---
title: When they returned they found the old neighbour on the bank waiting… — The Orange Fairy Book · tree and pragmatics
description: When they returned they found the old neighbour on the bank waiting for them to take them into the duckyard. ' Who acts: balls. A sentence of «The Orange Fairy Book» by Andrew Lang, Opening, part 8, with its dependency tree and the pragmatics of every clause.
---

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# The Orange Fairy Book, Opening, part 8, sentence 93

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When they returned they found the old neighbour on the bank waiting for them to take them into the duckyard. '

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**Who acts:** balls · **What happens:** return, find, wait, take · **To what, where:** old neighbour, bank, balls, duckyard

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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 (balls), 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:pg3027:8:93
# text = When they returned they found the old neighbour on the bank waiting for them to take them into the duckyard. '
1	When	when	ADV	WRB	PronType=Int	3	advmod	_	_
2	they	they	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Number=Plur|Person=3|PronType=Prs	3	nsubj	_	_
3	returned	return	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Plur|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	5	advcl	_	_
4	they	they	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Number=Plur|Person=3|PronType=Prs	5	nsubj	_	_
5	found	find	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Plur|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	0	root	_	_
6	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	8	det	_	_
7	old	old	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	8	amod	_	_
8	neighbour	neighbour	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	5	obj	_	_
9	on	on	ADP	IN	_	11	case	_	_
10	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	11	det	_	_
11	bank	bank	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	5	obl	_	_
12	waiting	wait	VERB	VBG	Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Part	5	advcl	_	_
13	for	for	ADP	IN	_	14	case	_	_
14	them	they	PRON	PRP	Case=Acc|Number=Plur|Person=3|PronType=Prs	12	obl	_	_
15	to	to	PART	TO	_	16	mark	_	_
16	take	take	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	12	advcl	_	_
17	them	they	PRON	PRP	Case=Acc|Number=Plur|Person=3|PronType=Prs	16	obj	_	_
18	into	into	ADP	IN	_	20	case	_	_
19	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	20	det	_	_
20	duckyard	duckyard	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	16	obl	_	SpaceAfter=No
21	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	5	punct	_	_
22	'	'	PUNCT	''	_	5	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

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| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **return** | past | balls *= ball* |  |  |  |  |  | vn escape-51.1-1 «NP V»: agent=Theme |
| 2 | **find** | past | balls *= ball* | the old neighbour |  | the bank |  |  | vn discover-84 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent neighbour=Topic |
| 3 | **wait** | gerund | balls *= ball* *not said here* |  |  |  |  | for balls *= ball* | vn exist-47.1 «NP V»: agent=Theme |
| 4 | **take** | to-infinitive | balls *= ball* *not said here* | balls *= ball* |  | the duckyard |  |  | vn bring-11.3 «NP V NP PP.destination»: agent=Agent they=Theme into duckyard=Destination |

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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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