---
title: But before he started he gave her a comb, and told her that whenever… — The Lilac Fairy Book · tree and pragmatics
description: But before he started he gave her a comb, and told her that whenever she used it, pearls and diamonds would fall from her hair. Who acts: sun, joy, pearls. A sentence of «The Lilac Fairy Book» by Andrew Lang, The Lilac Fairy Book, part 13, with its dependency tree and the pragmatics of every clause.
---

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# The Lilac Fairy Book, The Lilac Fairy Book, part 13, sentence 60

<!-- .ven lang=en -->
But before he started he gave her a comb, and told her that whenever she used it, pearls and diamonds would fall from her hair.

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**Who acts:** sun, joy, pearls · **What happens:** start, give, tell, use, fall · **To what, where:** comb, joy, hair · **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 13. The page gives its syntax tree — a dependency tree in the style of Universal Dependencies — and its pragmatics clause by clause: who acts (sun, joy, pearls), 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:pg3454:13:60
# text = But before he started he gave her a comb, and told her that whenever she used it, pearls and diamonds would fall from her hair.
1	But	but	CCONJ	CC	_	6	cc	_	_
2	before	before	SCONJ	IN	_	4	mark	_	_
3	he	he	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	4	nsubj	_	_
4	started	start	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	6	advcl	_	_
5	he	he	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	6	nsubj	_	_
6	gave	give	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	0	root	_	_
7	her	she	PRON	PRP	Case=Acc|Gender=Fem|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	6	iobj	_	_
8	a	a	DET	DT	Definite=Ind|PronType=Art	9	det	_	_
9	comb	comb	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	6	obj	_	SpaceAfter=No
10	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	12	punct	_	_
11	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	12	cc	_	_
12	told	tell	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	6	conj	_	_
13	her	she	PRON	PRP	Case=Acc|Gender=Fem|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	12	iobj	_	_
14	that	that	SCONJ	IN	_	17	mark	_	_
15	whenever	whenever	ADV	WRB	PronType=Rel	17	advmod	_	_
16	she	she	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Gender=Fem|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	17	nsubj	_	_
17	used	use	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	24	advcl	_	_
18	it	it	PRON	PRP	Case=Acc|Gender=Neut|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	17	obj	_	SpaceAfter=No
19	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	17	punct	_	_
20	pearls	pearl	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	24	nsubj	_	_
21	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	22	cc	_	_
22	diamonds	diamond	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	20	conj	_	_
23	would	would	AUX	MD	VerbForm=Fin	24	aux	_	_
24	fall	fall	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	12	ccomp	_	_
25	from	from	ADP	IN	_	27	case	_	_
26	her	her	PRON	PRP$	Case=Gen|Gender=Fem|Number=Sing|Person=3|Poss=Yes|PronType=Prs	27	nmod:poss	_	_
27	hair	hair	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	24	obl	_	SpaceAfter=No
28	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	6	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

<!-- .fr -->
| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **start** | past | sun |  |  |  |  |  | vn begin-55.1-1-1 «NP.eventuality V»: agent=Eventuality |
| 2 | **give** | past | sun | a comb | joy |  |  |  | vn give-13.1-1 «NP V NP-Dative NP»: agent=Agent she=Recipient comb=Theme |
| 3 | **tell** *speech: assert* | past | sun *not said here* |  | joy |  |  |  | vn transfer\_mesg-37.1.1-1-1 «NP V NP S\_INF»: agent=Agent she=Recipient clause=Topic |
| 4 | **use** | past | joy | comb |  |  |  | whenever *property* | vn eat-39.1 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent it=Patient |
| 5 | **fall** | would | pearls and diamonds |  |  | joy's hair |  |  | vn escape-51.1-1 «NP V PP.initial\_location»: agent=Theme from hair=Initial\_Location |

<!-- .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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