---
title: The piece of the white snake which he had eaten had enabled him to u… — The Green Fairy Book · tree and pragmatics
description: The piece of the white snake which he had eaten had enabled him to understand the language of animals. Who acts: piece. A sentence of «The Green Fairy Book» by Andrew Lang, The White Snake, with its dependency tree and the pragmatics of every clause.
---

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# The Green Fairy Book, The White Snake, sentence 11

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The piece of the white snake which he had eaten had enabled him to understand the language of animals.

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**Who acts:** piece · **What happens:** eat, enable, understand · **To what, where:** King, language

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This is a sentence of «The Green Fairy Book» by Andrew Lang, The White Snake. The page gives its syntax tree — a dependency tree in the style of Universal Dependencies — and its pragmatics clause by clause: who acts (piece), 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:pg7277:50:11
# text = The piece of the white snake which he had eaten had enabled him to understand the language of animals.
1	The	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	2	det	_	_
2	piece	piece	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	12	nsubj	_	_
3	of	of	ADP	IN	_	6	case	_	_
4	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	6	det	_	_
5	white	white	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	6	amod	_	_
6	snake	snake	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	2	nmod	_	_
7	which	which	PRON	WDT	PronType=Rel	10	nsubj	_	_
8	he	he	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	10	nsubj	_	_
9	had	have	AUX	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	10	aux	_	_
10	eaten	eat	VERB	VBN	Tense=Past|VerbForm=Part	2	acl:relcl	_	_
11	had	have	AUX	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	12	aux	_	_
12	enabled	enable	VERB	VBN	Tense=Past|VerbForm=Part	0	root	_	_
13	him	he	PRON	PRP	Case=Acc|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	12	obj	_	_
14	to	to	PART	TO	_	15	mark	_	_
15	understand	understand	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	12	advcl	_	_
16	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	17	det	_	_
17	language	language	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	15	obj	_	_
18	of	of	ADP	IN	_	19	case	_	_
19	animals	animal	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	17	nmod	_	SpaceAfter=No
20	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	12	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

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| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **eat** | past · perfect | the piece of the white snake |  |  |  |  |  | vn eat-39.1-1 «NP V»: agent=Agent |
| 2 | **enable** | past · perfect | the piece of the white snake | King |  |  |  |  | tree rules |
| 3 | **understand** | to-infinitive | the piece of the white snake *not said here* | the language of animals |  |  |  |  | vn comprehend-87.2-1-1-1 «NP V NP PP.attribute»: agent=Experiencer language=Stimulus |

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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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