---
title: The little creature nodded, but helped himself so clumsily that he d… — The Green Fairy Book · tree and pragmatics
description: The little creature nodded, but helped himself so clumsily that he dropped the piece of meat he had carved on to the floor. Who acts: little creature, creature. A sentence of «The Green Fairy Book» by Andrew Lang, The Three Musicians, with its dependency tree and the pragmatics of every clause.
---

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# The Green Fairy Book, The Three Musicians, sentence 23

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The little creature nodded, but helped himself so clumsily that he dropped the piece of meat he had carved on to the floor.

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**Who acts:** little creature, creature · **What happens:** nod, help, drop, carve · **To what, where:** little creature, creature, piece, meat, floor

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This is a sentence of «The Green Fairy Book» by Andrew Lang, The Three Musicians. The page gives its syntax tree — a dependency tree in the style of Universal Dependencies — and its pragmatics clause by clause: who acts (little creature, creature), 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:pg7277:55:23
# text = The little creature nodded, but helped himself so clumsily that he dropped the piece of meat he had carved on to the floor.
1	The	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	3	det	_	_
2	little	little	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	3	amod	_	_
3	creature	creature	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	7	nsubj	_	_
4	nodded	nod	VERB	VBN	Tense=Past|VerbForm=Part|Voice=Pass	3	acl	_	SpaceAfter=No
5	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	7	punct	_	_
6	but	but	CCONJ	CC	_	7	cc	_	_
7	helped	help	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	0	root	_	_
8	himself	himself	PRON	PRP	Case=Acc|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs|Reflex=Yes	7	obj	_	_
9	so	so	ADV	RB	_	10	advmod	_	_
10	clumsily	clumsily	ADV	RB	_	7	advmod	_	_
11	that	that	SCONJ	IN	_	13	mark	_	_
12	he	he	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	13	nsubj	_	_
13	dropped	drop	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	7	advcl	_	_
14	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	15	det	_	_
15	piece	piece	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	13	obj	_	_
16	of	of	ADP	IN	_	17	case	_	_
17	meat	meat	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	15	nmod	_	_
18	he	he	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	20	nsubj	_	_
19	had	have	AUX	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	20	aux	_	_
20	carved	carve	VERB	VBN	Tense=Past|VerbForm=Part	17	acl:relcl	_	_
21	on	on	ADP	IN	_	24	case	_	_
22	to	to	ADP	IN	_	24	case	_	_
23	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	24	det	_	_
24	floor	floor	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	20	obl	_	SpaceAfter=No
25	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	7	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

<!-- .fr -->
| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **nod** | participle |  | the little creature *not said here* |  |  |  |  | vn wink-40.3.1 «NP V»: agent=Agent |
| 2 | **help** | past | the little creature | creature |  |  |  | clumsily *property* | vn help-72.1-1-1 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent himself=Beneficiary |
| 3 | **drop** | past | creature | the piece of meat |  |  |  |  | vn put\_direction-9.4 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent piece=Theme |
| 4 | **carve** | past · perfect | creature | meat *not said here* |  | the floor |  |  | vn scribble-25.2-1 «NP V NP PP.destination»: agent=Agent meat=Theme on floor=Destination |

<!-- .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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