---
title: For many months I was as happy as a girl could be, especially when I… — The Orange Fairy Book · tree and pragmatics
description: For many months I was as happy as a girl could be, especially when I had a little son to play with. Who acts: I. A sentence of «The Orange Fairy Book» by Andrew Lang, Opening, part 25, with its dependency tree and the pragmatics of every clause.
---

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# The Orange Fairy Book, Opening, part 25, sentence 45

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For many months I was as happy as a girl could be, especially when I had a little son to play with.

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**Who acts:** I · **What happens:** be, have, play · **To what, where:** little son

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This is a sentence of «The Orange Fairy Book» by Andrew Lang, Opening, part 25. The page gives its syntax tree — a dependency tree in the style of Universal Dependencies — and its pragmatics clause by clause: who acts (I), 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:pg3027:25:45
# text = For many months I was as happy as a girl could be, especially when I had a little son to play with.
1	For	for	ADP	IN	_	3	case	_	_
2	many	many	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	3	amod	_	_
3	months	month	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	7	obl	_	_
4	I	I	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Number=Sing|Person=1|PronType=Prs	7	nsubj	_	_
5	was	be	AUX	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	7	cop	_	_
6	as	as	ADV	RB	_	7	advmod	_	_
7	happy	happy	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	0	root	_	_
8	as	as	SCONJ	IN	_	12	mark	_	_
9	a	a	DET	DT	Definite=Ind|PronType=Art	10	det	_	_
10	girl	girl	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	12	nsubj	_	_
11	could	could	AUX	MD	VerbForm=Fin	12	aux	_	_
12	be	be	AUX	VB	VerbForm=Inf	7	advcl	_	SpaceAfter=No
13	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	17	punct	_	_
14	especially	especially	ADV	RB	_	17	advmod	_	_
15	when	when	ADV	WRB	PronType=Int	17	advmod	_	_
16	I	I	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Number=Sing|Person=1|PronType=Prs	17	nsubj	_	_
17	had	have	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=1|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	7	parataxis	_	_
18	a	a	DET	DT	Definite=Ind|PronType=Art	20	det	_	_
19	little	little	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	20	amod	_	_
20	son	son	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	17	obj	_	_
21	to	to	PART	TO	_	22	mark	_	_
22	play	play	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	17	advcl	_	_
23	with	with	ADP	IN	_	22	obl	_	SpaceAfter=No
24	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	7	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

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| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **is** | past | I |  |  |  | month | happy *property* | tree rules |
| 2 | **have** | past | I | a little son |  |  |  | especially *property* | vn birth-28.2-1 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent son=Patient |
| 3 | **play** | to-infinitive | I *not said here* |  |  |  |  |  | vn performance-26.7-1 «NP V»: agent=Agent |

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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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