---
title: 'But, mother, it is true; father is coming!' repeated the child. — The Orange Fairy Book · tree and pragmatics
description: 'But, mother, it is true; father is coming!' repeated the child. Who acts: talking, father, mother. A sentence of «The Orange Fairy Book» by Andrew Lang, Opening, part 35, with its dependency tree and the pragmatics of every clause.
---

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# The Orange Fairy Book, Opening, part 35, sentence 56

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'But, mother, it is true; father is coming!' repeated the child.

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**Who acts:** talking, father, mother · **What happens:** be, come, repeat · **To what, where:** child

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This is a sentence of «The Orange Fairy Book» by Andrew Lang, Opening, part 35. The page gives its syntax tree — a dependency tree in the style of Universal Dependencies — and its pragmatics clause by clause: who acts (talking, father, mother), 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:pg3027:35:56
# text = 'But, mother, it is true; father is coming!' repeated the child.
1	'	'	PUNCT	``	_	15	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
2	But	but	CCONJ	CC	_	15	cc	_	SpaceAfter=No
3	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	4	punct	_	_
4	mother	mother	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	15	nsubj	_	SpaceAfter=No
5	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	8	punct	_	_
6	it	it	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Gender=Neut|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	8	nsubj	_	_
7	is	be	AUX	VBZ	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Fin	8	cop	_	_
8	true	true	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	4	parataxis	_	SpaceAfter=No
9	;	;	PUNCT	:	_	12	punct	_	_
10	father	father	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	12	nsubj	_	_
11	is	be	AUX	VBZ	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Fin	12	aux	_	_
12	coming	come	VERB	VBG	Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Part	8	parataxis	_	SpaceAfter=No
13	!	!	PUNCT	.	_	12	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
14	'	'	PUNCT	''	_	12	punct	_	_
15	repeated	repeat	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	0	root	_	_
16	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	17	det	_	_
17	child	child	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	15	obj	_	SpaceAfter=No
18	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	15	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

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| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **is** | present | talking |  |  |  |  | true *property* | tree rules |
| 2 | **come** | present · progressive | father |  |  |  |  |  | vn escape-51.1-1 «NP V»: agent=Theme |
| 3 | **repeat** | past | mother | the child |  |  |  |  | vn begin-55.1-1-1 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent child=Eventuality |

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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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