---
title: Never had the house been kept so clean, the meats so well served, no… — The Crimson Fairy Book · tree and pragmatics
description: Never had the house been kept so clean, the meats so well served, nor the sick cats so well cared for. A sentence of «The Crimson Fairy Book» by Andrew Lang, The Crimson Fairy Book, part 36, with its dependency tree and the pragmatics of every clause.
---

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# The Crimson Fairy Book, The Crimson Fairy Book, part 36, sentence 20

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Never had the house been kept so clean, the meats so well served, nor the sick cats so well cared for.

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**What happens:** not have, keep, serve, care · **To what, where:** meats, house, sick cats

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This is a sentence of «The Crimson Fairy Book» by Andrew Lang, The Crimson Fairy Book, part 36. 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:pg2435:36:20
# text = Never had the house been kept so clean, the meats so well served, nor the sick cats so well cared for.
1	Never	never	ADV	RB	PronType=Neg	2	advmod	_	_
2	had	have	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=1|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	0	root	_	_
3	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	4	det	_	_
4	house	house	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	6	nsubj:pass	_	_
5	been	be	AUX	VBN	Tense=Past|VerbForm=Part	6	aux:pass	_	_
6	kept	keep	VERB	VBN	Tense=Past|VerbForm=Part|Voice=Pass	2	xcomp	_	_
7	so	so	ADV	RB	_	8	advmod	_	_
8	clean	clean	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	6	xcomp	_	SpaceAfter=No
9	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	11	punct	_	_
10	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	11	det	_	_
11	meats	meat	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	2	obl	_	_
12	so	so	ADV	RB	_	13	advmod	_	_
13	well	well	ADV	RB	Degree=Pos	14	advmod	_	_
14	served	serve	VERB	VBN	Tense=Past|VerbForm=Part|Voice=Pass	2	advcl	_	SpaceAfter=No
15	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	22	punct	_	_
16	nor	nor	CCONJ	CC	Polarity=Neg	22	cc	_	_
17	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	19	det	_	_
18	sick	sick	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	19	amod	_	_
19	cats	cat	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	22	nsubj:pass	_	_
20	so	so	ADV	RB	_	22	advmod	_	_
21	well	well	ADV	RB	Degree=Pos	22	advmod	_	_
22	cared	care	VERB	VBN	Tense=Past|VerbForm=Part|Voice=Pass	2	conj	_	_
23	for	for	ADP	IN	_	22	obl	_	SpaceAfter=No
24	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	2	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

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| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **not** **have** | past |  | the meats |  |  |  |  | tree rules |
| 2 | **keep** | participle · passive |  | the house |  |  |  | clean *property* | vn keep-15.2 «NP V NP»: subject=Theme |
| 3 | **serve** | participle |  |  |  |  |  | well *property* | vn masquerade-29.6-2 «NP V PP.attribute»: agent=Agent |
| 4 | **care** | participle · passive |  | the sick cats |  |  |  | well *property* | tree rules |

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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:** «The Crimson Fairy Book» by Andrew Lang, Project Gutenberg book 2435 (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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