--- title: No sooner did the servant hear this than he seized the duck by the n… — The Green Fairy Book · tree and pragmatics description: No sooner did the servant hear this than he seized the duck by the neck, carried it off to the kitchen, and said to the cook, ‘Suppose you kill this duck; you see she’s nice and fat.’ Who acts: servant, haste, you, Queen. A sentence of «The Green Fairy Book» by Andrew Lang, The White Snake, with its --- [Mova](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/) · [this page in HTML](https://mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg7277/50/19/) [home](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/) / [corpora](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/) / [tales](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/) / [The Green Fairy Book](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg7277/) / [The White Snake](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg7277/50/) / 19 # The Green Fairy Book, The White Snake, sentence 19 No sooner did the servant hear this than he seized the duck by the neck, carried it off to the kitchen, and said to the cook, ‘Suppose you kill this duck; you see she’s nice and fat.’ **Who acts:** servant, haste, you, Queen · **What happens:** hear, seize, carry off, say, kill, see · **To what, where:** this, duck, servant, kitchen, cook · **Speech:** someone speaks here 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 (servant, haste, you, Queen), what happens, when and where, as Mova's frames read it from the tree. **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:pg7277:50:19 # text = No sooner did the servant hear this than he seized the duck by the neck, carried it off to the kitchen, and said to the cook, ‘Suppose you kill this duck; you see she’s nice and fat.’ 1 No no DET DT PronType=Neg 2 det _ _ 2 sooner soon ADV RBR Degree=Cmp 6 advmod _ _ 3 did do AUX VBD Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin 6 aux _ _ 4 the the DET DT Definite=Def|PronType=Art 5 det _ _ 5 servant servant NOUN NN Number=Sing 6 nsubj _ _ 6 hear hear VERB VB VerbForm=Inf 0 root _ _ 7 this this PRON DT Number=Sing|PronType=Dem 6 obj _ _ 8 than than SCONJ IN _ 10 mark _ _ 9 he he PRON PRP Case=Nom|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs 10 nsubj _ _ 10 seized seize VERB VBD Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin 6 advcl _ _ 11 the the DET DT Definite=Def|PronType=Art 12 det _ _ 12 duck duck NOUN NN Number=Sing 10 obj _ _ 13 by by ADP IN _ 15 case _ _ 14 the the DET DT Definite=Def|PronType=Art 15 det _ _ 15 neck neck NOUN NN Number=Sing 10 obl _ SpaceAfter=No 16 , , PUNCT , _ 17 punct _ _ 17 carried carry VERB VBD Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin 10 conj _ _ 18 it it PRON PRP Case=Acc|Gender=Neut|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs 17 obj _ _ 19 off off ADP RP _ 17 compound:prt _ _ 20 to to ADP IN _ 22 case _ _ 21 the the DET DT Definite=Def|PronType=Art 22 det _ _ 22 kitchen kitchen NOUN NN Number=Sing 17 obl _ SpaceAfter=No 23 , , PUNCT , _ 25 punct _ _ 24 and and CCONJ CC _ 25 cc _ _ 25 said say VERB VBD Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin 17 parataxis _ _ 26 to to ADP IN _ 28 case _ _ 27 the the DET DT Definite=Def|PronType=Art 28 det _ _ 28 cook cook NOUN NN Number=Sing 25 obl _ SpaceAfter=No 29 , , PUNCT , _ 33 punct _ _ 30 ‘ ' PUNCT `` _ 33 punct _ SpaceAfter=No 31 Suppose suppose INTJ UH _ 33 discourse _ _ 32 you you PRON PRP Case=Nom|Person=2|PronType=Prs 33 nsubj _ _ 33 kill kill VERB VBP Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=2|Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Fin 25 conj _ _ 34 this this DET DT Number=Sing|PronType=Dem 35 det _ _ 35 duck duck NOUN NN Number=Sing 33 obj _ SpaceAfter=No 36 ; ; PUNCT : _ 38 punct _ _ 37 you you PRON PRP Case=Nom|Person=2|PronType=Prs 38 nsubj _ _ 38 see see VERB VBP Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=2|Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Fin 6 conj _ _ 39 she she PRON PRP Case=Nom|Gender=Fem|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs 41 nsubj _ SpaceAfter=No 40 ’s be AUX VBZ Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Fin 41 cop _ _ 41 nice nice ADJ JJ Degree=Pos 38 ccomp _ _ 42 and and CCONJ CC _ 43 cc _ _ 43 fat fat ADJ JJ Degree=Pos 41 conj _ SpaceAfter=No 44 . . PUNCT . _ 6 punct _ SpaceAfter=No 45 ’ ' PUNCT '' _ 6 punct _ _ ``` ## Pragmatics {#pragmatics} | # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by | | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | | 1 | **hear** | past · do-support | the servant | this | | | | soon *property* | vn see-30.1-1-1 «NP V S»: agent=Experiencer this=Stimulus | | 2 | **seize** | past | haste | the duck | | | | by the neck | vn obtain-13.5.2 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent duck=Theme | | 3 | **carry off** | past | haste *not said here* | servant | | the kitchen | | | vn carry-11.4 «NP V NP PP.destination»: agent=Agent it=Theme to kitchen=Destination | | 4 | **say** *speech: assert* | past | | | the cook | | | | vn say-37.7-1-1 «NP V PP.recipient S-Quote»: agent=Agent to cook=Recipient | | 5 | **kill** | present | you | this duck | | | | | vn remove-10.1 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent duck=Theme | | 6 | **see** | present | you | | | | | | vn comprehend-87.2-1-1 «NP V»: agent=Experiencer | | 7 | **is** | present | Queen | | | | | nice *property* | tree rules | | 8 | **be** | | Queen *not said here* | | | | | | tree rules | 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. **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. - ← previous: [sentence 18](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg7277/50/18/) - next →: [sentence 20](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg7277/50/20/) - ↑ back to [The White Snake](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg7277/50/)