---
title: When Helena told her of her stepmother’s new demand she said, ‘Trust… — The Green Fairy Book · tree and pragmatics
description: When Helena told her of her stepmother’s new demand she said, ‘Trust to me and I will do your task for you. Who acts: Helena, I, stepmother, your. A sentence of «The Green Fairy Book» by Andrew Lang, The Biter Bit, part 3, with its dependency tree and the pragmatics of every clause.
---

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# The Green Fairy Book, The Biter Bit, part 3, sentence 128

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When Helena told her of her stepmother’s new demand she said, ‘Trust to me and I will do your task for you.

<!-- .vintro -->
**Who acts:** Helena, I, stepmother, your · **What happens:** tell, say, do, demand, task · **To what, where:** Fairy, task · **Speech:** someone speaks here

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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, I, stepmother, your), 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:pg7277:28:128
# text = When Helena told her of her stepmother’s new demand she said, ‘Trust to me and I will do your task for you.
1	When	when	ADV	WRB	PronType=Int	3	advmod	_	_
2	Helena	Helena	PROPN	NNP	Number=Sing	3	nsubj	_	_
3	told	tell	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	12	advcl	_	_
4	her	she	PRON	PRP	Case=Acc|Gender=Fem|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	3	iobj	_	_
5	of	of	ADP	IN	_	10	case	_	_
6	her	her	PRON	PRP$	Case=Gen|Gender=Fem|Number=Sing|Person=3|Poss=Yes|PronType=Prs	7	nmod:poss	_	_
7	stepmother	stepmother	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	10	nmod:poss	_	SpaceAfter=No
8	’s	's	PART	POS	_	7	case	_	_
9	new	new	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	10	amod	_	_
10	demand	demand	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	3	obl	_	_
11	she	she	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Gender=Fem|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	12	nsubj	_	_
12	said	say	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	0	root	_	SpaceAfter=No
13	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	15	punct	_	_
14	‘	'	PUNCT	``	_	15	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
15	Trust	trust	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	12	ccomp	_	_
16	to	to	ADP	IN	_	17	case	_	_
17	me	I	PRON	PRP	Case=Acc|Number=Sing|Person=1|PronType=Prs	15	nmod	_	_
18	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	21	cc	_	_
19	I	I	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Number=Sing|Person=1|PronType=Prs	21	nsubj	_	_
20	will	will	AUX	MD	VerbForm=Fin	21	aux	_	_
21	do	do	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	12	conj	_	_
22	your	your	PRON	PRP$	Case=Gen|Person=2|Poss=Yes|PronType=Prs	23	nmod:poss	_	_
23	task	task	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	21	obj	_	_
24	for	for	ADP	IN	_	25	case	_	_
25	you	you	PRON	PRP	Case=Acc|Person=2|PronType=Prs	21	obl	_	SpaceAfter=No
26	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	12	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

<!-- .fr -->
| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **tell** *speech: assert* | past | Helena |  | Fairy |  |  | of HELENA's stepmother's new demand | vn transfer\_mesg-37.1.1-1-1 «NP V NP.recipient»: agent=Agent she=Recipient |
| 2 | **say** *speech: assert* | past | HELENA |  |  |  |  |  | vn say-37.7-1-1 «NP V that S»: agent=Agent |
| 3 | **do** | future | I | your task |  |  |  | for you | vn act-114-1 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent task=Eventuality |
| 4 | **demand** |  | HELENA's stepmother |  |  |  |  |  | nom demand «communication transitive»: poss=agent |
| 5 | **task** |  | your |  |  |  |  |  | nom task «act 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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