---
title: At length, however, at their mother's entreaty, he was told that he… — The Orange Fairy Book · tree and pragmatics
description: At length, however, at their mother's entreaty, he was told that he might pass the night in the stable. Who acts: man. A sentence of «The Orange Fairy Book» by Andrew Lang, Opening, part 20, with its dependency tree and the pragmatics of every clause.
---

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# The Orange Fairy Book, Opening, part 20, sentence 65

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At length, however, at their mother's entreaty, he was told that he might pass the night in the stable.

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**Who acts:** man · **What happens:** tell, pass · **To what, where:** man, length, stable · **Speech:** someone speaks here

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This is a sentence of «The Orange Fairy Book» by Andrew Lang, Opening, part 20. The page gives its syntax tree — a dependency tree in the style of Universal Dependencies — and its pragmatics clause by clause: who acts (man), 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:pg3027:20:65
# text = At length, however, at their mother's entreaty, he was told that he might pass the night in the stable.
1	At	at	ADP	IN	_	2	case	_	_
2	length	length	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	14	obl	_	SpaceAfter=No
3	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	2	punct	_	_
4	however	however	ADV	RB	_	2	advmod	_	SpaceAfter=No
5	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	10	punct	_	_
6	at	at	ADP	IN	_	10	case	_	_
7	their	their	PRON	PRP$	Case=Gen|Number=Plur|Person=3|Poss=Yes|PronType=Prs	8	nmod:poss	_	_
8	mother	mother	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	10	nmod:poss	_	SpaceAfter=No
9	's	's	PART	POS	_	8	case	_	_
10	entreaty	entreaty	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	2	conj	_	SpaceAfter=No
11	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	2	punct	_	_
12	he	he	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	14	nsubj	_	_
13	was	be	AUX	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	14	aux:pass	_	_
14	told	tell	VERB	VBN	Tense=Past|VerbForm=Part|Voice=Pass	0	root	_	_
15	that	that	SCONJ	IN	_	18	mark	_	_
16	he	he	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	18	nsubj	_	_
17	might	might	AUX	MD	VerbForm=Fin	18	aux	_	_
18	pass	pass	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	14	xcomp	_	_
19	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	20	det	_	_
20	night	night	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	18	obj	_	_
21	in	in	ADP	IN	_	23	case	_	_
22	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	23	det	_	_
23	stable	stable	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	18	obl	_	SpaceAfter=No
24	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	14	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

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| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **tell** *speech: assert* | past · passive |  | man |  | length and brothers's mother's entreaty |  |  | vn transfer\_mesg-37.1.1-1-1 «NP V NP S\_INF»: subject=Recipient clause=Topic |
| 2 | **pass** *not said to happen* | might | man |  |  | the stable | night |  | vn occur-48.3-1 «NP V PP»: agent=Theme in stable=Location |

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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 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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