IN	_	26	mark	_	_
25	her	her	PRON	PRP$	Case=Gen|Gender=Fem|Number=Sing|Person=3|Poss=Yes|PronType=Prs	26	nmod:poss	_	_
26	again	again	ADV	RB	_	23	advmod	_	SpaceAfter=No
27	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	29	punct	_	_
28	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	29	cc	_	_
29	asked	ask	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	23	conj	_	_
30	her	she	PRON	PRP	Case=Acc|Gender=Fem|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	29	iobj	_	_
31	why	why	ADV	WRB	PronType=Int	35	advmod	_	_
32	she	she	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Gender=Fem|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	35	nsubj	_	_
33	was	be	AUX	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	35	cop	_	_
34	so	so	ADV	RB	_	35	advmod	_	_
35	unhappy	unhappy	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	29	advcl	_	SpaceAfter=No
36	?	?	PUNCT	.	_	1	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

<!-- .fr -->
| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **is** | past | HELENA |  |  | the act |  |  | tree rules |
| 2 | **throw away** | gerund | the act *not said here* | the spoon |  |  |  | away *property* | vn throw-17.1-1-1 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent spoon=Theme |
| 3 | **stand** | past | the kind Fairy |  |  |  | again |  | vn assuming\_position-50 «NP V»: agent=Agent |
| 4 | **ask** *speech: ask* | past | the kind Fairy *not said here* |  | HELENA |  |  |  | vn inquire-37.1.2 «NP V NP.recipient»: agent=Agent she=Recipient |
| 5 | **is** | past | HELENA |  |  |  |  | unhappy *property* | tree rules |

<!-- .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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