---
title: They were so hungry that they ate the food up greedily without speak… — The Orange Fairy Book · tree and pragmatics
description: They were so hungry that they ate the food up greedily without speaking, but when there was nothing left in the pot, the eldest one said: Who acts: buckets, nothing, eldest one. A sentence of «The Orange Fairy Book» by Andrew Lang, Opening, part 36, with its dependency tree and the pragmatics of eve
---

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# The Orange Fairy Book, Opening, part 36, sentence 7

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They were so hungry that they ate the food up greedily without speaking, but when there was nothing left in the pot, the eldest one said:

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**Who acts:** buckets, nothing, eldest one · **What happens:** be, eat up, speak, leave, say · **To what, where:** food, pot · **Speech:** someone speaks here

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This is a sentence of «The Orange Fairy Book» by Andrew Lang, Opening, part 36. The page gives its syntax tree — a dependency tree in the style of Universal Dependencies — and its pragmatics clause by clause: who acts (buckets, nothing, eldest one), 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:pg3027:36:7
# text = They were so hungry that they ate the food up greedily without speaking, but when there was nothing left in the pot, the eldest one said:
1	They	they	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Number=Plur|Person=3|PronType=Prs	4	nsubj	_	_
2	were	be	AUX	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Plur|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	4	cop	_	_
3	so	so	ADV	RB	_	4	advmod	_	_
4	hungry	hungry	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	0	root	_	_
5	that	that	SCONJ	IN	_	7	mark	_	_
6	they	they	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Number=Plur|Person=3|PronType=Prs	7	nsubj	_	_
7	ate	eat	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Plur|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	4	advcl	_	_
8	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	9	det	_	_
9	food	food	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	7	obj	_	_
10	up	up	ADP	RP	_	7	compound:prt	_	_
11	greedily	greedily	ADV	RB	_	7	advmod	_	_
12	without	without	SCONJ	IN	_	13	mark	_	_
13	speaking	speak	VERB	VBG	Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Part	7	advcl	_	SpaceAfter=No
14	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	18	punct	_	_
15	but	but	CCONJ	CC	_	18	cc	_	_
16	when	when	ADV	WRB	PronType=Int	18	advmod	_	_
17	there	there	PRON	EX	PronType=Dem	18	expl	_	_
18	was	be	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	4	parataxis	_	_
19	nothing	nothing	PRON	NN	Number=Sing|PronType=Neg	18	nsubj	_	_
20	left	leave	VERB	VBN	Tense=Past|VerbForm=Part|Voice=Pass	19	acl	_	_
21	in	in	ADP	IN	_	23	case	_	_
22	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	23	det	_	_
23	pot	pot	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	20	obl	_	SpaceAfter=No
24	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	28	punct	_	_
25	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	27	det	_	_
26	eldest	eld	ADJ	JJS	Degree=Sup	27	amod	_	_
27	one	one	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	28	nsubj	_	_
28	said	say	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	4	conj	_	SpaceAfter=No
29	:	:	PUNCT	:	_	4	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

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| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **is** | past | buckets *= bucket* |  |  |  |  | hungry *property* | tree rules |
| 2 | **eat up** | past | buckets *= bucket* | the food |  |  |  | greedily *property* | vn eat-39.1-1 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent food=Patient |
| 3 | **speak** *speech: other* | gerund | buckets *= bucket* *not said here* |  |  |  |  |  | vn talk-37.5 «NP V»: agent=Agent |
| 4 | **be** | past | nothing |  |  | there |  |  | vn exist-47.1 «NP V»: agent=Theme |
| 5 | **leave** | participle |  |  |  |  |  | in the pot *result* | vn become-109.1-1-1 «NP V PP.attribute»: agent=Patient in pot=Result |
| 6 | **say** *speech: assert* | past | the eldest one |  |  |  |  |  | vn say-37.7-1-1 «NP V that S»: agent=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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