---
title: But though the little orphans did their best to avoid quarrelling wi… — The Orange Fairy Book · tree and pragmatics
description: But though the little orphans did their best to avoid quarrelling with their foster- brothers, it was very difficult always to keep the peace. A sentence of «The Orange Fairy Book» by Andrew Lang, Opening, part 32, with its dependency tree and the pragmatics of every clause.
---

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# The Orange Fairy Book, Opening, part 32, sentence 105

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But though the little orphans did their best to avoid quarrelling with their foster- brothers, it was very difficult always to keep the peace.

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**What happens:** avoid, quarrell, be, keep · **To what, where:** peace

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This is a sentence of «The Orange Fairy Book» by Andrew Lang, Opening, part 32. The page gives its syntax tree — a dependency tree in the style of Universal Dependencies — and its pragmatics clause by clause: 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:pg3027:32:105
# text = But though the little orphans did their best to avoid quarrelling with their foster- brothers, it was very difficult always to keep the peace.
1	But	but	CCONJ	CC	_	10	cc	_	_
2	though	though	SCONJ	IN	_	6	mark	_	_
3	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	5	det	_	_
4	little	little	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	5	amod	_	_
5	orphans	orphan	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	6	nsubj	_	_
6	did	do	AUX	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Plur|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	10	aux	_	_
7	their	their	PRON	PRP$	Case=Gen|Number=Plur|Person=3|Poss=Yes|PronType=Prs	8	nmod:poss	_	_
8	best	good	ADJ	JJS	Degree=Sup	6	obj	_	_
9	to	to	PART	TO	_	10	mark	_	_
10	avoid	avoid	VERB	VB	Mood=Imp|VerbForm=Fin	0	root	_	_
11	quarrelling	quarrell	VERB	VBG	VerbForm=Ger	10	xcomp	_	_
12	with	with	ADP	IN	_	16	case	_	_
13	their	their	PRON	PRP$	Case=Gen|Number=Plur|Person=3|Poss=Yes|PronType=Prs	16	nmod:poss	_	_
14	foster	foster	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	16	compound	_	SpaceAfter=No
15	-	-	PUNCT	HYPH	_	14	punct	_	_
16	brothers	brother	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	11	obl	_	SpaceAfter=No
17	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	21	punct	_	_
18	it	it	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Gender=Neut|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	21	expl	_	_
19	was	be	AUX	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	21	cop	_	_
20	very	very	ADV	RB	_	21	advmod	_	_
21	difficult	difficult	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	10	conj	_	_
22	always	always	ADV	RB	PronType=Tot	21	advmod	_	_
23	to	to	PART	TO	_	24	mark	_	_
24	keep	keep	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	21	csubj	_	_
25	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	26	det	_	_
26	peace	peace	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	24	obj	_	SpaceAfter=No
27	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	10	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

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| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **avoid** | past · do-support |  |  |  |  |  |  | vn avoid-52 «NP V S\_ING»: agent=Agent clause=Theme |
| 2 | **quarrell** | gerund |  |  |  |  |  | with orphans's foster brothers | tree rules |
| 3 | **is** | past |  |  |  |  |  | always, difficult *property* | tree rules |
| 4 | **keep** | to-infinitive |  | the peace |  |  |  |  | vn keep-15.2 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent peace=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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