---
title: At length he was told of a young couple who were going to the neares… — The Lilac Fairy Book · tree and pragmatics
description: At length he was told of a young couple who were going to the nearest town to buy all that they needed for setting up house. Who acts: young couple, shepherds. A sentence of «The Lilac Fairy Book» by Andrew Lang, The Lilac Fairy Book, part 10, with its dependency tree and the pragmatics of every cla
---

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# The Lilac Fairy Book, The Lilac Fairy Book, part 10, sentence 44

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At length he was told of a young couple who were going to the nearest town to buy all that they needed for setting up house.

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**Who acts:** young couple, shepherds · **What happens:** tell, go, buy, need, set up · **To what, where:** Puck, length, nearest town, house · **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 (young couple, shepherds), 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:pg3454:10:44
# text = At length he was told of a young couple who were going to the nearest town to buy all that they needed for setting up house.
1	At	at	ADP	IN	_	2	case	_	_
2	length	length	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	5	obl	_	_
3	he	he	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	5	nsubj	_	_
4	was	be	AUX	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	5	aux:pass	_	_
5	told	tell	VERB	VBN	Tense=Past|VerbForm=Part|Voice=Pass	0	root	_	_
6	of	of	ADP	IN	_	9	case	_	_
7	a	a	DET	DT	Definite=Ind|PronType=Art	9	det	_	_
8	young	young	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	9	amod	_	_
9	couple	couple	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	5	obl	_	_
10	who	who	PRON	WP	PronType=Rel	12	nsubj	_	_
11	were	be	AUX	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Plur|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	12	aux	_	_
12	going	go	VERB	VBG	Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Part	9	acl:relcl	_	_
13	to	to	ADP	IN	_	16	case	_	_
14	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	16	det	_	_
15	nearest	near	ADJ	JJS	Degree=Sup	16	amod	_	_
16	town	town	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	12	obl	_	_
17	to	to	PART	TO	_	18	mark	_	_
18	buy	buy	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	12	advcl	_	_
19	all	all	DET	PDT	PronType=Tot	22	det:predet	_	_
20	that	that	SCONJ	IN	_	22	mark	_	_
21	they	they	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Number=Plur|Person=3|PronType=Prs	22	nsubj	_	_
22	needed	need	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Plur|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	18	advcl	_	_
23	for	for	SCONJ	IN	_	24	mark	_	_
24	setting	set	VERB	VBG	Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Part	22	advcl	_	_
25	up	up	ADP	RP	_	24	compound:prt	_	_
26	house	house	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	24	obj	_	SpaceAfter=No
27	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	5	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

<!-- .fr -->
| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **tell** *speech: assert* | past · passive |  | Puck |  | length |  | of a young couple | vn transfer\_mesg-37.1.1-1-1 «NP V NP.recipient»: subject=Recipient |
| 2 | **go** | past · progressive | a young couple |  |  | the nearest town |  |  | vn escape-51.1-1 «NP V PP.initial\_location»: agent=Theme to town=Initial\_Location |
| 3 | **buy** | to-infinitive | a young couple *not said here* |  |  |  |  |  | vn accept-77.1 «NP V how S»: agent=Agent |
| 4 | **need** | past | shepherds *= shepherd* |  |  |  |  |  | vn want-32.1-1-1 «NP V NP S\_INF»: agent=Pivot |
| 5 | **set up** | gerund | shepherds *= shepherd* *not said here* | house |  |  |  |  | vn other\_cos-45.4-1 «NP V NP ADJ»: agent=Patient house=Result |

<!-- .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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