---
title: Now the hour oftenest chosen by this naughty sprite (whom we will ca… — The Lilac Fairy Book · tree and pragmatics
description: Now the hour oftenest chosen by this naughty sprite (whom we will call Puck) for performing his pranks was about midnight, just when the shepherds and cowherds, tired out with their long day’s work, were sound asleep. Who acts: we, shepherds, long day. A sentence of «The Lilac Fairy Book» by Andrew 
---

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# The Lilac Fairy Book, The Lilac Fairy Book, part 10, sentence 27

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Now the hour oftenest chosen by this naughty sprite (whom we will call Puck) for performing his pranks was about midnight, just when the shepherds and cowherds, tired out with their long day’s work, were sound asleep.

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**Who acts:** we, shepherds, long day · **What happens:** choose, call, perform, be, work · **To what, where:** hour, naughty sprite, pranks · **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 10. The page gives its syntax tree — a dependency tree in the style of Universal Dependencies — and its pragmatics clause by clause: who acts (we, shepherds, long day), 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:pg3454:10:27
# text = Now the hour oftenest chosen by this naughty sprite (whom we will call Puck) for performing his pranks was about midnight, just when the shepherds and cowherds, tired out with their long day’s work, were sound asleep.
1	Now	now	ADV	RB	PronType=Dem	3	advmod	_	_
2	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	3	det	_	_
3	hour	hour	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	0	root	_	_
4	oftenest	often	ADJ	JJS	Degree=Sup	3	nmod	_	_
5	chosen	choose	VERB	VBN	Tense=Past|VerbForm=Part|Voice=Pass	3	acl	_	_
6	by	by	ADP	IN	_	9	case	_	_
7	this	this	DET	DT	Number=Sing|PronType=Dem	9	det	_	_
8	naughty	naughty	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	9	amod	_	_
9	sprite	sprite	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	5	obl	_	_
10	(	(	PUNCT	-LRB-	_	14	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
11	whom	whom	PRON	WP	PronType=Rel	14	obj	_	_
12	we	we	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Number=Plur|Person=1|PronType=Prs	14	nsubj	_	_
13	will	will	AUX	MD	VerbForm=Fin	14	aux	_	_
14	call	call	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	9	acl:relcl	_	_
15	Puck	Puck	PROPN	NNP	Number=Sing	14	obj	_	SpaceAfter=No
16	)	)	PUNCT	-RRB-	_	15	punct	_	_
17	for	for	SCONJ	IN	_	18	mark	_	_
18	performing	perform	VERB	VBG	Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Part	23	advcl	_	_
19	his	his	PRON	PRP$	Case=Gen|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|Poss=Yes|PronType=Prs	20	nmod:poss	_	_
20	pranks	prank	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	18	obj	_	_
21	was	be	AUX	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	23	cop	_	_
22	about	about	ADP	IN	_	23	case	_	_
23	midnight	midnight	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	14	xcomp	_	SpaceAfter=No
24	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	43	punct	_	_
25	just	just	ADV	RB	_	43	advmod	_	_
26	when	when	SCONJ	WRB	_	43	mark	_	_
27	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	28	det	_	_
28	shepherds	shepherd	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	43	nsubj	_	_
29	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	30	cc	_	_
30	cowherds	cowherd	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	28	conj	_	SpaceAfter=No
31	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	32	punct	_	_
32	tired	tired	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	28	amod	_	_
33	out	out	ADP	RP	_	32	compound:prt	_	_
34	with	with	ADP	IN	_	39	case	_	_
35	their	their	PRON	PRP$	Case=Gen|Number=Plur|Person=3|Poss=Yes|PronType=Prs	37	nmod:poss	_	_
36	long	long	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	37	amod	_	_
37	day	day	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	39	nmod:poss	_	SpaceAfter=No
38	’s	's	PART	POS	_	37	case	_	_
39	work	work	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	32	obl	_	SpaceAfter=No
40	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	39	punct	_	_
41	were	be	AUX	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Plur|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	43	cop	_	_
42	sound	sound	ADV	RB	_	43	advmod	_	_
43	asleep	asleep	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	23	acl:relcl	_	SpaceAfter=No
44	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	3	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

<!-- .fr -->
| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **choose** | participle |  | the hour  oftenest *not said here* |  |  |  | by this naughty sprite | vn get-13.5.1 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent |
| 2 | **call** | future | we | this naughty sprite |  |  |  |  | vn dub-29.3.2 «NP V NP NP»: agent=Agent whom=Theme puck=Result |
| 3 | **perform** | gerund |  | thing's pranks |  |  |  |  | vn performance-26.7 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent prank=Theme |
| 4 | **is** | past | we *not said here* |  |  |  |  | about midnight | tree rules |
| 5 | **is** | past | the shepherds and cowherds |  |  |  |  | asleep, sound *property* | tree rules |
| 6 | **work** |  | shepherds's long day |  |  |  |  |  | nom work «act intransitive»: poss=agent |

<!-- .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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