---
title: The grannies told them to the grandchildren, and when the grandchild… — The Lilac Fairy Book · tree and pragmatics
description: The grannies told them to the grandchildren, and when the grandchildren became grannies they repeated the same old tales to the new generation. Who acts: grannies, grandchildren, alphabets. A sentence of «The Lilac Fairy Book» by Andrew Lang, The Lilac Fairy Book, part 1, with its dependency tree an
---

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[Mova](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/) · [this page in HTML](https://mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg3454/1/34/)

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# The Lilac Fairy Book, The Lilac Fairy Book, part 1, sentence 34

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The grannies told them to the grandchildren, and when the grandchildren became grannies they repeated the same old tales to the new generation.

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**Who acts:** grannies, grandchildren, alphabets · **What happens:** tell, become, repeat · **To what, where:** alphabets, grannies, same old tales, new generation · **Speech:** someone speaks here

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This is a sentence of «The Lilac Fairy Book» by Andrew Lang, The Lilac Fairy Book, part 1. The page gives its syntax tree — a dependency tree in the style of Universal Dependencies — and its pragmatics clause by clause: who acts (grannies, grandchildren, alphabets), 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:pg3454:1:34
# text = The grannies told them to the grandchildren, and when the grandchildren became grannies they repeated the same old tales to the new generation.
1	The	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	2	det	_	_
2	grannies	grannie	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	3	nsubj	_	_
3	told	tell	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Plur|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	0	root	_	_
4	them	they	PRON	PRP	Case=Acc|Number=Plur|Person=3|PronType=Prs	3	iobj	_	_
5	to	to	ADP	IN	_	7	case	_	_
6	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	7	det	_	_
7	grandchildren	grandchild	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	3	obl	_	SpaceAfter=No
8	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	16	punct	_	_
9	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	16	cc	_	_
10	when	when	SCONJ	WRB	_	13	mark	_	_
11	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	12	det	_	_
12	grandchildren	grandchild	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	13	nsubj	_	_
13	became	become	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Plur|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	16	advcl	_	_
14	grannies	grannie	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	13	xcomp	_	_
15	they	they	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Number=Plur|Person=3|PronType=Prs	16	nsubj	_	_
16	repeated	repeat	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Plur|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	3	conj	_	_
17	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	20	det	_	_
18	same	same	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	20	amod	_	_
19	old	old	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	20	amod	_	_
20	tales	tale	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	16	obj	_	_
21	to	to	ADP	IN	_	24	case	_	_
22	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	24	det	_	_
23	new	new	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	24	amod	_	_
24	generation	generation	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	16	obl	_	SpaceAfter=No
25	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	3	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

<!-- .fr -->
| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **tell** *speech: assert* | past | the grannies |  | alphabets *= alphabet* |  |  | to the grandchildren | vn transfer\_mesg-37.1.1-1-1 «NP V NP PP.recipient»: agent=Agent they=Topic to grandchild=Recipient |
| 2 | **become** | past | the grandchildren | grannies |  |  |  |  | vn become-109.1-1-1 «NP V PP.attribute»: agent=Patient |
| 3 | **repeat** | past | alphabets *= alphabet* | the same old tales | the new generation |  |  |  | vn say-37.7-1-1 «NP V NP PP.recipient»: agent=Agent tale=Topic to generation=Recipient |

<!-- .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 Lilac Fairy Book» by Andrew Lang, Project Gutenberg book 3454 (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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