---
title: They were a pure joy till bedtime, but then, and later, were not who… — The Lilac Fairy Book · tree and pragmatics
description: They were a pure joy till bedtime, but then, and later, were not wholly a source of unmixed pleasure. Who acts: stories. A sentence of «The Lilac Fairy Book» by Andrew Lang, The Lilac Fairy Book, part 1, with its dependency tree and the pragmatics of every clause.
---

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[Mova](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/) · [this page in HTML](https://mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg3454/1/58/)

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# The Lilac Fairy Book, The Lilac Fairy Book, part 1, sentence 58

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They were a pure joy till bedtime, but then, and later, were not wholly a source of unmixed pleasure.

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**Who acts:** stories · **What happens:** be, not be, unmix · **To what, where:** pure joy, source

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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 (stories), 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:pg3454:1:58
# text = They were a pure joy till bedtime, but then, and later, were not wholly a source of unmixed pleasure.
1	They	they	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Number=Plur|Person=3|PronType=Prs	5	nsubj	_	_
2	were	be	AUX	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Plur|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	5	cop	_	_
3	a	a	DET	DT	Definite=Ind|PronType=Art	5	det	_	_
4	pure	pure	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	5	amod	_	_
5	joy	joy	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	0	root	_	_
6	till	till	ADP	IN	_	7	case	_	_
7	bedtime	bedtime	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	5	nmod	_	SpaceAfter=No
8	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	19	punct	_	_
9	but	but	CCONJ	CC	_	19	cc	_	_
10	then	then	ADV	RB	PronType=Dem	13	advmod	_	SpaceAfter=No
11	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	13	punct	_	_
12	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	13	cc	_	_
13	later	late	ADV	RBR	Degree=Cmp	19	advmod	_	SpaceAfter=No
14	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	13	punct	_	_
15	were	be	AUX	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Plur|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	19	cop	_	_
16	not	not	PART	RB	Polarity=Neg	19	advmod	_	_
17	wholly	wholly	ADV	RB	_	19	advmod	_	_
18	a	a	DET	DT	Definite=Ind|PronType=Art	19	det	_	_
19	source	source	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	5	conj	_	_
20	of	of	ADP	IN	_	22	case	_	_
21	unmixed	unmix	VERB	VBN	Tense=Past|VerbForm=Part|Voice=Pass	22	amod	_	_
22	pleasure	pleasure	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	19	nmod	_	SpaceAfter=No
23	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	5	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

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| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **is a** | past | stories *= story* | a pure joy but a source |  |  | till bedtime |  | tree rules |
| 2 | **not** **is a** | past | stories *= story* *not said here* | a source |  |  |  | of unmixed pleasure; late, wholly *property* | tree rules |
| 3 | **unmix** | participle |  |  |  |  |  |  | tree rules |

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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 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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