---
title: The ministers looked at each other, and made no reply; till at lengt… — The Orange Fairy Book · tree and pragmatics
description: The ministers looked at each other, and made no reply; till at length the chamberlain, who was the bolder of the two, observed: Who acts: ministers, chamberlain. A sentence of «The Orange Fairy Book» by Andrew Lang, Opening, part 23, with its dependency tree and the pragmatics of every clause.
---

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# The Orange Fairy Book, Opening, part 23, sentence 49

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The ministers looked at each other, and made no reply; till at length the chamberlain, who was the bolder of the two, observed:

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**Who acts:** ministers, chamberlain · **What happens:** look, make, be, observe · **To what, where:** reply

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This is a sentence of «The Orange Fairy Book» by Andrew Lang, Opening, part 23. The page gives its syntax tree — a dependency tree in the style of Universal Dependencies — and its pragmatics clause by clause: who acts (ministers, chamberlain), 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:pg3027:23:49
# text = The ministers looked at each other, and made no reply; till at length the chamberlain, who was the bolder of the two, observed:
1	The	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	2	det	_	_
2	ministers	minister	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	3	nsubj	_	_
3	looked	look	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Plur|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	0	root	_	_
4	at	at	ADP	IN	_	5	case	_	_
5	each	each	DET	DT	ExtPos=PRON|PronType=Rcp	3	obl	_	_
6	other	other	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	5	fixed	_	SpaceAfter=No
7	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	9	punct	_	_
8	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	9	cc	_	_
9	made	make	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Plur|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	3	conj	_	_
10	no	no	DET	DT	PronType=Neg	11	det	_	_
11	reply	reply	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	9	obj	_	SpaceAfter=No
12	;	;	PUNCT	,	_	15	punct	_	_
13	till	till	ADP	IN	_	15	case	_	_
14	at	at	ADP	IN	_	15	case	_	_
15	length	length	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	9	obl	_	_
16	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	17	det	_	_
17	chamberlain	chamberlain	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	15	appos	_	SpaceAfter=No
18	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	22	punct	_	_
19	who	who	PRON	WP	PronType=Rel	22	nsubj	_	_
20	was	be	AUX	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	22	cop	_	_
21	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	22	det	_	_
22	bolder	bold	ADJ	JJR	Degree=Cmp	17	acl:relcl	_	_
23	of	of	ADP	IN	_	25	case	_	_
24	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	25	det	_	_
25	two	two	NUM	CD	NumForm=Word|NumType=Card	27	obl	_	SpaceAfter=No
26	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	25	punct	_	_
27	observed	observe	VERB	VBN	Tense=Past|VerbForm=Part|Voice=Pass	22	parataxis	_	SpaceAfter=No
28	:	:	PUNCT	:	_	3	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

<!-- .fr -->
| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **look** | past | the ministers |  |  |  |  | at each | vn peer-30.3 «NP V PP.theme»: agent=Agent at each=Theme |
| 2 | **make** | past | the ministers *not said here* | no reply |  |  | till length |  | vn build-26.1-1 «NP.asset V NP»: agent=Asset reply=Product |
| 3 | **is** | past | the chamberlain |  |  |  |  | bold *property* | tree rules |
| 4 | **observe** | participle |  |  |  |  |  | of the two | vn say-37.7-1-1 «NP V that S»: agent=Agent |

<!-- .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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