---
title: It was night when they reached the village where dwelt the mother of… — The Orange Fairy Book · tree and pragmatics
description: It was night when they reached the village where dwelt the mother of Gudu's betrothed, who laid meat and millet porridge before them. Who acts: portion, people, village. A sentence of «The Orange Fairy Book» by Andrew Lang, Opening, part 4, with its dependency tree and the pragmatics of every clause
---

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# The Orange Fairy Book, Opening, part 4, sentence 6

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It was night when they reached the village where dwelt the mother of Gudu's betrothed, who laid meat and millet porridge before them.

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**Who acts:** portion, people, village · **What happens:** be, reach, dwell, betroth, lay · **To what, where:** night, village, mother, meat

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This is a sentence of «The Orange Fairy Book» by Andrew Lang, Opening, part 4. The page gives its syntax tree — a dependency tree in the style of Universal Dependencies — and its pragmatics clause by clause: who acts (portion, people, village), 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:pg3027:4:6
# text = It was night when they reached the village where dwelt the mother of Gudu's betrothed, who laid meat and millet porridge before them.
1	It	it	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Gender=Neut|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	3	nsubj	_	_
2	was	be	AUX	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	3	cop	_	_
3	night	night	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	0	root	_	_
4	when	when	SCONJ	WRB	_	6	mark	_	_
5	they	they	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Number=Plur|Person=3|PronType=Prs	6	nsubj	_	_
6	reached	reach	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Plur|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	3	acl	_	_
7	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	8	det	_	_
8	village	village	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	6	obj	_	_
9	where	where	ADV	WRB	PronType=Rel	10	advmod	_	_
10	dwelt	dwell	VERB	VBN	Tense=Past|VerbForm=Part|Voice=Pass	8	acl	_	_
11	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	12	det	_	_
12	mother	mother	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	10	obj	_	_
13	of	of	ADP	IN	_	14	case	_	_
14	Gudu	Gudu	PROPN	NNP	Number=Sing	12	appos	_	SpaceAfter=No
15	's	's	PART	POS	_	14	case	_	_
16	betrothed	betroth	VERB	VBN	Tense=Past|VerbForm=Part|Voice=Pass	10	conj	_	SpaceAfter=No
17	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	19	punct	_	_
18	who	who	PRON	WP	PronType=Rel	19	nsubj	_	_
19	laid	lay	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	8	conj	_	_
20	meat	meat	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	19	obj	_	_
21	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	23	cc	_	_
22	millet	millet	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	23	compound	_	_
23	porridge	porridge	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	20	conj	_	_
24	before	before	ADP	IN	_	25	case	_	_
25	them	they	PRON	PRP	Case=Acc|Number=Plur|Person=3|PronType=Prs	19	obl	_	SpaceAfter=No
26	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	3	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

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| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **is a** | past | portion | night |  |  |  |  | tree rules |
| 2 | **reach** | past | people | the village |  |  |  |  | vn body\_motion-49.2-1-1 «NP V NP ADV»: agent=Agent village=Theme |
| 3 | **dwell** | participle |  | the mother |  |  |  |  | vn lodge-46 «NP V ADV»: agent=Theme mother=Location |
| 4 | **betroth** | participle |  |  |  |  |  |  | vn contribute-13.2 «NP V NP.theme (PP)»: agent=Agent |
| 5 | **lay** | past | the village | meat and millet porridge |  |  | before people |  | vn put\_spatial-9.2 «NP V NP PP.destination»: agent=Agent meat=Theme before they=Destination |

<!-- .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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