---
title: 'It is now a year and a day since our sister was taken from us, and… — The Orange Fairy Book · tree and pragmatics
description: 'It is now a year and a day since our sister was taken from us, and we have waited in grief and patience for her to return. Who acts: length, we. 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 88

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'It is now a year and a day since our sister was taken from us, and we have waited in grief and patience for her to return.

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**Who acts:** length, we · **What happens:** be, take, wait, return · **To what, where:** year, sister, grief

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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 (length, we), 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:pg3027:29:88
# text = 'It is now a year and a day since our sister was taken from us, and we have waited in grief and patience for her to return.
1	'	'	PUNCT	``	_	6	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
2	It	it	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Gender=Neut|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	6	nsubj	_	_
3	is	be	AUX	VBZ	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Fin	6	cop	_	_
4	now	now	ADV	RB	PronType=Dem	6	advmod	_	_
5	a	a	DET	DT	Definite=Ind|PronType=Art	6	det	_	_
6	year	year	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	0	root	_	_
7	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	9	cc	_	_
8	a	a	DET	DT	Definite=Ind|PronType=Art	9	det	_	_
9	day	day	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	6	conj	_	_
10	since	since	SCONJ	IN	_	14	mark	_	_
11	our	our	PRON	PRP$	Case=Gen|Number=Plur|Person=1|Poss=Yes|PronType=Prs	12	nmod:poss	_	_
12	sister	sister	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	14	nsubj	_	_
13	was	be	AUX	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	14	aux:pass	_	_
14	taken	take	VERB	VBN	Tense=Past|VerbForm=Part|Voice=Pass	6	advcl	_	_
15	from	from	ADP	IN	_	16	case	_	_
16	us	we	PRON	PRP	Case=Acc|Number=Plur|Person=1|PronType=Prs	14	obl	_	SpaceAfter=No
17	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	21	punct	_	_
18	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	21	cc	_	_
19	we	we	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Number=Plur|Person=1|PronType=Prs	21	nsubj	_	_
20	have	have	AUX	VBP	Mood=Ind|Number=Plur|Person=1|Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Fin	21	aux	_	_
21	waited	wait	VERB	VBN	Tense=Past|VerbForm=Part	14	conj	_	_
22	in	in	ADP	IN	_	23	case	_	_
23	grief	grief	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	21	obl	_	_
24	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	25	cc	_	_
25	patience	patience	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	23	conj	_	_
26	for	for	ADP	IN	_	27	case	_	_
27	her	she	PRON	PRP	Case=Acc|Gender=Fem|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	25	nmod	_	_
28	to	to	PART	TO	_	29	mark	_	_
29	return	return	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	21	advcl	_	SpaceAfter=No
30	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	6	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

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| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **is a** | present | length | a year and a day |  |  | now |  | tree rules |
| 2 | **take** | past · passive |  | our sister |  |  |  | from us | vn bring-11.3 «NP V NP PP.initial\_location»: subject=Theme from we=Initial\_Location |
| 3 | **wait** | present · perfect | we |  |  | grief and patience for sister |  |  | vn exist-47.1 «NP V PP.location»: agent=Theme in grief=Location |
| 4 | **return** | to-infinitive | we *not said here* |  |  |  |  |  | vn escape-51.1-1 «NP V»: agent=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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