---
title: The little boy lay awake a long time, listening, in case the fairy-m… — More English Fairy Tales · tree and pragmatics
description: The little boy lay awake a long time, listening, in case the fairy-mother should come back after all; and next evening after supper, his mother was surprised to find that he was willing to go to bed whenever she liked. Who acts: little boy, fairy mother, mother, boy. A sentence of «More English Fair
---

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# More English Fairy Tales, More English Fairy Tales, part 2, sentence 70

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The little boy lay awake a long time, listening, in case the fairy-mother should come back after all; and next evening after supper, his mother was surprised to find that he was willing to go to bed whenever she liked.

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**Who acts:** little boy, fairy mother, mother, boy · **What happens:** lie, listen, come back, be, find, go · **To what, where:** case, bed · **Speech:** someone speaks here

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This is a sentence of «More English Fairy Tales» by Joseph Jacobs, More English Fairy Tales, part 2. The page gives its syntax tree — a dependency tree in the style of Universal Dependencies — and its pragmatics clause by clause: who acts (little boy, fairy mother, mother, boy), 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:pg14241:16:70
# text = The little boy lay awake a long time, listening, in case the fairy-mother should come back after all; and next evening after supper, his mother was surprised to find that he was willing to go to bed whenever she liked.
1	The	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	3	det	_	_
2	little	little	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	3	amod	_	_
3	boy	boy	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	4	nsubj	_	_
4	lay	lie	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	0	root	_	_
5	awake	awake	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	4	xcomp	_	_
6	a	a	DET	DT	Definite=Ind|PronType=Art	8	det	_	_
7	long	long	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	8	amod	_	_
8	time	time	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	4	obl:unmarked	_	SpaceAfter=No
9	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	10	punct	_	_
10	listening	listen	VERB	VBG	Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Part	4	advcl	_	SpaceAfter=No
11	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	19	punct	_	_
12	in	in	ADP	IN	_	13	case	_	_
13	case	case	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	19	obl	_	_
14	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	17	det	_	_
15	fairy	fairy	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	17	compound	_	SpaceAfter=No
16	-	-	PUNCT	HYPH	_	15	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
17	mother	mother	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	19	nsubj	_	_
18	should	should	AUX	MD	VerbForm=Fin	19	aux	_	_
19	come	come	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	10	conj	_	_
20	back	back	ADV	RB	_	19	advmod	_	_
21	after	after	ADP	IN	_	22	case	_	_
22	all	all	DET	DT	PronType=Tot	19	obl	_	SpaceAfter=No
23	;	;	PUNCT	,	_	26	punct	_	_
24	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	26	cc	_	_
25	next	next	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	26	amod	_	_
26	evening	evening	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	4	obl:unmarked	_	_
27	after	after	ADP	IN	_	28	case	_	_
28	supper	supper	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	26	nmod	_	SpaceAfter=No
29	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	33	punct	_	_
30	his	his	PRON	PRP$	Case=Gen|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|Poss=Yes|PronType=Prs	31	nmod:poss	_	_
31	mother	mother	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	33	nsubj	_	_
32	was	be	AUX	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	33	cop	_	_
33	surprised	surprised	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	26	parataxis	_	_
34	to	to	PART	TO	_	35	mark	_	_
35	find	find	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	33	advcl	_	_
36	that	that	SCONJ	IN	_	39	mark	_	_
37	he	he	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	39	nsubj	_	_
38	was	be	AUX	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	39	cop	_	_
39	willing	willing	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	35	ccomp	_	_
40	to	to	PART	TO	_	41	mark	_	_
41	go	go	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	39	xcomp	_	_
42	to	to	ADP	IN	_	43	case	_	_
43	bed	bed	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	41	obl	_	_
44	whenever	whenever	ADV	WRB	PronType=Rel	41	advmod	_	_
45	she	she	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Gender=Fem|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	46	nsubj	_	_
46	liked	like	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	44	advcl:relcl	_	SpaceAfter=No
47	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	4	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

<!-- .fr -->
| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **lie** | past | the little boy |  |  |  | evening; time | awake *property* | vn assuming\_position-50 «NP V»: agent=Agent |
| 2 | **listen** | gerund | the little boy *not said here* |  |  |  |  |  | vn peer-30.3 «NP V PP.theme»: agent=Agent |
| 3 | **come back** | should | the fairy mother |  |  | case | after all |  | vn appear-48.1.1 «NP V PP.location»: agent=Theme in case=Location |
| 4 | **is** | past | boy's mother |  |  |  |  | surprised *property* | tree rules |
| 5 | **find** | to-infinitive | boy's mother *not said here* |  |  |  |  |  | vn declare-29.4-1-1 «NP V what S\_INF»: agent=Agent |
| 6 | **is** | past | boy |  |  |  |  | willing *property* | tree rules |
| 7 | **go** | to-infinitive | boy *not said here* |  |  | bed |  | whenever *property* | vn escape-51.1-1 «NP V PP.initial\_location»: agent=Theme to bed=Initial\_Location |
| 8 | **like** | past | mother |  |  |  |  |  | vn want-32.1-1-1 «NP V NP S\_INF»: agent=Pivot |

<!-- .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:** «More English Fairy Tales» by Joseph Jacobs, Project Gutenberg book 14241 (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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