---
title: The days passed slowly to Muffette, in spite of her brave efforts to… — The Orange Fairy Book · tree and pragmatics
description: The days passed slowly to Muffette, in spite of her brave efforts to occupy herself and not to sadden other people by her complaints. Who acts: days, Muffette. A sentence of «The Orange Fairy Book» by Andrew Lang, Opening, part 29, with its dependency tree and the pragmatics of every clause.
---

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# The Orange Fairy Book, Opening, part 29, sentence 36

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The days passed slowly to Muffette, in spite of her brave efforts to occupy herself and not to sadden other people by her complaints.

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**Who acts:** days, Muffette · **What happens:** pass, occupy, not sadden, spite, complain · **To what, where:** Muffette, spite, other people, brave efforts

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This is a sentence of «The Orange Fairy Book» by Andrew Lang, Opening, part 29. The page gives its syntax tree — a dependency tree in the style of Universal Dependencies — and its pragmatics clause by clause: who acts (days, Muffette), 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:pg3027:29:36
# text = The days passed slowly to Muffette, in spite of her brave efforts to occupy herself and not to sadden other people by her complaints.
1	The	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	2	det	_	_
2	days	day	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	3	nsubj	_	_
3	passed	pass	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Plur|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	0	root	_	_
4	slowly	slowly	ADV	RB	_	3	advmod	_	_
5	to	to	ADP	IN	_	6	case	_	_
6	Muffette	Muffette	PROPN	NNP	Number=Sing	3	obl	_	SpaceAfter=No
7	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	9	punct	_	_
8	in	in	ADP	IN	_	9	case	_	_
9	spite	spite	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	3	obl	_	_
10	of	of	ADP	IN	_	13	case	_	_
11	her	her	PRON	PRP$	Case=Gen|Gender=Fem|Number=Sing|Person=3|Poss=Yes|PronType=Prs	13	nmod:poss	_	_
12	brave	brave	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	13	amod	_	_
13	efforts	effort	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	9	nmod	_	_
14	to	to	PART	TO	_	15	mark	_	_
15	occupy	occupy	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	3	advcl	_	_
16	herself	herself	PRON	PRP	Case=Acc|Gender=Fem|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs|Reflex=Yes	15	obj	_	_
17	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	20	cc	_	_
18	not	not	PART	RB	Polarity=Neg	20	advmod	_	_
19	to	to	PART	TO	_	20	mark	_	_
20	sadden	sadden	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	15	conj	_	_
21	other	other	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	22	amod	_	_
22	people	people	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	20	obj	_	_
23	by	by	ADP	IN	_	25	case	_	_
24	her	her	PRON	PRP$	Case=Gen|Gender=Fem|Number=Sing|Person=3|Poss=Yes|PronType=Prs	25	nmod:poss	_	_
25	complaints	complaint	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	20	obl	_	SpaceAfter=No
26	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	3	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

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| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **pass** | past | the days |  | Muffette | spite of Muffette's brave efforts |  | slowly *property* | vn occur-48.3-1 «NP V PP»: agent=Theme in spite=Location |
| 2 | **occupy** | to-infinitive | the days *not said here* | Muffette |  |  |  |  | vn amuse-31.1 «NP V NP»: agent=Stimulus herself=Experiencer |
| 3 | **not** **sadden** | to-infinitive | the days *not said here* | other people |  |  |  | by Muffette's complaints | vn amuse-31.1 «NP V NP»: agent=Stimulus people=Experiencer |
| 4 | **spite** |  |  | Muffette's brave efforts |  |  |  |  | nom spite «feeling transitive»: of=patient |
| 5 | **complain** |  | Muffette |  |  |  |  |  | nom complaint «state intransitive»: poss=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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