---
title: But at the time this story begins they had both been so careless and… — The Orange Fairy Book · tree and pragmatics
description: But at the time this story begins they had both been so careless and idle that their masters declared they would keep them no longer. Who acts: story, words, masters. A sentence of «The Orange Fairy Book» by Andrew Lang, Opening, part 16, with its dependency tree and the pragmatics of every clause.
---

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[Mova](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/) · [this page in HTML](https://mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg3027/16/31/)

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# The Orange Fairy Book, Opening, part 16, sentence 31

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But at the time this story begins they had both been so careless and idle that their masters declared they would keep them no longer.

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**Who acts:** story, words, masters · **What happens:** begin, have, be, declare, keep · **To what, where:** masters

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This is a sentence of «The Orange Fairy Book» by Andrew Lang, Opening, part 16. The page gives its syntax tree — a dependency tree in the style of Universal Dependencies — and its pragmatics clause by clause: who acts (story, words, masters), 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:pg3027:16:31
# text = But at the time this story begins they had both been so careless and idle that their masters declared they would keep them no longer.
1	But	but	CCONJ	CC	_	7	cc	_	_
2	at	at	ADP	IN	_	4	case	_	_
3	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	4	det	_	_
4	time	time	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	7	obl	_	_
5	this	this	DET	DT	Number=Sing|PronType=Dem	6	det	_	_
6	story	story	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	7	nsubj	_	_
7	begins	begin	VERB	VBZ	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Fin	0	root	_	_
8	they	they	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Number=Plur|Person=3|PronType=Prs	9	nsubj	_	_
9	had	have	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Plur|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	7	ccomp	_	_
10	both	both	ADV	RB	_	13	advmod	_	_
11	been	be	AUX	VBN	Tense=Past|VerbForm=Part	13	cop	_	_
12	so	so	ADV	RB	_	13	advmod	_	_
13	careless	careless	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	9	advcl	_	_
14	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	15	cc	_	_
15	idle	idle	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	13	conj	_	_
16	that	that	SCONJ	IN	_	19	mark	_	_
17	their	their	PRON	PRP$	Case=Gen|Number=Plur|Person=3|Poss=Yes|PronType=Prs	18	nmod:poss	_	_
18	masters	master	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	19	nsubj	_	_
19	declared	declare	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Plur|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	15	advcl	_	_
20	they	they	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Number=Plur|Person=3|PronType=Prs	22	nsubj	_	_
21	would	would	AUX	MD	VerbForm=Fin	22	aux	_	_
22	keep	keep	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	19	xcomp	_	_
23	them	they	PRON	PRP	Case=Acc|Number=Plur|Person=3|PronType=Prs	22	obj	_	_
24	no	no	ADV	RB	_	25	advmod	_	_
25	longer	long	ADV	RBR	Degree=Cmp	22	advmod	_	SpaceAfter=No
26	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	7	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

<!-- .fr -->
| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **begin** | present | this story |  |  |  | time |  | vn begin-55.1-1-1 «NP V S\_ING»: agent=Agent clause=Eventuality |
| 2 | **have** | past | words *= word* |  |  |  |  |  | vn birth-28.2-1 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent |
| 3 | **is** | participle | words *= word* *not said here* |  |  |  |  | both, careless *property* | tree rules |
| 4 | **be** |  | words *= word* *not said here* |  |  |  |  |  | tree rules |
| 5 | **declare** *speech: other* | past | words's masters |  |  |  |  |  | vn declare-29.4-1-1-1 «NP V what S\_INF»: agent=Agent clause=Theme |
| 6 | **keep** | would | words *= word* | masters *= master* |  |  |  | long *property* | vn keep-15.2 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent 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:** «The Orange Fairy Book» by Andrew Lang, Project Gutenberg book 3027 (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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- ↑ back to [Opening, part 16](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg3027/16/)