---
title: But the turtle-dove kept on saying: “Take two, Taffy, take two-o-o-o.” — English Fairy Tales · tree and pragmatics
description: But the turtle-dove kept on saying: “Take two, Taffy, take two-o-o-o.” A sentence of «English Fairy Tales» by Joseph Jacobs, The Magpie's Nest, with its dependency tree and the pragmatics of every clause.
---

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# English Fairy Tales, The Magpie's Nest, sentence 19

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But the turtle-dove kept on saying: “Take two, Taffy, take two-o-o-o.”

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**What happens:** keep, say, take · **To what, where:** turtle dove, two · **Speech:** someone speaks here

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This is a sentence of «English Fairy Tales» by Joseph Jacobs, The Magpie's Nest. The page gives its syntax tree — a dependency tree in the style of Universal Dependencies — and its pragmatics clause by clause: 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:pg7439:42:19
# text = But the turtle-dove kept on saying: “Take two, Taffy, take two-o-o-o.”
1	But	but	CCONJ	CC	_	6	cc	_	_
2	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	5	det	_	_
3	turtle	turtle	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	5	compound	_	SpaceAfter=No
4	-	-	PUNCT	HYPH	_	3	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
5	dove	dove	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	6	nsubj:pass	_	_
6	kept	keep	VERB	VBN	Tense=Past|VerbForm=Part|Voice=Pass	0	root	_	_
7	on	on	SCONJ	IN	_	8	mark	_	_
8	saying	say	VERB	VBG	Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Part	6	advcl	_	SpaceAfter=No
9	:	:	PUNCT	:	_	11	punct	_	_
10	“	"	PUNCT	``	_	11	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
11	Take	take	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	8	ccomp	_	_
12	two	two	NUM	CD	NumForm=Word|NumType=Card	11	obj	_	SpaceAfter=No
13	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	14	punct	_	_
14	Taffy	Taffy	PROPN	NNP	Number=Sing	11	obl	_	SpaceAfter=No
15	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	16	punct	_	_
16	take	take	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	11	conj	_	_
17	two	two	NUM	CD	NumForm=Word|NumType=Card	19	nummod	_	SpaceAfter=No
18	-	-	PUNCT	HYPH	_	19	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
19	o	of	ADP	IN	Abbr=Yes	16	obl	_	SpaceAfter=No
20	-	-	PUNCT	HYPH	_	19	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
21	o	of	ADP	IN	Abbr=Yes	23	case	_	SpaceAfter=No
22	-	-	PUNCT	HYPH	_	21	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
23	o	o	INTJ	UH	_	19	obl	_	SpaceAfter=No
24	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	11	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
25	”	"	PUNCT	''	_	11	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

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| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **keep** | participle · passive |  | the turtle dove |  |  |  |  | vn keep-15.2 «NP V NP»: subject=Theme |
| 2 | **say** *speech: assert* | gerund |  |  |  |  |  |  | vn say-37.7-1-1 «NP V that S»: agent=Agent clause=Topic |
| 3 | **take** *in a quote* | infinitive |  | two |  |  |  | Taffy *obl* | vn bring-11.3 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent two=Theme |
| 4 | **take** *in a quote* | infinitive |  |  |  |  |  |  | vn bring-11.3 «NP V NP»: agent=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:** «English Fairy Tales» by Joseph Jacobs, Project Gutenberg book 7439 (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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