---
title: Not long after the mother and son had held this talk, it began to be… — The Orange Fairy Book · tree and pragmatics
description: Not long after the mother and son had held this talk, it began to be whispered in the forest that the children of an old man called Patto had vanished one by one, no one knew whither. Who acts: talk, children, one. A sentence of «The Orange Fairy Book» by Andrew Lang, Opening, part 35, with its depe
---

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# The Orange Fairy Book, Opening, part 35, sentence 72

<!-- .ven lang=en -->
Not long after the mother and son had held this talk, it began to be whispered in the forest that the children of an old man called Patto had vanished one by one, no one knew whither.

<!-- .vintro -->
**Who acts:** talk, children, one · **What happens:** hold, begin, whisper, call, vanish, know · **To what, where:** mother, forest, old man, one · **Speech:** someone speaks here

<!-- .vabout -->
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 (talk, children, one), what happens, when and where, as Mova's frames read it from the tree.

<!-- .note-en -->
**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:pg3027:35:72
# text = Not long after the mother and son had held this talk, it began to be whispered in the forest that the children of an old man called Patto had vanished one by one, no one knew whither.
1	Not	not	PART	RB	Polarity=Neg	2	advmod	_	_
2	long	long	ADV	RB	Degree=Pos	9	advmod	_	_
3	after	after	ADP	IN	_	5	case	_	_
4	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	5	det	_	_
5	mother	mother	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	9	nsubj:pass	_	_
6	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	7	cc	_	_
7	son	son	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	5	conj	_	_
8	had	have	AUX	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	9	aux	_	_
9	held	hold	VERB	VBN	Tense=Past|VerbForm=Part|Voice=Pass	14	advcl	_	_
10	this	this	DET	DT	Number=Sing|PronType=Dem	11	det	_	_
11	talk	talk	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	9	obj	_	SpaceAfter=No
12	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	9	punct	_	_
13	it	it	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Gender=Neut|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	14	nsubj	_	_
14	began	begin	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	0	root	_	_
15	to	to	PART	TO	_	17	mark	_	_
16	be	be	AUX	VB	VerbForm=Inf	17	aux:pass	_	_
17	whispered	whisper	VERB	VBN	Tense=Past|VerbForm=Part|Voice=Pass	14	xcomp	_	_
18	in	in	ADP	IN	_	20	case	_	_
19	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	20	det	_	_
20	forest	forest	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	17	obl	_	_
21	that	that	SCONJ	IN	_	31	mark	_	_
22	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	23	det	_	_
23	children	child	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	31	nsubj	_	_
24	of	of	ADP	IN	_	27	case	_	_
25	an	a	DET	DT	Definite=Ind|PronType=Art	27	det	_	_
26	old	old	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	27	amod	_	_
27	man	man	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	23	nmod	_	_
28	called	call	VERB	VBN	Tense=Past|VerbForm=Part|Voice=Pass	27	acl	_	_
29	Patto	Patto	PROPN	NNP	Number=Sing	28	xcomp	_	_
30	had	have	AUX	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Plur|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	31	aux	_	_
31	vanished	vanish	VERB	VBN	Tense=Past|VerbForm=Part	17	advcl	_	_
32	one	one	NUM	CD	NumForm=Word|NumType=Card	31	obj	_	_
33	by	by	ADP	IN	_	34	case	_	_
34	one	one	NUM	CD	NumForm=Word|NumType=Card	32	nmod	_	SpaceAfter=No
35	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	38	punct	_	_
36	no	no	DET	DT	PronType=Neg	37	det	_	_
37	one	one	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	38	nsubj	_	_
38	knew	know	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	31	conj	_	_
39	whither	whither	ADV	WRB	PronType=Int	38	advmod	_	SpaceAfter=No
40	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	14	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

<!-- .fr -->
| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **hold** | past · perfect · passive |  | the mother and son |  |  |  | long *property* | vn conjecture-29.5 «NP V NP to be NP»: subject=Theme talk=Eventuality |
| 2 | **begin** | past | talk |  |  |  |  |  | vn begin-55.1-1-1 «NP V S\_INF»: agent=Agent clause=Eventuality |
| 3 | **whisper** *speech: assert* | to-infinitive · passive | talk *not said here* |  |  | the forest |  |  | vn sound\_emission-43.2 «NP V PP.location»: in forest=Location |
| 4 | **call** | participle |  | a old man *not said here* |  |  |  |  | vn initiate\_communication-37.4.2-1 «NP V»: agent=Agent |
| 5 | **vanish** | past · perfect | the children of a old man | one |  |  |  | by one | tree rules |
| 6 | **know** | past | no one |  |  |  |  | whither *property* | vn comprehend-87.2-1-1-1 «NP V»: agent=Experiencer |

<!-- .note -->
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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