---
title: But when Little Lasse wanted to row there were no oars to be found i… — The Lilac Fairy Book · tree and pragmatics
description: But when Little Lasse wanted to row there were no oars to be found in the boat. Who acts: Little, oars. 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 71

<!-- .ven lang=en -->
But when Little Lasse wanted to row there were no oars to be found in the boat.

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**Who acts:** Little, oars · **What happens:** want, row, be, find · **To what, where:** boat

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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 (Little, oars), 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:pg3454:14:71
# text = But when Little Lasse wanted to row there were no oars to be found in the boat.
1	But	but	CCONJ	CC	_	9	cc	_	_
2	when	when	SCONJ	WRB	_	5	mark	_	_
3	Little	Little	ADJ	NNP	Degree=Pos	5	nsubj	_	_
4	Lasse	Lasse	PROPN	NNP	Number=Sing	3	flat	_	_
5	wanted	want	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	9	advcl	_	_
6	to	to	PART	TO	_	7	mark	_	_
7	row	row	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	5	xcomp	_	_
8	there	there	PRON	EX	PronType=Dem	9	expl	_	_
9	were	be	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Plur|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	0	root	_	_
10	no	no	DET	DT	PronType=Neg	11	det	_	_
11	oars	oar	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	9	nsubj	_	_
12	to	to	PART	TO	_	14	mark	_	_
13	be	be	AUX	VB	VerbForm=Inf	14	aux:pass	_	_
14	found	find	VERB	VBN	Tense=Past|VerbForm=Part|Voice=Pass	11	acl	_	_
15	in	in	ADP	IN	_	17	case	_	_
16	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	17	det	_	_
17	boat	boat	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	14	obl	_	SpaceAfter=No
18	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	9	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

<!-- .fr -->
| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **want** | past | Little |  |  |  |  |  | vn want-32.1-1-1 «NP V NP S\_INF»: agent=Pivot clause=Theme |
| 2 | **row** *not said to happen* | to-infinitive | Little *not said here* |  |  |  |  |  | vn nonvehicle-51.4.2 «NP.agent V»: agent=Agent |
| 3 | **be** | past | no oars |  |  | there |  |  | vn exist-47.1 «NP V»: agent=Theme |
| 4 | **find** | to-infinitive · passive | no oars *not said here* |  |  | the boat |  |  | vn declare-29.4-1-1 «NP V what S\_INF» |

<!-- .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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