---
title: The middle fish held a mussel in its mouth, which it laid at the you… — The Green Fairy Book · tree and pragmatics
description: The middle fish held a mussel in its mouth, which it laid at the young man’s feet, and when he picked it up and opened it, there was the golden ring inside. Who acts: middle fish, mouth, youth. A sentence of «The Green Fairy Book» by Andrew Lang, The White Snake, with its dependency tree and the pra
---

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# The Green Fairy Book, The White Snake, sentence 46

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The middle fish held a mussel in its mouth, which it laid at the young man’s feet, and when he picked it up and opened it, there was the golden ring inside.

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**Who acts:** middle fish, mouth, youth · **What happens:** hold, lay, pick up, open, be · **To what, where:** mussel, mouth, feet, golden ring

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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 (middle fish, mouth, youth), 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:pg7277:50:46
# text = The middle fish held a mussel in its mouth, which it laid at the young man’s feet, and when he picked it up and opened it, there was the golden ring inside.
1	The	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	3	det	_	_
2	middle	middle	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	3	amod	_	_
3	fish	fish	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	4	nsubj	_	_
4	held	hold	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	0	root	_	_
5	a	a	DET	DT	Definite=Ind|PronType=Art	6	det	_	_
6	mussel	mussel	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	4	obj	_	_
7	in	in	ADP	IN	_	9	case	_	_
8	its	its	PRON	PRP$	Case=Gen|Gender=Neut|Number=Sing|Person=3|Poss=Yes|PronType=Prs	9	nmod:poss	_	_
9	mouth	mouth	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	4	obl	_	SpaceAfter=No
10	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	13	punct	_	_
11	which	which	PRON	WDT	PronType=Rel	13	nsubj	_	_
12	it	it	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Gender=Neut|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	13	nsubj	_	_
13	laid	lay	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	9	conj	_	_
14	at	at	ADP	IN	_	19	case	_	_
15	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	17	det	_	_
16	young	young	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	17	amod	_	_
17	man	man	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	19	nmod:poss	_	SpaceAfter=No
18	’s	's	PART	POS	_	17	case	_	_
19	feet	foot	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	13	obl	_	SpaceAfter=No
20	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	35	punct	_	_
21	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	32	cc	_	_
22	when	when	ADV	WRB	PronType=Int	24	advmod	_	_
23	he	he	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	24	nsubj	_	_
24	picked	pick	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	32	advcl	_	_
25	it	it	PRON	PRP	Case=Acc|Gender=Neut|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	24	obj	_	_
26	up	up	ADP	RP	_	24	compound:prt	_	_
27	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	28	cc	_	_
28	opened	open	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	24	conj	_	_
29	it	it	PRON	PRP	Case=Acc|Gender=Neut|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	28	obj	_	SpaceAfter=No
30	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	24	punct	_	_
31	there	there	PRON	EX	PronType=Dem	32	expl	_	_
32	was	be	AUX	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	35	cop	_	_
33	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	35	det	_	_
34	golden	golden	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	35	amod	_	_
35	ring	ring	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	4	conj	_	_
36	inside	inside	ADV	RB	_	35	advmod	_	SpaceAfter=No
37	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	4	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

<!-- .fr -->
| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **hold** | past | the middle fish | a mussel |  | mussel's mouth |  |  | vn keep-15.2 «NP V NP PP.location»: agent=Agent mussel=Theme in mouth=Location |
| 2 | **lay** | past | mussel's mouth |  |  | the young man's feet |  |  | vn put\_spatial-9.2 «NP V NP PP.destination»: agent=Agent at foot=Destination |
| 3 | **pick up** | past | youth | mussel |  |  |  |  | vn discover-84-1 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent it=Topic |
| 4 | **open** | past | youth *not said here* | mussel |  |  |  |  | vn spatial\_configuration-47.6-1 «PP.location V NP»: agent=Location it=Theme |
| 5 | **is a** | past | the middle fish *not said here* | the golden ring |  |  |  | inside *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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