---
title: The wheat was yellow, the oats were green, the hay was dry and delic… — The Orange Fairy Book · tree and pragmatics
description: The wheat was yellow, the oats were green, the hay was dry and delicious to roll in, and from the old ruined house which nobody lived in, down to the edge of the canal, was a forest of great burdocks, so tall that a whole family of children might have dwelt in them and never have been found out. Who
---

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# The Orange Fairy Book, Opening, part 8, sentence 61

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The wheat was yellow, the oats were green, the hay was dry and delicious to roll in, and from the old ruined house which nobody lived in, down to the edge of the canal, was a forest of great burdocks, so tall that a whole family of children might have dwelt in them and never have been found out.

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**Who acts:** wheat, oats, hay, old ruined house, whole family · **What happens:** be, roll in, ruin, live in, dwell, not find out · **To what, where:** forest, old ruined house

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This is a sentence of «The Orange Fairy Book» by Andrew Lang, Opening, part 8. The page gives its syntax tree — a dependency tree in the style of Universal Dependencies — and its pragmatics clause by clause: who acts (wheat, oats, hay, old ruined house), 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:pg3027:8:61
# text = The wheat was yellow, the oats were green, the hay was dry and delicious to roll in, and from the old ruined house which nobody lived in, down to the edge of the canal, was a forest of great burdocks, so tall that a whole family of children might have dwelt in them and never have been found out.
1	The	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	2	det	_	_
2	wheat	wheat	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	4	nsubj	_	_
3	was	be	AUX	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	4	cop	_	_
4	yellow	yellow	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	0	root	_	SpaceAfter=No
5	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	9	punct	_	_
6	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	7	det	_	_
7	oats	oat	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	9	nsubj	_	_
8	were	be	AUX	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Plur|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	9	cop	_	_
9	green	green	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	4	conj	_	SpaceAfter=No
10	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	14	punct	_	_
11	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	12	det	_	_
12	hay	hay	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	14	nsubj	_	_
13	was	be	AUX	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	14	cop	_	_
14	dry	dry	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	4	conj	_	_
15	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	16	cc	_	_
16	delicious	delicious	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	14	conj	_	_
17	to	to	PART	TO	_	18	mark	_	_
18	roll	roll	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	16	xcomp	_	_
19	in	in	ADV	RB	_	18	advmod	_	SpaceAfter=No
20	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	42	punct	_	_
21	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	42	cc	_	_
22	from	from	ADP	IN	_	26	case	_	_
23	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	26	det	_	_
24	old	old	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	26	amod	_	_
25	ruined	ruin	VERB	VBN	Tense=Past|VerbForm=Part|Voice=Pass	26	amod	_	_
26	house	house	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	42	obl	_	_
27	which	which	PRON	WDT	PronType=Rel	29	nsubj	_	_
28	nobody	nobody	PRON	NN	Number=Sing|PronType=Neg	29	nsubj	_	_
29	lived	live	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	26	acl:relcl	_	_
30	in	in	ADV	RB	_	29	advmod	_	SpaceAfter=No
31	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	32	punct	_	_
32	down	down	ADV	RB	_	29	advmod	_	_
33	to	to	ADP	IN	_	35	case	_	_
34	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	35	det	_	_
35	edge	edge	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	32	obl	_	_
36	of	of	ADP	IN	_	38	case	_	_
37	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	38	det	_	_
38	canal	canal	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	35	nmod	_	SpaceAfter=No
39	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	26	punct	_	_
40	was	be	AUX	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	42	cop	_	_
41	a	a	DET	DT	Definite=Ind|PronType=Art	42	det	_	_
42	forest	forest	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	4	conj	_	_
43	of	of	ADP	IN	_	45	case	_	_
44	great	great	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	45	amod	_	_
45	burdocks	burdock	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	42	nmod	_	SpaceAfter=No
46	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	48	punct	_	_
47	so	so	ADV	RB	_	48	advmod	_	_
48	tall	tall	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	4	conj	_	_
49	that	that	SCONJ	IN	_	57	mark	_	_
50	a	a	DET	DT	Definite=Ind|PronType=Art	52	det	_	_
51	whole	whole	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	52	amod	_	_
52	family	family	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	57	nsubj	_	_
53	of	of	ADP	IN	_	54	case	_	_
54	children	child	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	52	nmod	_	_
55	might	might	AUX	MD	VerbForm=Fin	57	aux	_	_
56	have	have	AUX	VB	VerbForm=Inf	57	aux	_	_
57	dwelt	dwell	VERB	VBN	Tense=Past|VerbForm=Part	48	advcl	_	_
58	in	in	ADP	IN	_	59	case	_	_
59	them	they	PRON	PRP	Case=Acc|Number=Plur|Person=3|PronType=Prs	57	obl	_	_
60	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	64	cc	_	_
61	never	never	ADV	RB	PronType=Neg	64	advmod	_	_
62	have	have	AUX	VBP	Mood=Ind|Number=Plur|Person=3|Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Fin	64	aux	_	_
63	been	be	AUX	VBN	Tense=Past|VerbForm=Part	64	aux:pass	_	_
64	found	find	VERB	VBN	Tense=Past|VerbForm=Part|Voice=Pass	4	conj	_	_
65	out	out	ADP	RP	_	64	compound:prt	_	SpaceAfter=No
66	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	4	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

<!-- .fr -->
| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **is** | past | the wheat |  |  |  |  | yellow *property* | tree rules |
| 2 | **is** | past | the oats |  |  |  |  | green *property* | tree rules |
| 3 | **is** | past | the hay |  |  |  |  | dry *property* | tree rules |
| 4 | **be** |  | the hay *not said here* |  |  |  |  |  | tree rules |
| 5 | **roll in** | to-infinitive | the hay *not said here* |  |  |  |  |  | vn run-51.3.2-2 «NP V»: agent=Theme |
| 6 | **ruin** | participle |  |  |  |  |  |  | vn destroy-44 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent |
| 7 | **live in** | past | the old ruined house |  |  |  |  | down *property* | vn exist-47.1-1 «NP V»: agent=Theme |
| 8 | **is a** | past | the wheat *not said here* | a forest |  | the old ruined house |  | of great burdocks | tree rules |
| 9 | **be** |  | the wheat *not said here* |  |  |  |  |  | tree rules |
| 10 | **dwell** | might · perfect | a whole family of children |  |  |  |  | in oats *= oat* | vn exist-47.1 «NP V PP.location»: agent=Theme in they=Location |
| 11 | **not** **find out** | present · perfect · passive | the wheat *not said here* |  |  |  |  |  | vn learn-14-2-1 «NP V PP.topic» |

<!-- .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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