---
title: The husbands grew pale and cold, for they had never dreamed of this,… — The Lilac Fairy Book · tree and pragmatics
description: The husbands grew pale and cold, for they had never dreamed of this, nor meant any harm, and after a while they understood that their efforts were of no use, and that once more the boy had tricked them. Who acts: husbands, efforts. A sentence of «The Lilac Fairy Book» by Andrew Lang, The Lilac Fairy
---

<!-- md -->
[Mova](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/) · [this page in HTML](https://mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg3454/12/73/)

<!-- crumbs -->
[home](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/) / [corpora](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/) / [tales](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/) / [The Lilac Fairy Book](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg3454/) / [The Lilac Fairy Book, part 12](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg3454/12/) / 73

# The Lilac Fairy Book, The Lilac Fairy Book, part 12, sentence 73

<!-- .ven lang=en -->
The husbands grew pale and cold, for they had never dreamed of this, nor meant any harm, and after a while they understood that their efforts were of no use, and that once more the boy had tricked them.

<!-- .vintro -->
**Who acts:** husbands, efforts · **What happens:** grow, not dream, mean, understand, be, trick · **To what, where:** harm, that

<!-- .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 (husbands, efforts), 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:pg3454:12:73
# text = The husbands grew pale and cold, for they had never dreamed of this, nor meant any harm, and after a while they understood that their efforts were of no use, and that once more the boy had tricked them.
1	The	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	2	det	_	_
2	husbands	husband	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	3	nsubj	_	_
3	grew	grow	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Plur|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	0	root	_	_
4	pale	pale	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	3	xcomp	_	_
5	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	6	cc	_	_
6	cold	cold	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	4	conj	_	SpaceAfter=No
7	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	12	punct	_	_
8	for	for	SCONJ	IN	_	12	mark	_	_
9	they	they	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Number=Plur|Person=3|PronType=Prs	12	nsubj	_	_
10	had	have	AUX	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Plur|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	12	aux	_	_
11	never	never	ADV	RB	PronType=Neg	12	advmod	_	_
12	dreamed	dream	VERB	VBN	Tense=Past|VerbForm=Part	3	conj	_	_
13	of	of	ADP	IN	_	14	case	_	_
14	this	this	PRON	DT	Number=Sing|PronType=Dem	12	obl	_	SpaceAfter=No
15	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	17	punct	_	_
16	nor	nor	CCONJ	CC	Polarity=Neg	17	cc	_	_
17	meant	mean	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	3	parataxis	_	_
18	any	any	DET	DT	PronType=Ind	19	det	_	_
19	harm	harm	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	17	obj	_	SpaceAfter=No
20	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	26	punct	_	_
21	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	26	cc	_	_
22	after	after	ADP	IN	_	24	case	_	_
23	a	a	DET	DT	Definite=Ind|PronType=Art	24	det	_	_
24	while	while	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	26	obl	_	_
25	they	they	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Number=Plur|Person=3|PronType=Prs	26	nsubj	_	_
26	understood	understand	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Plur|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	17	conj	_	_
27	that	that	SCONJ	IN	_	33	mark	_	_
28	their	their	PRON	PRP$	Case=Gen|Number=Plur|Person=3|Poss=Yes|PronType=Prs	29	nmod:poss	_	_
29	efforts	effort	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	33	nsubj	_	_
30	were	be	AUX	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Plur|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	33	cop	_	_
31	of	of	ADP	IN	_	33	case	_	_
32	no	no	DET	DT	PronType=Neg	33	det	_	_
33	use	use	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	26	advcl	_	SpaceAfter=No
34	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	42	punct	_	_
35	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	42	cc	_	_
36	that	that	PRON	DT	Number=Sing|PronType=Dem	42	nsubj:pass	_	_
37	once	once	ADV	RB	NumForm=Word|NumType=Mult	42	advmod	_	_
38	more	more	ADV	RBR	Degree=Cmp	42	advmod	_	_
39	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	40	det	_	_
40	boy	boy	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	42	nsubj:pass	_	_
41	had	have	AUX	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	42	aux	_	_
42	tricked	trick	VERB	VBN	Tense=Past|VerbForm=Part|Voice=Pass	3	conj	_	_
43	them	they	PRON	PRP	Case=Acc|Number=Plur|Person=3|PronType=Prs	42	obj	_	SpaceAfter=No
44	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	3	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

<!-- .fr -->
| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **grow** | past | the husbands |  |  |  |  | pale *property* | vn appear-48.1.1 «NP V»: agent=Theme |
| 2 | **not** **dream** | past · perfect | husbands *= husband* |  |  |  |  | of this | vn cognize-85 «NP V PP.topic»: agent=Agent |
| 3 | **mean** | past |  | any harm |  |  |  |  | vn intend-61.2-1 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent harm=Topic |
| 4 | **understand** | past | husbands *= husband* |  |  |  | while |  | vn comprehend-87.2-1-1-1 «NP V»: agent=Experiencer |
| 5 | **is** | past | husbands's efforts |  |  |  |  | of no use | tree rules |
| 6 | **trick** | past · perfect · passive |  | that |  |  |  | once *property* | tree rules |

<!-- .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.

<!-- div src -->

**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.

<!-- /div -->

<!-- pn -->
- ← previous: [sentence 72](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg3454/12/72/)
- next →: [sentence 74](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg3454/12/74/)
- ↑ back to [The Lilac Fairy Book, part 12](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg3454/12/)