---
title: But a buffalo is not a fairy, and the next morning, when the women a… — The Orange Fairy Book · tree and pragmatics
description: But a buffalo is not a fairy, and the next morning, when the women arrived to work in the fields, they stood still with astonishment, and said to each other: Who acts: buffalo, women, fields. A sentence of «The Orange Fairy Book» by Andrew Lang, Opening, part 21, with its dependency tree and the pra
---

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# The Orange Fairy Book, Opening, part 21, sentence 64

<!-- .ven lang=en -->
But a buffalo is not a fairy, and the next morning, when the women arrived to work in the fields, they stood still with astonishment, and said to each other:

<!-- .vintro -->
**Who acts:** buffalo, women, fields · **What happens:** not be, arrive, work, stand, say · **To what, where:** fairy, each · **Speech:** someone speaks here

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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, women, fields), what happens, when and where, as Mova's frames read it from the tree.

<!-- .note-en -->
**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:pg3027:21:64
# text = But a buffalo is not a fairy, and the next morning, when the women arrived to work in the fields, they stood still with astonishment, and said to each other:
1	But	but	CCONJ	CC	_	7	cc	_	_
2	a	a	DET	DT	Definite=Ind|PronType=Art	3	det	_	_
3	buffalo	buffalo	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	7	nsubj	_	_
4	is	be	AUX	VBZ	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Fin	7	cop	_	_
5	not	not	PART	RB	Polarity=Neg	7	advmod	_	_
6	a	a	DET	DT	Definite=Ind|PronType=Art	7	det	_	_
7	fairy	fairy	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	0	root	_	SpaceAfter=No
8	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	12	punct	_	_
9	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	12	cc	_	_
10	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	12	det	_	_
11	next	next	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	12	amod	_	_
12	morning	morning	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	7	parataxis	_	SpaceAfter=No
13	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	17	punct	_	_
14	when	when	SCONJ	WRB	_	17	mark	_	_
15	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	16	det	_	_
16	women	woman	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	17	nsubj	_	_
17	arrived	arrive	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Plur|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	12	parataxis	_	_
18	to	to	PART	TO	_	19	mark	_	_
19	work	work	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	17	xcomp	_	_
20	in	in	ADP	IN	_	22	case	_	_
21	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	22	det	_	_
22	fields	field	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	19	obl	_	SpaceAfter=No
23	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	25	punct	_	_
24	they	they	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Number=Plur|Person=3|PronType=Prs	25	nsubj	_	_
25	stood	stand	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Plur|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	17	conj	_	_
26	still	still	ADV	RB	_	25	advmod	_	_
27	with	with	ADP	IN	_	28	case	_	_
28	astonishment	astonishment	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	25	obl	_	SpaceAfter=No
29	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	31	punct	_	_
30	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	31	cc	_	_
31	said	say	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Plur|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	25	conj	_	_
32	to	to	ADP	IN	_	33	case	_	_
33	each	each	DET	DT	ExtPos=PRON|PronType=Rcp	31	obl	_	_
34	other	other	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	33	fixed	_	SpaceAfter=No
35	:	:	PUNCT	:	_	7	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

<!-- .fr -->
| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **not** **is a** | present | a buffalo | a fairy |  |  |  |  | tree rules |
| 2 | **arrive** | past | the women |  |  |  |  |  | tree rules |
| 3 | **work** | to-infinitive | the women *not said here* |  |  |  |  | in the fields | vn employment-95.3 «NP V PP.theme»: agent=Agent in field=Theme |
| 4 | **stand** | past | fields *= field* |  |  |  | still | with astonishment | vn assuming\_position-50 «NP V»: agent=Agent |
| 5 | **say** *speech: assert* | past | fields *= field* *not said here* |  | each |  |  |  | vn say-37.7-1-1 «NP V PP.recipient S-Quote»: agent=Agent to each=Recipient |

<!-- .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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