---
title: He would eat nothing nor take pleasure in anything, but lay all day… — The Orange Fairy Book · tree and pragmatics
description: He would eat nothing nor take pleasure in anything, but lay all day on a heap of cushions, gazing at the picture of the princess. Who acts: Desiree. 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 7

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He would eat nothing nor take pleasure in anything, but lay all day on a heap of cushions, gazing at the picture of the princess.

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**Who acts:** Desiree · **What happens:** eat, take, lie, gaze · **To what, where:** nothing, pleasure, anything, heap

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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 (Desiree), 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:pg3027:23:7
# text = He would eat nothing nor take pleasure in anything, but lay all day on a heap of cushions, gazing at the picture of the princess.
1	He	he	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	3	nsubj	_	_
2	would	would	AUX	MD	VerbForm=Fin	3	aux	_	_
3	eat	eat	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	0	root	_	_
4	nothing	nothing	PRON	NN	Number=Sing|PronType=Neg	3	obj	_	_
5	nor	nor	CCONJ	CC	Polarity=Neg	6	cc	_	_
6	take	take	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	3	conj	_	_
7	pleasure	pleasure	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	6	obj	_	_
8	in	in	ADP	IN	_	9	case	_	_
9	anything	anything	PRON	NN	Number=Sing|PronType=Ind	6	obl	_	SpaceAfter=No
10	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	12	punct	_	_
11	but	but	CCONJ	CC	_	12	cc	_	_
12	lay	lie	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	3	parataxis	_	_
13	all	all	DET	DT	PronType=Tot	14	det	_	_
14	day	day	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	12	obl:unmarked	_	_
15	on	on	ADP	IN	_	17	case	_	_
16	a	a	DET	DT	Definite=Ind|PronType=Art	17	det	_	_
17	heap	heap	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	12	obl	_	_
18	of	of	ADP	IN	_	19	case	_	_
19	cushions	cushion	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	17	nmod	_	SpaceAfter=No
20	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	21	punct	_	_
21	gazing	gaze	VERB	VBG	Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Part	12	advcl	_	_
22	at	at	ADP	IN	_	24	case	_	_
23	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	24	det	_	_
24	picture	picture	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	21	obl	_	_
25	of	of	ADP	IN	_	27	case	_	_
26	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	27	det	_	_
27	princess	princess	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	24	nmod	_	SpaceAfter=No
28	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	3	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

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| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **eat** | would | Desiree | nothing |  |  |  |  | vn eat-39.1-1 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent nothing=Patient |
| 2 | **take** | infinitive | Desiree *not said here* | pleasure |  | anything |  |  | vn fit-54.3 «NP V NP PP.location»: agent=Agent pleasure=Value in anything=Location |
| 3 | **lie** | past |  |  |  | a heap of cushions | day |  | vn assuming\_position-50 «NP V PP.location»: agent=Agent on heap=Location |
| 4 | **gaze** | gerund |  |  |  |  |  | at the picture of the princess | vn peer-30.3 «NP V PP.theme»: agent=Agent at picture=Theme |

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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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