---
title: She had no lack of lovers, but her father’s secret hopes rested on a… — The Brown Fairy Book · tree and pragmatics
description: She had no lack of lovers, but her father’s secret hopes rested on a fine young rat, with moustaches which almost swept the ground, whose family was still nobler and more ancient than his own. Who acts: Daughter, moustaches, family. A sentence of «The Brown Fairy Book» by Andrew Lang, The Brown Fair
---

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# The Brown Fairy Book, The Brown Fairy Book, part 17, sentence 36

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She had no lack of lovers, but her father’s secret hopes rested on a fine young rat, with moustaches which almost swept the ground, whose family was still nobler and more ancient than his own.

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**Who acts:** Daughter, moustaches, family · **What happens:** have, rest, sweep, be, lack · **To what, where:** lack, secret, fine young rat, ground, lovers

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This is a sentence of «The Brown Fairy Book» by Andrew Lang, The Brown Fairy Book, part 17. The page gives its syntax tree — a dependency tree in the style of Universal Dependencies — and its pragmatics clause by clause: who acts (Daughter, moustaches, family), 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:pg3282:17:36
# text = She had no lack of lovers, but her father’s secret hopes rested on a fine young rat, with moustaches which almost swept the ground, whose family was still nobler and more ancient than his own.
1	She	she	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Gender=Fem|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	2	nsubj	_	_
2	had	have	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	0	root	_	_
3	no	no	DET	DT	PronType=Neg	4	det	_	_
4	lack	lack	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	2	obj	_	_
5	of	of	ADP	IN	_	6	case	_	_
6	lovers	lover	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	4	nmod	_	SpaceAfter=No
7	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	14	punct	_	_
8	but	but	CCONJ	CC	_	14	cc	_	_
9	her	her	PRON	PRP$	Case=Gen|Gender=Fem|Number=Sing|Person=3|Poss=Yes|PronType=Prs	10	nmod:poss	_	_
10	father	father	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	12	nmod:poss	_	SpaceAfter=No
11	’s	's	PART	POS	_	10	case	_	_
12	secret	secret	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	14	nsubj:pass	_	_
13	hopes	hope	VERB	VBZ	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Fin	14	aux:pass	_	_
14	rested	rest	VERB	VBN	Tense=Past|VerbForm=Part|Voice=Pass	2	conj	_	_
15	on	on	ADP	IN	_	19	case	_	_
16	a	a	DET	DT	Definite=Ind|PronType=Art	19	det	_	_
17	fine	fine	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	19	amod	_	_
18	young	young	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	19	amod	_	_
19	rat	rat	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	14	obl	_	SpaceAfter=No
20	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	22	punct	_	_
21	with	with	ADP	IN	_	22	case	_	_
22	moustaches	moustache	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	14	advcl	_	_
23	which	which	PRON	WDT	PronType=Rel	25	nsubj	_	_
24	almost	almost	ADV	RB	_	25	advmod	_	_
25	swept	sweep	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Plur|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	22	acl:relcl	_	_
26	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	27	det	_	_
27	ground	ground	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	25	obj	_	SpaceAfter=No
28	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	33	punct	_	_
29	whose	whose	PRON	WP$	Poss=Yes|PronType=Rel	30	nmod:poss	_	_
30	family	family	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	33	nsubj	_	_
31	was	be	AUX	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	33	cop	_	_
32	still	still	ADV	RB	_	33	advmod	_	_
33	nobler	noble	ADJ	JJR	Degree=Cmp	27	acl:relcl	_	_
34	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	36	cc	_	_
35	more	more	ADV	RBR	Degree=Cmp	36	advmod	_	_
36	ancient	ancient	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	33	conj	_	_
37	than	than	ADP	IN	_	39	case	_	_
38	his	his	PRON	PRP$	Case=Gen|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|Poss=Yes|PronType=Prs	39	nmod:poss	_	_
39	own	own	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	36	obl	_	SpaceAfter=No
40	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	2	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

<!-- .fr -->
| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **have** | past | Daughter | no lack of lovers |  |  |  |  | vn birth-28.2-1 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent lack=Patient |
| 2 | **rest** | present · passive |  | Daughter's father's secret |  | a fine young rat |  |  | vn spatial\_configuration-47.6-1 «NP V NP.theme PP»: subject=Theme on rat=Location |
| 3 | **sweep** | past | moustaches | the ground |  |  |  | almost *property* | vn run-51.3.2-1 «NP V NP»: agent=Theme ground=Trajectory |
| 4 | **is** | past | family |  |  |  | still | noble *property* | tree rules |
| 5 | **be** |  | family *not said here* |  |  |  |  | than father's own | tree rules |
| 6 | **lack** |  |  | lovers |  |  |  |  | nom lack «state transitive»: of=patient |

<!-- .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 Brown Fairy Book» by Andrew Lang, Project Gutenberg book 3282 (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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