---
title: Now the buffalo had always lived an honest life, but if his mistress… — The Orange Fairy Book · tree and pragmatics
description: Now the buffalo had always lived an honest life, but if his mistress did not feed him, he must get food for himself. Who acts: buffalo, mistress. A sentence of «The Orange Fairy Book» by Andrew Lang, Opening, part 21, with its dependency tree and the pragmatics of every clause.
---

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# The Orange Fairy Book, Opening, part 21, sentence 61

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Now the buffalo had always lived an honest life, but if his mistress did not feed him, he must get food for himself.

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**Who acts:** buffalo, mistress · **What happens:** live, not feed, get · **To what, where:** honest life, buffalo, food

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This is a sentence of «The Orange Fairy Book» by Andrew Lang, Opening, part 21. The page gives its syntax tree — a dependency tree in the style of Universal Dependencies — and its pragmatics clause by clause: who acts (buffalo, mistress), 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:pg3027:21:61
# text = Now the buffalo had always lived an honest life, but if his mistress did not feed him, he must get food for himself.
1	Now	now	ADV	RB	PronType=Dem	6	advmod	_	_
2	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	3	det	_	_
3	buffalo	buffalo	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	6	nsubj	_	_
4	had	have	AUX	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	6	aux	_	_
5	always	always	ADV	RB	PronType=Tot	6	advmod	_	_
6	lived	live	VERB	VBN	Tense=Past|VerbForm=Part	0	root	_	_
7	an	a	DET	DT	Definite=Ind|PronType=Art	9	det	_	_
8	honest	honest	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	9	amod	_	_
9	life	life	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	6	obj	_	SpaceAfter=No
10	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	22	punct	_	_
11	but	but	CCONJ	CC	_	22	cc	_	_
12	if	if	SCONJ	IN	_	17	mark	_	_
13	his	his	PRON	PRP$	Case=Gen|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|Poss=Yes|PronType=Prs	14	nmod:poss	_	_
14	mistress	mistress	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	17	nsubj	_	_
15	did	do	AUX	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	17	aux	_	_
16	not	not	PART	RB	Polarity=Neg	17	advmod	_	_
17	feed	feed	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	22	advcl	_	_
18	him	he	PRON	PRP	Case=Acc|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	17	obj	_	SpaceAfter=No
19	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	17	punct	_	_
20	he	he	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	22	nsubj	_	_
21	must	must	AUX	MD	VerbForm=Fin	22	aux	_	_
22	get	get	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	6	conj	_	_
23	food	food	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	22	obj	_	_
24	for	for	ADP	IN	_	25	case	_	_
25	himself	himself	PRON	PRP	Case=Acc|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs|Reflex=Yes	22	obl	_	SpaceAfter=No
26	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	6	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

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| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **live** | past · perfect | the buffalo | a honest life |  |  | now | always *property* | vn lodge-46 «NP V ADV»: agent=Theme life=Location |
| 2 | **not** **feed** *a condition, not said to happen* | past · do-support | buffalo's mistress |  | buffalo |  |  |  | vn feeding-39.7 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent he=Recipient |
| 3 | **get** | must | mistress | food |  |  |  | for mistress | vn get-13.5.1-1 «NP V NP PP.source»: agent=Agent food=Theme for himself=Source |

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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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