---
title: All the girl would do was to spend her days in dancing and playing w… — The Orange Fairy Book · tree and pragmatics
description: All the girl would do was to spend her days in dancing and playing with her friends; and for any use she was to her parents they might as well have no daughter at all. Who acts: girl, parents. A sentence of «The Orange Fairy Book» by Andrew Lang, Opening, part 24, with its dependency tree and the pr
---

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[Mova](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/) · [this page in HTML](https://mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg3027/24/111/)

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# The Orange Fairy Book, Opening, part 24, sentence 111

<!-- .ven lang=en -->
All the girl would do was to spend her days in dancing and playing with her friends; and for any use she was to her parents they might as well have no daughter at all.

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**Who acts:** girl, parents · **What happens:** do, be, spend, play, have · **To what, where:** girl, daughter, all

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This is a sentence of «The Orange Fairy Book» by Andrew Lang, Opening, part 24. The page gives its syntax tree — a dependency tree in the style of Universal Dependencies — and its pragmatics clause by clause: who acts (girl, parents), 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:pg3027:24:111
# text = All the girl would do was to spend her days in dancing and playing with her friends; and for any use she was to her parents they might as well have no daughter at all.
1	All	all	DET	PDT	PronType=Tot	3	det:predet	_	_
2	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	3	det	_	_
3	girl	girl	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	5	nsubj	_	_
4	would	would	AUX	MD	VerbForm=Fin	5	aux	_	_
5	do	do	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	0	root	_	_
6	was	be	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=1|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	5	advcl	_	_
7	to	to	PART	TO	_	8	mark	_	_
8	spend	spend	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	6	xcomp	_	_
9	her	she	PRON	PRP	Case=Acc|Gender=Fem|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	8	obj	_	_
10	days	day	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	8	obj	_	_
11	in	in	ADP	IN	_	12	case	_	_
12	dancing	dancing	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	10	nmod	_	_
13	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	14	cc	_	_
14	playing	play	VERB	VBG	Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Part	12	conj	_	_
15	with	with	ADP	IN	_	17	case	_	_
16	her	her	PRON	PRP$	Case=Gen|Gender=Fem|Number=Sing|Person=3|Poss=Yes|PronType=Prs	17	nmod:poss	_	_
17	friends	friend	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	14	obl	_	SpaceAfter=No
18	;	;	PUNCT	,	_	22	punct	_	_
19	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	22	cc	_	_
20	for	for	ADP	IN	_	22	case	_	_
21	any	any	DET	DT	PronType=Ind	22	det	_	_
22	use	use	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	5	advcl	_	_
23	she	she	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Gender=Fem|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	27	nsubj	_	_
24	was	be	AUX	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	27	cop	_	_
25	to	to	ADP	IN	_	27	case	_	_
26	her	her	PRON	PRP$	Case=Gen|Gender=Fem|Number=Sing|Person=3|Poss=Yes|PronType=Prs	27	nmod:poss	_	_
27	parents	parent	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	22	nmod	_	_
28	they	they	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Number=Plur|Person=3|PronType=Prs	32	nsubj	_	_
29	might	might	AUX	MD	VerbForm=Fin	32	aux	_	_
30	as	as	ADV	RB	ExtPos=CCONJ	32	cc	_	_
31	well	well	ADV	RB	Degree=Pos	30	fixed	_	_
32	have	have	VERB	VBP	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=2|Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Fin	27	parataxis	_	_
33	no	no	DET	DT	PronType=Neg	34	det	_	_
34	daughter	daughter	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	32	obj	_	_
35	at	at	ADP	IN	_	36	case	_	_
36	all	all	DET	DT	PronType=Tot	34	nmod	_	SpaceAfter=No
37	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	5	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

<!-- .fr -->
| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **do** | would | all girl |  |  |  |  |  | vn act-114-1 «NP V»: agent=Agent |
| 2 | **be** | past | all girl *not said here* |  |  |  |  |  | tree rules |
| 3 | **spend** | to-infinitive | all girl *not said here* | girl |  |  | day |  | vn consume-66-1 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent she=Asset |
| 4 | **play** | gerund | all girl *not said here* |  |  |  |  | with girl's friends | vn play-114.2-1 «NP V PP.co-agent»: agent=Agent with friend=Co-Agent |
| 5 | **is** | past | girl |  |  |  |  | to girl's parents | tree rules |
| 6 | **have** | might | parents *= parent* | no daughter |  | all |  |  | vn birth-28.2-1 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent daughter=Patient |

<!-- .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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