---
title: They were very poor indeed, and their hut shook about their ears on… — The Lilac Fairy Book · tree and pragmatics
description: They were very poor indeed, and their hut shook about their ears on windy nights, till they expected the walls to fall in and crush them, but instead of going to work as a boy of his age ought to do, Toueno-Boueno did nothing but lounge along the street, his eyes fixed on the ground, seeing nothing 
---

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# The Lilac Fairy Book, The Lilac Fairy Book, part 12, sentence 7

<!-- .ven lang=en -->
They were very poor indeed, and their hut shook about their ears on windy nights, till they expected the walls to fall in and crush them, but instead of going to work as a boy of his age ought to do, Toueno-Boueno did nothing but lounge along the street, his eyes fixed on the ground, seeing nothing that went on round him.

<!-- .vintro -->
**Who acts:** Toueno, hut, walls · **What happens:** be, shake, expect, fall in, crush, go · **To what, where:** walls, Toueno, nothing, eyes, ground

<!-- .vabout -->
This is a sentence of «The Lilac Fairy Book» by Andrew Lang, The Lilac Fairy Book, part 12. The page gives its syntax tree — a dependency tree in the style of Universal Dependencies — and its pragmatics clause by clause: who acts (Toueno, hut, walls), 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:pg3454:12:7
# text = They were very poor indeed, and their hut shook about their ears on windy nights, till they expected the walls to fall in and crush them, but instead of going to work as a boy of his age ought to do, Toueno-Boueno did nothing but lounge along the street, his eyes fixed on the ground, seeing nothing that went on round him.
1	They	they	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Number=Plur|Person=3|PronType=Prs	4	nsubj	_	_
2	were	be	AUX	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Plur|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	4	cop	_	_
3	very	very	ADV	RB	_	4	advmod	_	_
4	poor	poor	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	0	root	_	_
5	indeed	indeed	ADV	RB	_	4	advmod	_	SpaceAfter=No
6	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	10	punct	_	_
7	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	10	cc	_	_
8	their	their	PRON	PRP$	Case=Gen|Number=Plur|Person=3|Poss=Yes|PronType=Prs	9	nmod:poss	_	_
9	hut	hut	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	10	nsubj	_	_
10	shook	shake	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	4	conj	_	_
11	about	about	ADP	IN	_	13	case	_	_
12	their	their	PRON	PRP$	Case=Gen|Number=Plur|Person=3|Poss=Yes|PronType=Prs	13	nmod:poss	_	_
13	ears	ear	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	10	obl	_	_
14	on	on	ADP	IN	_	16	case	_	_
15	windy	windy	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	16	amod	_	_
16	nights	night	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	10	obl	_	SpaceAfter=No
17	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	20	punct	_	_
18	till	till	SCONJ	IN	_	20	mark	_	_
19	they	they	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Number=Plur|Person=3|PronType=Prs	20	nsubj	_	_
20	expected	expect	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Plur|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	10	conj	_	_
21	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	22	det	_	_
22	walls	wall	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	20	obj	_	_
23	to	to	PART	TO	_	24	mark	_	_
24	fall	fall	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	20	xcomp	_	_
25	in	in	ADV	RB	_	24	advmod	_	_
26	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	27	cc	_	_
27	crush	crush	VERB	VB	Mood=Imp|VerbForm=Fin	24	conj	_	_
28	them	they	PRON	PRP	Case=Acc|Number=Plur|Person=3|PronType=Prs	27	obj	_	SpaceAfter=No
29	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	44	punct	_	_
30	but	but	CCONJ	CC	_	44	cc	_	_
31	instead	instead	ADV	RB	ExtPos=SCONJ	33	mark	_	_
32	of	of	ADP	IN	_	31	fixed	_	_
33	going	go	VERB	VBG	Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Part	44	advcl	_	_
34	to	to	PART	TO	_	35	mark	_	_
35	work	work	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	33	xcomp	_	_
36	as	as	ADP	IN	_	38	case	_	_
37	a	a	DET	DT	Definite=Ind|PronType=Art	38	det	_	_
38	boy	boy	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	35	obl	_	_
39	of	of	ADP	IN	_	41	case	_	_
40	his	his	PRON	PRP$	Case=Gen|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|Poss=Yes|PronType=Prs	41	nmod:poss	_	_
41	age	age	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	38	nmod	_	_
42	ought	ought	AUX	MD	VerbForm=Fin	44	aux	_	_
43	to	to	PART	TO	_	44	mark	_	_
44	do	do	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	4	conj	_	SpaceAfter=No
45	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	49	punct	_	_
46	Toueno	Toueno	PROPN	NNP	Number=Sing	49	nsubj	_	SpaceAfter=No
47	-	-	PUNCT	HYPH	_	48	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
48	Boueno	Boueno	PROPN	NNP	Number=Sing	46	flat	_	_
49	did	do	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	44	conj	_	_
50	nothing	nothing	PRON	NN	Number=Sing|PronType=Neg	49	obj	_	_
51	but	but	CCONJ	CC	_	52	cc	_	_
52	lounge	lounge	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	50	conj	_	_
53	along	along	ADP	IN	_	55	case	_	_
54	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	55	det	_	_
55	street	street	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	49	obl	_	SpaceAfter=No
56	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	58	punct	_	_
57	his	his	PRON	PRP$	Case=Gen|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|Poss=Yes|PronType=Prs	58	nmod:poss	_	_
58	eyes	eye	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	55	appos	_	_
59	fixed	fix	VERB	VBN	Tense=Past|VerbForm=Part|Voice=Pass	58	acl	_	_
60	on	on	ADP	IN	_	62	case	_	_
61	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	62	det	_	_
62	ground	ground	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	59	obl	_	SpaceAfter=No
63	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	64	punct	_	_
64	seeing	see	VERB	VBG	Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Part	49	advcl	_	_
65	nothing	nothing	PRON	NN	Number=Sing|PronType=Neg	64	obj	_	_
66	that	that	PRON	WDT	PronType=Rel	67	nsubj	_	_
67	went	go	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	65	acl:relcl	_	_
68	on	on	ADV	RB	_	67	advmod	_	_
69	round	round	ADP	IN	_	70	case	_	_
70	him	he	PRON	PRP	Case=Acc|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	67	obl	_	SpaceAfter=No
71	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	4	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

<!-- .fr -->
| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **is** | past | Toueno |  |  |  |  | indeed, poor *property* | tree rules |
| 2 | **shake** | past | Toueno's hut |  |  |  | night | about Toueno's ears | vn modes\_of\_being\_with\_motion-47.3 «NP V PP.location»: agent=Theme about ear=Location |
| 3 | **expect** | past | Toueno | the walls |  |  |  |  | tree rules |
| 4 | **fall in** *not said to happen* | to-infinitive | the walls *not said here* |  |  |  |  |  | vn occur-48.3 «NP V»: agent=Theme |
| 5 | **crush** | infinitive | the walls *not said here* | Toueno |  |  |  |  | vn carve-21.2-1 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent they=Patient |
| 6 | **go** | gerund |  |  |  |  |  |  | vn say-37.7 «NP V S-Quote»: agent=Agent clause=Topic |
| 7 | **work** | to-infinitive |  |  |  |  |  | as a boy of Boy's age | vn employment-95.3 «NP V PP.attribute PP.beneficiary»: agent=Agent as boy=Attribute |
| 8 | **do** | ought | Toueno *not said here* |  |  |  |  |  | vn act-114-1 «NP V»: agent=Agent |
| 9 | **do** | past | Toueno | nothing |  |  |  | along the street | vn act-114-1 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent nothing=Eventuality |
| 10 | **fix** | participle |  | Boy's eyes *not said here* |  | the ground |  |  | vn shake-22.3-2 «NP V ADV-Middle»: agent=Patient |
| 11 | **see** | gerund | Toueno *not said here* | nothing |  |  |  |  | vn comprehend-87.2-1-1 «NP V NP»: agent=Experiencer nothing=Stimulus |
| 12 | **go on** | past |  |  |  |  |  | round Boy | vn function-105.2.1 «NP V»: agent=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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