---
title: They always begin with a little boy or girl who goes out and meets t… — The Lilac Fairy Book · tree and pragmatics
description: They always begin with a little boy or girl who goes out and meets the fairies of polyanthuses and gardenias and apple blossoms: ‘Flowers and fruits, and other winged things.’ Who acts: authors, girl, other. A sentence of «The Lilac Fairy Book» by Andrew Lang, The Lilac Fairy Book, part 1, with its 
---

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# The Lilac Fairy Book, The Lilac Fairy Book, part 1, sentence 45

<!-- .ven lang=en -->
They always begin with a little boy or girl who goes out and meets the fairies of polyanthuses and gardenias and apple blossoms: ‘Flowers and fruits, and other winged things.’

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**Who acts:** authors, girl, other · **What happens:** begin, go out, meet, wing · **To what, where:** Flowers, fairies, things

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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 (authors, girl, other), 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:pg3454:1:45
# text = They always begin with a little boy or girl who goes out and meets the fairies of polyanthuses and gardenias and apple blossoms: ‘Flowers and fruits, and other winged things.’
1	They	they	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Number=Plur|Person=3|PronType=Prs	3	nsubj	_	_
2	always	always	ADV	RB	PronType=Tot	3	advmod	_	_
3	begin	begin	VERB	VBP	Mood=Ind|Number=Plur|Person=3|Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Fin	0	root	_	_
4	with	with	ADP	IN	_	7	case	_	_
5	a	a	DET	DT	Definite=Ind|PronType=Art	7	det	_	_
6	little	little	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	7	amod	_	_
7	boy	boy	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	3	obl	_	_
8	or	or	CCONJ	CC	_	9	cc	_	_
9	girl	girl	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	7	conj	_	_
10	who	who	PRON	WP	PronType=Rel	11	nsubj	_	_
11	goes	go	VERB	VBZ	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Fin	9	acl:relcl	_	_
12	out	out	ADP	RP	_	11	compound:prt	_	_
13	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	14	cc	_	_
14	meets	meet	VERB	VBZ	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Fin	11	conj	_	_
15	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	16	det	_	_
16	fairies	fairy	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	14	obj	_	_
17	of	of	ADP	IN	_	18	case	_	_
18	polyanthuses	polyanthus	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	16	nmod	_	_
19	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	20	cc	_	_
20	gardenias	gardenia	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	18	conj	_	_
21	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	23	cc	_	_
22	apple	apple	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	23	compound	_	_
23	blossoms	blossom	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	18	conj	_	SpaceAfter=No
24	:	:	PUNCT	:	_	26	punct	_	_
25	‘	'	PUNCT	``	_	26	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
26	Flowers	flower	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	3	obl	_	_
27	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	28	cc	_	_
28	fruits	fruit	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	26	conj	_	SpaceAfter=No
29	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	32	punct	_	_
30	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	32	cc	_	_
31	other	other	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	32	nsubj	_	_
32	winged	wing	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	3	parataxis	_	_
33	things	thing	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	32	obj	_	SpaceAfter=No
34	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	3	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
35	’	'	PUNCT	''	_	3	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

<!-- .fr -->
| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **begin** | present | authors *= author* | Flowers and fruits |  |  |  | with a little boy or girl; always *property* | vn begin-55.1-1-1 «NP V PP.subeventuality»: agent=Eventuality with boy=Subeventuality |
| 2 | **go out** | present | girl |  |  |  |  |  | vn interact-36.6 «NP V»: agent=Agent |
| 3 | **meet** | present | girl *not said here* | the fairies of polyanthuses and gardenias and apple blossoms |  |  |  |  | vn meet-36.3-1 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent fairy=Co-Agent |
| 4 | **wing** | past | other | things |  |  |  |  | vn nonvehicle-51.4.2-1 «NP V PP»: agent=Theme thing=Trajectory |

<!-- .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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