---
title: And the reply was so unexpected that the courtiers could hardly rest… — The Orange Fairy Book · tree and pragmatics
description: And the reply was so unexpected that the courtiers could hardly restrain their smiles, while the king stared silently. Who acts: reply, courtiers, king. A sentence of «The Orange Fairy Book» by Andrew Lang, Opening, part 38, with its dependency tree and the pragmatics of every clause.
---

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# The Orange Fairy Book, Opening, part 38, sentence 23

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And the reply was so unexpected that the courtiers could hardly restrain their smiles, while the king stared silently.

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**Who acts:** reply, courtiers, king · **What happens:** be, restrain, stare, smile · **To what, where:** smiles

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This is a sentence of «The Orange Fairy Book» by Andrew Lang, Opening, part 38. The page gives its syntax tree — a dependency tree in the style of Universal Dependencies — and its pragmatics clause by clause: who acts (reply, courtiers, king), 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:pg3027:38:23
# text = And the reply was so unexpected that the courtiers could hardly restrain their smiles, while the king stared silently.
1	And	and	CCONJ	CC	_	6	cc	_	_
2	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	3	det	_	_
3	reply	reply	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	6	nsubj	_	_
4	was	be	AUX	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	6	cop	_	_
5	so	so	ADV	RB	_	6	advmod	_	_
6	unexpected	unexpected	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	0	root	_	_
7	that	that	SCONJ	IN	_	12	mark	_	_
8	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	9	det	_	_
9	courtiers	courtier	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	12	nsubj	_	_
10	could	could	AUX	MD	VerbForm=Fin	12	aux	_	_
11	hardly	hardly	ADV	RB	_	12	advmod	_	_
12	restrain	restrain	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	6	ccomp	_	_
13	their	their	PRON	PRP$	Case=Gen|Number=Plur|Person=3|Poss=Yes|PronType=Prs	14	nmod:poss	_	_
14	smiles	smile	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	12	obj	_	SpaceAfter=No
15	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	19	punct	_	_
16	while	while	SCONJ	IN	_	19	mark	_	_
17	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	18	det	_	_
18	king	king	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	19	nsubj	_	_
19	stared	stare	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	12	parataxis	_	_
20	silently	silently	ADV	RB	_	19	advmod	_	SpaceAfter=No
21	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	6	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

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| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **is** | past | the reply |  |  |  |  | unexpected *property* | tree rules |
| 2 | **restrain** | could | the courtiers | courtiers's smiles |  |  |  | hardly *property* | vn discourage-64.5-1 «NP V NP»: agent=Causer smile=Eventuality |
| 3 | **stare** | past | the king |  |  |  |  | silently *property* | vn peer-30.3 «NP V PP.theme»: agent=Agent |
| 4 | **smile** |  | courtiers *= courtier* |  |  |  |  |  | nom smile «communication transitive»: poss=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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