---
title: But while they were shedding tears for them, Seven Inches came in, a… — The Lilac Fairy Book · tree and pragmatics
description: But while they were shedding tears for them, Seven Inches came in, and touched them with his rod. Who acts: lovers, Seven Inches. A sentence of «The Lilac Fairy Book» by Andrew Lang, The Lilac Fairy Book, part 11, with its dependency tree and the pragmatics of every clause.
---

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# The Lilac Fairy Book, The Lilac Fairy Book, part 11, sentence 28

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But while they were shedding tears for them, Seven Inches came in, and touched them with his rod.

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**Who acts:** lovers, Seven Inches · **What happens:** shed, come in, touch · **To what, where:** tears, lovers

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This is a sentence of «The Lilac Fairy Book» by Andrew Lang, The Lilac Fairy Book, part 11. The page gives its syntax tree — a dependency tree in the style of Universal Dependencies — and its pragmatics clause by clause: who acts (lovers, Seven Inches), 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:pg3454:11:28
# text = But while they were shedding tears for them, Seven Inches came in, and touched them with his rod.
1	But	but	CCONJ	CC	_	12	cc	_	_
2	while	while	SCONJ	IN	_	5	mark	_	_
3	they	they	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Number=Plur|Person=3|PronType=Prs	5	nsubj	_	_
4	were	be	AUX	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Plur|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	5	aux	_	_
5	shedding	shed	VERB	VBG	Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Part	12	advcl	_	_
6	tears	tear	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	5	obj	_	_
7	for	for	ADP	IN	_	8	case	_	_
8	them	they	PRON	PRP	Case=Acc|Number=Plur|Person=3|PronType=Prs	5	obl	_	SpaceAfter=No
9	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	5	punct	_	_
10	Seven	seven	NUM	CD	NumForm=Word|NumType=Card	11	nummod	_	_
11	Inches	Inch	PROPN	NNPS	Number=Plur	12	nsubj	_	_
12	came	come	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	0	root	_	_
13	in	in	ADV	RB	_	12	advmod	_	SpaceAfter=No
14	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	16	punct	_	_
15	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	16	cc	_	_
16	touched	touch	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Plur|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	12	conj	_	_
17	them	they	PRON	PRP	Case=Acc|Number=Plur|Person=3|PronType=Prs	16	obj	_	_
18	with	with	ADP	IN	_	20	case	_	_
19	his	his	PRON	PRP$	Case=Gen|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|Poss=Yes|PronType=Prs	20	nmod:poss	_	_
20	rod	rod	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	16	obl	_	SpaceAfter=No
21	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	12	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

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| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **shed** | past · progressive | lovers *= lover* | tears |  |  |  | for tears *= tear* | vn substance\_emission-43.4-1 «PP.location V NP»: agent=Location tear=Source |
| 2 | **come in** | past | Seven Inches |  |  |  |  |  | vn escape-51.1-1 «NP V»: agent=Theme |
| 3 | **touch** | past | Seven Inches *not said here* | lovers *= lover* |  |  |  | with joy's rod | vn touch-20-1 «NP V NP PP.instrument»: agent=Agent they=Experiencer with rod=Instrument |

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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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