--- title: ‘There lives,’ he said, ‘in a neighbouring country, a mighty emperor… — The Green Fairy Book · tree and pragmatics description: ‘There lives,’ he said, ‘in a neighbouring country, a mighty emperor who has a beautiful golden bird in a cage, and this is the creature who steals the golden apples, but it flies so fast that it is impossible to catch it at its theft. Who acts: lives, mighty emperor, this, creature. A sentence of « --- [Mova](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/) · [this page in HTML](https://mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg7277/52/17/) [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 Golden Mermaid](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg7277/52/) / 17 # The Green Fairy Book, The Golden Mermaid, sentence 17 ‘There lives,’ he said, ‘in a neighbouring country, a mighty emperor who has a beautiful golden bird in a cage, and this is the creature who steals the golden apples, but it flies so fast that it is impossible to catch it at its theft. **Who acts:** lives, mighty emperor, this, creature, thief · **What happens:** say, neighbour, have, be, steal, fly · **To what, where:** beautiful golden bird, cage, creature, golden apples, thief, theft · **Speech:** someone speaks here This is a sentence of «The Green Fairy Book» by Andrew Lang, The Golden Mermaid. The page gives its syntax tree — a dependency tree in the style of Universal Dependencies — and its pragmatics clause by clause: who acts (lives, mighty emperor, this, creature), 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:pg7277:52:17 # text = ‘There lives,’ he said, ‘in a neighbouring country, a mighty emperor who has a beautiful golden bird in a cage, and this is the creature who steals the golden apples, but it flies so fast that it is impossible to catch it at its theft. 1 ‘ ' PUNCT `` _ 3 punct _ SpaceAfter=No 2 There there PRON EX PronType=Dem 3 expl _ _ 3 lives life NOUN NNS Number=Plur 7 nsubj _ SpaceAfter=No 4 , , PUNCT , _ 3 punct _ SpaceAfter=No 5 ’ ' PUNCT '' _ 3 punct _ _ 6 he he PRON PRP Case=Nom|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs 7 nsubj _ _ 7 said say VERB VBD Mood=Ind|Number=Plur|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin 0 root _ SpaceAfter=No 8 , , PUNCT , _ 9 punct _ _ 9 ‘ ‘ PUNCT " _ 7 ccomp _ SpaceAfter=No 10 in in ADP IN _ 13 case _ _ 11 a a DET DT Definite=Ind|PronType=Art 13 det _ _ 12 neighbouring neighbour VERB VBG VerbForm=Ger 13 amod _ _ 13 country country NOUN NN Number=Sing 9 obl _ SpaceAfter=No 14 , , PUNCT , _ 17 punct _ _ 15 a a DET DT Definite=Ind|PronType=Art 17 det _ _ 16 mighty mighty ADJ JJ Degree=Pos 17 amod _ _ 17 emperor emperor NOUN NN Number=Sing 13 appos _ _ 18 who who PRON WP PronType=Rel 19 nsubj _ _ 19 has have VERB VBZ Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Fin 17 acl:relcl _ _ 20 a a DET DT Definite=Ind|PronType=Art 23 det _ _ 21 beautiful beautiful ADJ JJ Degree=Pos 23 amod _ _ 22 golden golden ADJ JJ Degree=Pos 23 amod _ _ 23 bird bird NOUN NN Number=Sing 19 obj _ _ 24 in in ADP IN _ 26 case _ _ 25 a a DET DT Definite=Ind|PronType=Art 26 det _ _ 26 cage cage NOUN NN Number=Sing 23 nmod _ SpaceAfter=No 27 , , PUNCT , _ 32 punct _ _ 28 and and CCONJ CC _ 32 cc _ _ 29 this this PRON DT Number=Sing|PronType=Dem 32 nsubj _ _ 30 is be AUX VBZ Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Fin 32 cop _ _ 31 the the DET DT Definite=Def|PronType=Art 32 det _ _ 32 creature creature NOUN NN Number=Sing 19 parataxis _ _ 33 who who PRON WP PronType=Rel 34 nsubj _ _ 34 steals steal VERB VBZ Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Fin 32 acl:relcl _ _ 35 the the DET DT Definite=Def|PronType=Art 37 det _ _ 36 golden golden ADJ JJ Degree=Pos 37 amod _ _ 37 apples apple NOUN NNS Number=Plur 34 obj _ SpaceAfter=No 38 , , PUNCT , _ 41 punct _ _ 39 but but CCONJ CC _ 41 cc _ _ 40 it it PRON PRP Case=Nom|Gender=Neut|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs 41 nsubj _ _ 41 flies fly VERB VBZ Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Fin 19 conj _ _ 42 so so ADV RB _ 43 advmod _ _ 43 fast fast ADV RB Degree=Pos 41 advmod _ _ 44 that that SCONJ IN _ 47 mark _ _ 45 it it PRON PRP Case=Nom|Gender=Neut|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs 47 expl _ _ 46 is be AUX VBZ Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Fin 47 cop _ _ 47 impossible impossible ADJ JJ Degree=Pos 41 advcl _ _ 48 to to PART TO _ 49 mark _ _ 49 catch catch VERB VB VerbForm=Inf 47 csubj _ _ 50 it it PRON PRP Case=Acc|Gender=Neut|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs 49 obj _ _ 51 at at ADP IN _ 53 case _ _ 52 its its PRON PRP$ Case=Gen|Gender=Neut|Number=Sing|Person=3|Poss=Yes|PronType=Prs 53 nmod:poss _ _ 53 theft theft NOUN NN Number=Sing 49 obl _ SpaceAfter=No 54 . . PUNCT . _ 7 punct _ _ ``` ## Pragmatics {#pragmatics} | # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by | | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | | 1 | **say** *speech: assert* | past | lives | | | | | | vn say-37.7-1-1 «NP V that S»: agent=Agent | | 2 | **neighbour** | gerund | | | | | | | tree rules | | 3 | **have** | present | a mighty emperor | a beautiful golden bird | | a cage | | | vn birth-28.2-1 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent bird=Patient | | 4 | **is a** | present | this | the creature | | | | | tree rules | | 5 | **steal** | present | the creature | the golden apples | | | | | vn appear-48.1.1 «PP.location V NP»: agent=Location apple=Theme | | 6 | **fly** | present | thief | | | | | fast *property* | vn spatial\_configuration-47.6-1 «NP V»: agent=Theme | | 7 | **is** | present | thief *not said here* | | | | | impossible *property* | tree rules | | 8 | **catch** | to-infinitive | | thief | | thief's theft | | | vn get-13.5.1 «NP V NP PP.source NP.asset»: agent=Agent it=Theme at theft=Asset | 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 16](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg7277/52/16/) - next →: [sentence 18](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg7277/52/18/) - ↑ back to [The Golden Mermaid](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg7277/52/)