---
title: Well, they weren’t crossing the lake while a cat ‘ud be lickin’ her… — The Lilac Fairy Book · tree and pragmatics
description: Well, they weren’t crossing the lake while a cat ‘ud be lickin’ her ear, and the poor men couldn’t stir hand or foot to follow them. Who acts: ladies, cat, poor men. A sentence of «The Lilac Fairy Book» by Andrew Lang, The Lilac Fairy Book, part 10, with its dependency tree and the pragmatics of eve
---

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# The Lilac Fairy Book, The Lilac Fairy Book, part 10, sentence 93

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Well, they weren’t crossing the lake while a cat ‘ud be lickin’ her ear, and the poor men couldn’t stir hand or foot to follow them.

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**Who acts:** ladies, cat, poor men · **What happens:** not cross, be, not stir, follow · **To what, where:** lake, ud lickin, hand, ladies

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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 (ladies, cat, poor men), 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:pg3454:10:93
# text = Well, they weren’t crossing the lake while a cat ‘ud be lickin’ her ear, and the poor men couldn’t stir hand or foot to follow them.
1	Well	well	INTJ	UH	_	6	discourse	_	SpaceAfter=No
2	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	1	punct	_	_
3	they	they	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Number=Plur|Person=3|PronType=Prs	6	nsubj	_	_
4	were	be	AUX	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Plur|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	6	aux	_	SpaceAfter=No
5	n’t	not	PART	RB	Polarity=Neg	6	advmod	_	_
6	crossing	cross	VERB	VBG	Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Part	0	root	_	_
7	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	8	det	_	_
8	lake	lake	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	6	obj	_	_
9	while	while	SCONJ	IN	_	15	mark	_	_
10	a	a	DET	DT	Definite=Ind|PronType=Art	11	det	_	_
11	cat	cat	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	15	nsubj	_	_
12	‘	'	PUNCT	``	_	13	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
13	ud	ud	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	15	compound	_	_
14	be	be	AUX	VB	VerbForm=Inf	15	cop	_	_
15	lickin	lickin	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	6	parataxis	_	SpaceAfter=No
16	’	'	PUNCT	''	_	15	punct	_	_
17	her	her	PRON	PRP$	Case=Gen|Gender=Fem|Number=Sing|Person=3|Poss=Yes|PronType=Prs	18	nmod:poss	_	_
18	ear	ear	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	15	appos	_	SpaceAfter=No
19	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	26	punct	_	_
20	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	26	cc	_	_
21	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	23	det	_	_
22	poor	poor	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	23	amod	_	_
23	men	man	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	26	nsubj	_	_
24	could	could	AUX	MD	VerbForm=Fin	26	aux	_	SpaceAfter=No
25	n’t	not	PART	RB	Polarity=Neg	26	advmod	_	_
26	stir	stir	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	6	conj	_	_
27	hand	hand	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	26	obj	_	_
28	or	or	CCONJ	CC	_	29	cc	_	_
29	foot	foot	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	27	conj	_	_
30	to	to	PART	TO	_	31	mark	_	_
31	follow	follow	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	26	advcl	_	_
32	them	they	PRON	PRP	Case=Acc|Number=Plur|Person=3|PronType=Prs	31	obj	_	SpaceAfter=No
33	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	6	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

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| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **not** **cross** | past · progressive | ladies *= lady* | the lake |  |  |  |  | vn crane-40.3.2 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent lake=Patient |
| 2 | **is a** | infinitive | a cat | ud lickin |  |  |  |  | tree rules |
| 3 | **not** **stir** | could | the poor men | hand or foot |  |  |  |  | vn amuse-31.1 «NP V NP»: agent=Stimulus hand=Experiencer |
| 4 | **follow** | to-infinitive | the poor men *not said here* | ladies *= lady* |  |  |  |  | vn chase-51.6 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent they=Theme |

<!-- .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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