---
title: They were talking of where they had been waddling about all the morn… — The Green Fairy Book · tree and pragmatics
description: They were talking of where they had been waddling about all the morning, and of the good food they had found, but one of them remarked rather sadly, ‘There’s something lying very heavy on my stomach, for in my haste I’ve swallowed a ring, which was lying just under the Queen’s window.’ Who acts: bil
---

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# The Green Fairy Book, The White Snake, sentence 18

<!-- .ven lang=en -->
They were talking of where they had been waddling about all the morning, and of the good food they had found, but one of them remarked rather sadly, ‘There’s something lying very heavy on my stomach, for in my haste I’ve swallowed a ring, which was lying just under the Queen’s window.’

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**Who acts:** bills, one, haste · **What happens:** talk, waddle, find, remark, lie, swallow · **To what, where:** heavy, I, window

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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 (bills, one, haste), 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:pg7277:50:18
# text = They were talking of where they had been waddling about all the morning, and of the good food they had found, but one of them remarked rather sadly, ‘There’s something lying very heavy on my stomach, for in my haste I’ve swallowed a ring, which was lying just under the Queen’s window.’
1	They	they	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Number=Plur|Person=3|PronType=Prs	3	nsubj	_	_
2	were	be	AUX	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Plur|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	3	aux	_	_
3	talking	talk	VERB	VBG	Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Part	0	root	_	_
4	of	of	SCONJ	IN	_	9	mark	_	_
5	where	where	ADV	WRB	PronType=Rel	9	advmod	_	_
6	they	they	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Number=Plur|Person=3|PronType=Prs	9	nsubj	_	_
7	had	have	AUX	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Plur|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	9	aux	_	_
8	been	be	AUX	VBN	Tense=Past|VerbForm=Part	9	aux	_	_
9	waddling	waddle	VERB	VBG	Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Part	3	advcl	_	_
10	about	about	ADP	IN	_	13	case	_	_
11	all	all	DET	PDT	PronType=Tot	13	det:predet	_	_
12	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	13	det	_	_
13	morning	morning	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	9	obl	_	SpaceAfter=No
14	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	22	punct	_	_
15	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	22	cc	_	_
16	of	of	ADP	IN	_	19	case	_	_
17	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	19	det	_	_
18	good	good	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	19	amod	_	_
19	food	food	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	22	obl	_	_
20	they	they	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Number=Plur|Person=3|PronType=Prs	22	nsubj	_	_
21	had	have	AUX	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Plur|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	22	aux	_	_
22	found	find	VERB	VBN	Tense=Past|VerbForm=Part	3	parataxis	_	SpaceAfter=No
23	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	28	punct	_	_
24	but	but	CCONJ	CC	_	28	cc	_	_
25	one	one	NUM	CD	NumForm=Word|NumType=Card	28	nsubj	_	_
26	of	of	ADP	IN	_	27	case	_	_
27	them	they	PRON	PRP	Case=Acc|Number=Plur|Person=3|PronType=Prs	25	nmod	_	_
28	remarked	remark	VERB	VBN	Tense=Past|VerbForm=Part	22	advcl	_	_
29	rather	rather	ADV	RB	_	30	advmod	_	_
30	sadly	sadly	ADV	RB	_	28	advmod	_	SpaceAfter=No
31	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	34	punct	_	_
32	‘	'	PUNCT	``	_	34	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
33	There	there	PRON	EX	PronType=Dem	34	expl	_	SpaceAfter=No
34	’s	be	AUX	VBZ	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Fin	28	conj	_	_
35	something	something	PRON	NN	Number=Sing|PronType=Ind	34	obj	_	_
36	lying	lie	VERB	VBG	VerbForm=Ger	35	acl	_	_
37	very	very	ADV	RB	_	38	advmod	_	_
38	heavy	heavy	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	36	obj	_	_
39	on	on	ADP	IN	_	41	case	_	_
40	my	my	PRON	PRP$	Case=Gen|Number=Sing|Person=1|Poss=Yes|PronType=Prs	41	nmod:poss	_	_
41	stomach	stomach	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	38	obl	_	SpaceAfter=No
42	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	46	punct	_	_
43	for	for	ADP	IN	_	46	case	_	_
44	in	in	ADP	IN	_	46	case	_	_
45	my	my	PRON	PRP$	Case=Gen|Number=Sing|Person=1|Poss=Yes|PronType=Prs	46	nmod:poss	_	_
46	haste	haste	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	35	appos	_	_
47	I	I	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Number=Sing|Person=1|PronType=Prs	49	nsubj	_	SpaceAfter=No
48	’ve	have	AUX	VBP	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=1|Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Fin	49	aux:pass	_	_
49	swallowed	swallow	VERB	VBN	Tense=Past|VerbForm=Part|Voice=Pass	46	acl:relcl	_	_
50	a	a	DET	DT	Definite=Ind|PronType=Art	51	det	_	_
51	ring	ring	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	49	obj	_	SpaceAfter=No
52	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	55	punct	_	_
53	which	which	PRON	WDT	PronType=Rel	55	nsubj	_	_
54	was	be	AUX	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	55	aux	_	_
55	lying	lie	VERB	VBG	Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Part	46	acl	_	_
56	just	just	ADV	RB	_	61	advmod	_	_
57	under	under	ADP	IN	_	61	case	_	_
58	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	59	det	_	_
59	Queen	Queen	PROPN	NNP	Number=Sing	61	nmod:poss	_	SpaceAfter=No
60	’s	's	PART	POS	_	59	case	_	_
61	window	window	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	55	obl	_	SpaceAfter=No
62	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	3	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
63	’	'	PUNCT	''	_	3	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

<!-- .fr -->
| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **talk** | past · progressive | bills *= bill* |  |  |  |  |  | vn talk-37.5 «NP V»: agent=Agent |
| 2 | **waddle** | past · perfect · progressive | bills *= bill* |  |  |  | morning |  | vn run-51.3.2 «NP V»: agent=Theme |
| 3 | **find** | past · perfect | bills *= bill* |  |  |  |  | of the good food | vn declare-29.4-1-1 «NP V what S\_INF»: agent=Agent |
| 4 | **remark** *speech: assert* | participle | one of bills |  |  |  |  | sadly *property* | vn lecture-37.11-1 «NP V»: agent=Agent |
| 5 | **lie** | gerund |  | heavy |  |  |  |  | vn spatial\_configuration-47.6 «PP.location V NP»: agent=Location heavy=Theme |
| 6 | **swallow** | present · passive |  | I |  |  |  |  | tree rules |
| 7 | **lie** | past · progressive | my haste |  |  | the Queen's window |  |  | vn assuming\_position-50 «NP V PP.location»: agent=Agent under window=Location |

<!-- .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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