---
title: The dog laid this to heart and said nothing; but when they approache… — The Green Fairy Book · tree and pragmatics
description: The dog laid this to heart and said nothing; but when they approached the shore he could not help asking, ‘Have you got the watch?’ Who acts: dog, animals, you. A sentence of «The Green Fairy Book» by Andrew Lang, The Enchanted Watch, with its dependency tree and the pragmatics of every clause.
---

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# The Green Fairy Book, The Enchanted Watch, sentence 80

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The dog laid this to heart and said nothing; but when they approached the shore he could not help asking, ‘Have you got the watch?’

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**Who acts:** dog, animals, you · **What happens:** lay, say, approach, not help, ask, get · **To what, where:** this, nothing, shore, watch · **Speech:** someone speaks here

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This is a sentence of «The Green Fairy Book» by Andrew Lang, The Enchanted Watch. The page gives its syntax tree — a dependency tree in the style of Universal Dependencies — and its pragmatics clause by clause: who acts (dog, animals, you), 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:pg7277:8:80
# text = The dog laid this to heart and said nothing; but when they approached the shore he could not help asking, ‘Have you got the watch?’
1	The	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	2	det	_	_
2	dog	dog	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	3	nsubj	_	_
3	laid	lay	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	0	root	_	_
4	this	this	PRON	DT	Number=Sing|PronType=Dem	3	obj	_	_
5	to	to	PART	TO	_	6	mark	_	_
6	heart	heart	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	3	xcomp	_	_
7	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	8	cc	_	_
8	said	say	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	3	conj	_	_
9	nothing	nothing	PRON	NN	Number=Sing|PronType=Neg	8	obj	_	SpaceAfter=No
10	;	;	PUNCT	,	_	20	punct	_	_
11	but	but	CCONJ	CC	_	20	cc	_	_
12	when	when	ADV	WRB	PronType=Int	14	advmod	_	_
13	they	they	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Number=Plur|Person=3|PronType=Prs	14	nsubj	_	_
14	approached	approach	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Plur|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	20	advcl	_	_
15	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	16	det	_	_
16	shore	shore	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	14	obj	_	_
17	he	he	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	20	nsubj	_	_
18	could	could	AUX	MD	VerbForm=Fin	20	aux	_	_
19	not	not	PART	RB	Polarity=Neg	20	advmod	_	_
20	help	help	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	3	advcl	_	_
21	asking	ask	VERB	VBG	VerbForm=Ger	20	xcomp	_	SpaceAfter=No
22	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	26	punct	_	_
23	‘	'	PUNCT	``	_	26	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
24	Have	have	AUX	VBP	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=2|Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Fin	26	aux	_	_
25	you	you	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Person=2|PronType=Prs	26	nsubj	_	_
26	got	get	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	3	parataxis	_	_
27	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	28	det	_	_
28	watch	watch	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	26	obj	_	SpaceAfter=No
29	?	?	PUNCT	.	_	3	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
30	’	'	PUNCT	''	_	3	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

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| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **lay** | past | the dog | this |  |  |  |  | vn create-26.4 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent this=Result |
| 2 | **say** *speech: assert* | past | the dog *not said here* | nothing |  |  |  |  | vn say-37.7-1-1 «NP V NP.topic»: agent=Agent nothing=Topic |
| 3 | **approach** | past | animals *= animal* | the shore |  |  |  |  | vn confront-98 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent shore=Theme |
| 4 | **not** **help** | could | dog |  |  |  |  |  | vn help-72.1-1-1 «NP V NP S\_INF»: agent=Agent clause=Theme |
| 5 | **ask** *speech: ask* *not said to happen* | gerund | dog *not said here* |  |  |  |  |  | vn inquire-37.1.2 «NP V»: agent=Agent |
| 6 | **get** | present | you | the watch |  |  |  |  | vn comprehend-87.2-1 «NP V NP»: agent=Experiencer watch=Stimulus |

<!-- .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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