---
title: The mother, when she handed the baby to Dame Goody to mind, gave her… — English Fairy Tales · tree and pragmatics
description: The mother, when she handed the baby to Dame Goody to mind, gave her a box of ointment, and told her to stroke the baby's eyes with it as soon as it opened them. Who acts: mother, box. A sentence of «English Fairy Tales» by Joseph Jacobs, Fairy Ointment, with its dependency tree and the pragmatics o
---

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# English Fairy Tales, Fairy Ointment, sentence 8

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The mother, when she handed the baby to Dame Goody to mind, gave her a box of ointment, and told her to stroke the baby's eyes with it as soon as it opened them.

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**Who acts:** mother, box · **What happens:** hand, mind, give, tell, stroke, open · **To what, where:** baby, Dame, box, eyes · **Speech:** someone speaks here

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This is a sentence of «English Fairy Tales» by Joseph Jacobs, Fairy Ointment. The page gives its syntax tree — a dependency tree in the style of Universal Dependencies — and its pragmatics clause by clause: who acts (mother, box), what happens, when and where, as Mova's frames read it from the tree.

<!-- .note-en -->
**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:pg7439:46:8
# text = The mother, when she handed the baby to Dame Goody to mind, gave her a box of ointment, and told her to stroke the baby's eyes with it as soon as it opened them.
1	The	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	2	det	_	_
2	mother	mother	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	6	nsubj	_	SpaceAfter=No
3	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	2	punct	_	_
4	when	when	ADV	WRB	PronType=Int	6	advmod	_	_
5	she	she	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Gender=Fem|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	6	nsubj	_	_
6	handed	hand	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	0	root	_	_
7	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	8	det	_	_
8	baby	baby	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	6	obj	_	_
9	to	to	ADP	IN	_	10	case	_	_
10	Dame	Dame	PROPN	NNP	Number=Sing	6	obl	_	_
11	Goody	Goody	PROPN	NNP	Number=Sing	10	flat	_	_
12	to	to	PART	TO	_	13	mark	_	_
13	mind	mind	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	6	advcl	_	SpaceAfter=No
14	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	15	punct	_	_
15	gave	give	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	6	conj	_	_
16	her	she	PRON	PRP	Case=Acc|Gender=Fem|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	15	iobj	_	_
17	a	a	DET	DT	Definite=Ind|PronType=Art	18	det	_	_
18	box	box	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	15	obj	_	_
19	of	of	ADP	IN	_	20	case	_	_
20	ointment	ointment	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	18	nmod	_	SpaceAfter=No
21	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	23	punct	_	_
22	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	23	cc	_	_
23	told	tell	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	6	conj	_	_
24	her	she	PRON	PRP	Case=Acc|Gender=Fem|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	23	iobj	_	_
25	to	to	PART	TO	_	26	mark	_	_
26	stroke	stroke	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	23	xcomp	_	_
27	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	28	det	_	_
28	baby	baby	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	30	nmod:poss	_	SpaceAfter=No
29	's	's	PART	POS	_	28	case	_	_
30	eyes	eye	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	26	obj	_	_
31	with	with	ADP	IN	_	32	case	_	_
32	it	it	PRON	PRP	Case=Acc|Gender=Neut|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	26	obl	_	_
33	as	as	ADV	RB	_	34	advmod	_	_
34	soon	soon	ADV	RB	Degree=Pos	26	advmod	_	_
35	as	as	SCONJ	IN	_	37	mark	_	_
36	it	it	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Gender=Neut|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	37	nsubj	_	_
37	opened	open	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	34	advcl	_	_
38	them	they	PRON	PRP	Case=Acc|Number=Plur|Person=3|PronType=Prs	37	obj	_	SpaceAfter=No
39	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	6	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

<!-- .fr -->
| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **hand** | past | the mother | the baby | Dame |  |  |  | vn send-11.1-1 «NP V NP PP.destination»: agent=Agent baby=Theme to dame=Destination |
| 2 | **mind** | to-infinitive | the mother *not said here* |  |  |  |  |  | vn care-88.1 «NP V»: agent=Experiencer |
| 3 | **give** | past | the mother *not said here* | a box of ointment | Dame |  |  |  | vn give-13.1-1 «NP V NP-Dative NP»: agent=Agent she=Recipient box=Theme |
| 4 | **tell** *speech: assert* | past | the mother *not said here* |  | Dame |  |  |  | vn transfer\_mesg-37.1.1-1-1 «NP V NP S\_INF»: agent=Agent she=Recipient clause=Topic |
| 5 | **stroke** *not said to happen* | to-infinitive | the mother *not said here* | the baby's eyes |  |  |  | with ointment; soon *property* | vn touch-20-1 «NP V NP PP.instrument»: agent=Agent eye=Experiencer with it=Instrument |
| 6 | **open** | past | box | eyes *= eye* |  |  |  |  | vn spatial\_configuration-47.6-1 «PP.location V NP»: agent=Location they=Theme |

<!-- .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:** «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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