---
title: ‘Very well,’ said the dream-boy with the white coat, ‘it is only a l… — The Lilac Fairy Book · tree and pragmatics
description: ‘Very well,’ said the dream-boy with the white coat, ‘it is only a little way to Polynesia’--and then they were there. Who acts: coat, buffaloes. A sentence of «The Lilac Fairy Book» by Andrew Lang, The Lilac Fairy Book, part 14, with its dependency tree and the pragmatics of every clause.
---

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# The Lilac Fairy Book, The Lilac Fairy Book, part 14, sentence 112

<!-- .ven lang=en -->
‘Very well,’ said the dream-boy with the white coat, ‘it is only a little way to Polynesia’--and then they were there.

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**Who acts:** coat, buffaloes · **What happens:** say, be · **To what, where:** dream boy, little way, Polynesia · **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 14. The page gives its syntax tree — a dependency tree in the style of Universal Dependencies — and its pragmatics clause by clause: who acts (coat, buffaloes), 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:pg3454:14:112
# text = ‘Very well,’ said the dream-boy with the white coat, ‘it is only a little way to Polynesia’--and then they were there.
1	‘	'	PUNCT	``	_	6	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
2	Very	very	ADV	RB	_	3	advmod	_	_
3	well	well	ADV	RB	Degree=Pos	6	advmod	_	SpaceAfter=No
4	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	3	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
5	’	'	PUNCT	''	_	6	punct	_	_
6	said	say	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=1|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	0	root	_	_
7	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	10	det	_	_
8	dream	dream	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	10	compound	_	SpaceAfter=No
9	-	-	PUNCT	HYPH	_	8	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
10	boy	boy	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	6	obj	_	_
11	with	with	ADP	IN	_	14	case	_	_
12	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	14	det	_	_
13	white	white	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	14	amod	_	_
14	coat	coat	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	10	nmod	_	SpaceAfter=No
15	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	22	punct	_	_
16	‘	'	PUNCT	``	_	22	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
17	it	it	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Gender=Neut|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	22	nsubj	_	_
18	is	be	AUX	VBZ	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Fin	22	cop	_	_
19	only	only	ADV	RB	_	22	advmod	_	_
20	a	a	DET	DT	Definite=Ind|PronType=Art	22	det	_	_
21	little	little	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	22	amod	_	_
22	way	way	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	6	ccomp	_	_
23	to	to	ADP	IN	_	24	case	_	_
24	Polynesia	Polynesia	PROPN	NNP	Number=Sing	22	nmod	_	SpaceAfter=No
25	’	'	PUNCT	''	_	22	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
26	--	--	PUNCT	,	_	31	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
27	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	31	cc	_	_
28	then	then	ADV	RB	PronType=Dem	31	advmod	_	_
29	they	they	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Number=Plur|Person=3|PronType=Prs	31	nsubj	_	_
30	were	be	AUX	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Plur|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	31	cop	_	_
31	there	there	ADV	RB	PronType=Dem	6	parataxis	_	SpaceAfter=No
32	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	6	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

<!-- .fr -->
| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **say** *speech: assert* | past |  | the dream boy |  |  |  | with the white coat; well *property* | vn pronounce-29.3.1 «NP V NP PP.manner»: agent=Agent boy=Theme with coat=Manner |
| 2 | **is a** | present | coat | a little way | Polynesia |  |  |  | tree rules |
| 3 | **is** | past | buffaloes *= buffalo* |  |  |  | then | there *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.

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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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