---
title: On seeing it he could not restrain his desire to taste it, so he cut… — The Green Fairy Book · tree and pragmatics
description: On seeing it he could not restrain his desire to taste it, so he cut off a small piece and put it in his mouth. Who acts: King. 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 8

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On seeing it he could not restrain his desire to taste it, so he cut off a small piece and put it in his mouth.

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**Who acts:** King · **What happens:** see, not restrain, taste, cut off, put, desire · **To what, where:** cover, desire, small piece, mouth

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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 (King), 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:pg7277:50:8
# text = On seeing it he could not restrain his desire to taste it, so he cut off a small piece and put it in his mouth.
1	On	on	SCONJ	IN	_	2	mark	_	_
2	seeing	see	VERB	VBG	Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Part	7	advcl	_	_
3	it	it	PRON	PRP	Case=Acc|Gender=Neut|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	2	obj	_	_
4	he	he	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	7	nsubj	_	_
5	could	could	AUX	MD	VerbForm=Fin	7	aux	_	_
6	not	not	PART	RB	Polarity=Neg	7	advmod	_	_
7	restrain	restrain	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	0	root	_	_
8	his	his	PRON	PRP$	Case=Gen|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|Poss=Yes|PronType=Prs	9	nmod:poss	_	_
9	desire	desire	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	7	obj	_	_
10	to	to	PART	TO	_	11	mark	_	_
11	taste	taste	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	9	acl	_	_
12	it	it	PRON	PRP	Case=Acc|Gender=Neut|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	11	obj	_	SpaceAfter=No
13	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	16	punct	_	_
14	so	so	ADV	RB	_	16	advmod	_	_
15	he	he	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	16	nsubj	_	_
16	cut	cut	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	7	advcl	_	_
17	off	off	ADP	RP	_	16	compound:prt	_	_
18	a	a	DET	DT	Definite=Ind|PronType=Art	20	det	_	_
19	small	small	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	20	amod	_	_
20	piece	piece	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	16	obj	_	_
21	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	22	cc	_	_
22	put	put	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	7	conj	_	_
23	it	it	PRON	PRP	Case=Acc|Gender=Neut|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	22	obj	_	_
24	in	in	ADP	IN	_	26	case	_	_
25	his	his	PRON	PRP$	Case=Gen|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|Poss=Yes|PronType=Prs	26	nmod:poss	_	_
26	mouth	mouth	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	22	obl	_	SpaceAfter=No
27	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	7	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

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| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **see** | gerund | King *not said here* | cover |  |  |  |  | vn comprehend-87.2-1-1 «NP V NP»: agent=Experiencer it=Stimulus |
| 2 | **not** **restrain** | could | King | King's desire |  |  |  |  | vn discourage-64.5-1 «NP V NP»: agent=Causer desire=Eventuality |
| 3 | **taste** | to-infinitive | King *not said here* | cover |  |  |  |  | vn seem-109 «NP V ADJ»: agent=Theme it=Attribute |
| 4 | **cut off** | past | King | a small piece |  |  |  |  | vn stop-55.4-1 «NP V NP.eventuality»: agent=Affector piece=Eventuality |
| 5 | **put** | infinitive | King *not said here* | cover |  | King's mouth |  |  | vn put-9.1-2 «NP V NP PP.destination»: agent=Agent it=Theme in mouth=Destination |
| 6 | **desire** |  | King |  |  |  |  |  | nom desire «feeling transitive»: poss=agent |

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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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