---
title: Or perhaps Puck would spend his night in plaiting together the manes… — The Lilac Fairy Book · tree and pragmatics
description: Or perhaps Puck would spend his night in plaiting together the manes and tails of two of the horses, so that it would take the grooms hours of labour to get them right in the morning, while Puck, hidden among the hay in the loft, would peep out to watch them, enjoying himself amazingly all the time.
---

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# The Lilac Fairy Book, The Lilac Fairy Book, part 10, sentence 31

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Or perhaps Puck would spend his night in plaiting together the manes and tails of two of the horses, so that it would take the grooms hours of labour to get them right in the morning, while Puck, hidden among the hay in the loft, would peep out to watch them, enjoying himself amazingly all the time.

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**Who acts:** Puck, it · **What happens:** spend, plait, take, get, hide, peep out · **To what, where:** manes, Puck, hay

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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 (Puck, it), what happens, when and where, as Mova's frames read it from the tree.

<!-- .note-en -->
**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:pg3454:10:31
# text = Or perhaps Puck would spend his night in plaiting together the manes and tails of two of the horses, so that it would take the grooms hours of labour to get them right in the morning, while Puck, hidden among the hay in the loft, would peep out to watch them, enjoying himself amazingly all the time.
1	Or	or	CCONJ	CC	_	5	cc	_	_
2	perhaps	perhaps	ADV	RB	_	5	advmod	_	_
3	Puck	Puck	PROPN	NNP	Number=Sing	5	nsubj	_	_
4	would	would	AUX	MD	VerbForm=Fin	5	aux	_	_
5	spend	spend	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	0	root	_	_
6	his	his	PRON	PRP$	Case=Gen|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|Poss=Yes|PronType=Prs	7	nmod:poss	_	_
7	night	night	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	5	obj	_	_
8	in	in	SCONJ	IN	_	9	mark	_	_
9	plaiting	plait	VERB	VBG	Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Part	5	advcl	_	_
10	together	together	ADV	RB	_	9	advmod	_	_
11	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	12	det	_	_
12	manes	manis	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	9	obj	_	_
13	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	14	cc	_	_
14	tails	tail	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	12	conj	_	_
15	of	of	ADP	IN	_	16	case	_	_
16	two	two	NUM	CD	NumForm=Word|NumType=Card	14	nmod	_	_
17	of	of	ADP	IN	_	19	case	_	_
18	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	19	det	_	_
19	horses	horse	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	16	nmod	_	SpaceAfter=No
20	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	25	punct	_	_
21	so	so	SCONJ	IN	ExtPos=SCONJ	25	mark	_	_
22	that	that	SCONJ	IN	_	21	fixed	_	_
23	it	it	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Gender=Neut|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	25	nsubj	_	_
24	would	would	AUX	MD	VerbForm=Fin	25	aux	_	_
25	take	take	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	5	conj	_	_
26	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	28	det	_	_
27	grooms	groom	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	28	compound	_	_
28	hours	hour	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	25	obj	_	_
29	of	of	ADP	IN	_	30	case	_	_
30	labour	labour	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	28	nmod	_	_
31	to	to	PART	TO	_	32	mark	_	_
32	get	get	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	25	advcl	_	_
33	them	they	PRON	PRP	Case=Acc|Number=Plur|Person=3|PronType=Prs	32	obj	_	_
34	right	right	ADV	RB	_	37	advmod	_	_
35	in	in	ADP	IN	_	37	case	_	_
36	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	37	det	_	_
37	morning	morning	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	32	obl:unmarked	_	SpaceAfter=No
38	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	40	punct	_	_
39	while	while	SCONJ	IN	_	40	mark	_	_
40	Puck	Puck	PROPN	NNP	Number=Sing	32	obl	_	SpaceAfter=No
41	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	42	punct	_	_
42	hidden	hide	VERB	VBN	Tense=Past|VerbForm=Part|Voice=Pass	40	acl	_	_
43	among	among	ADP	IN	_	45	case	_	_
44	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	45	det	_	_
45	hay	hay	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	42	obl	_	_
46	in	in	ADP	IN	_	48	case	_	_
47	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	48	det	_	_
48	loft	loft	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	45	nmod	_	SpaceAfter=No
49	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	51	punct	_	_
50	would	would	AUX	MD	VerbForm=Fin	51	aux	_	_
51	peep	peep	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	5	conj	_	_
52	out	out	ADP	RP	_	51	compound:prt	_	_
53	to	to	PART	TO	_	54	mark	_	_
54	watch	watch	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	51	advcl	_	_
55	them	they	PRON	PRP	Case=Acc|Number=Plur|Person=3|PronType=Prs	54	obj	_	SpaceAfter=No
56	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	57	punct	_	_
57	enjoying	enjoy	VERB	VBG	Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Part	5	advcl	_	_
58	himself	himself	PRON	PRP	Case=Acc|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs|Reflex=Yes	57	obj	_	_
59	amazingly	amazingly	ADV	RB	_	57	advmod	_	_
60	all	all	DET	PDT	PronType=Tot	62	det:predet	_	_
61	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	62	det	_	_
62	time	time	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	57	obl:unmarked	_	SpaceAfter=No
63	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	5	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

<!-- .fr -->
| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **spend** | would | Puck |  |  |  | night | perhaps *property* | vn consume-66-1 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent |
| 2 | **plait** | gerund | Puck *not said here* | the manes and tails of two of the horses |  |  |  | together *property* | vn braid-41.2.2 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent manis=Patient |
| 3 | **take** | would | it |  |  |  | hour |  | vn bring-11.3 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent |
| 4 | **get** | to-infinitive |  | manes *= manis* |  |  | morning | Puck *obl* | vn comprehend-87.2-1 «NP V NP»: agent=Experiencer they=Stimulus |
| 5 | **hide** | participle |  | Puck *not said here* |  | the hay in the loft |  |  | vn concealment-16-1 «NP V PP.location»: agent=Agent among hay=Location |
| 6 | **peep out** | would | Puck *not said here* |  |  |  |  |  | vn animal\_sounds-38 «NP V»: agent=Agent |
| 7 | **watch** | to-infinitive | Puck *not said here* | manes *= manis* |  |  |  |  | vn assessment-34.1 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent they=Theme |
| 8 | **enjoy** | gerund | Puck *not said here* | Puck |  |  | time | amazingly *property* | vn admire-31.2 «NP V NP»: agent=Experiencer himself=Stimulus |

<!-- .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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