---
title: There were plenty of fine horses in the stalls, but to the king’s as… — The Lilac Fairy Book · tree and pragmatics
description: There were plenty of fine horses in the stalls, but to the king’s astonishment Moti chose a poor little rat of a pony that was used to carry grass and water for the rest of the stable. Who acts: plenty, Moti, king. A sentence of «The Lilac Fairy Book» by Andrew Lang, The Lilac Fairy Book, part 16, w
---

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# The Lilac Fairy Book, The Lilac Fairy Book, part 16, sentence 4

<!-- .ven lang=en -->
There were plenty of fine horses in the stalls, but to the king’s astonishment Moti chose a poor little rat of a pony that was used to carry grass and water for the rest of the stable.

<!-- .vintro -->
**Who acts:** plenty, Moti, king · **What happens:** be, choose, use, carry, astonish · **To what, where:** poor little rat, pony, grass

<!-- .vabout -->
This is a sentence of «The Lilac Fairy Book» by Andrew Lang, The Lilac Fairy Book, part 16. The page gives its syntax tree — a dependency tree in the style of Universal Dependencies — and its pragmatics clause by clause: who acts (plenty, Moti, king), 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:pg3454:16:4
# text = There were plenty of fine horses in the stalls, but to the king’s astonishment Moti chose a poor little rat of a pony that was used to carry grass and water for the rest of the stable.
1	There	there	PRON	EX	PronType=Dem	2	expl	_	_
2	were	be	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	0	root	_	_
3	plenty	plenty	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	2	nsubj	_	_
4	of	of	ADP	IN	_	6	case	_	_
5	fine	fine	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	6	amod	_	_
6	horses	horse	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	3	nmod	_	_
7	in	in	ADP	IN	_	9	case	_	_
8	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	9	det	_	_
9	stalls	stall	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	6	nmod	_	SpaceAfter=No
10	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	18	punct	_	_
11	but	but	CCONJ	CC	_	18	cc	_	_
12	to	to	ADP	IN	_	16	case	_	_
13	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	14	det	_	_
14	king	king	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	16	nmod:poss	_	SpaceAfter=No
15	’s	's	PART	POS	_	14	case	_	_
16	astonishment	astonishment	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	18	obl	_	_
17	Moti	Moti	PROPN	NNP	Number=Sing	18	nsubj	_	_
18	chose	choose	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	2	conj	_	_
19	a	a	DET	DT	Definite=Ind|PronType=Art	22	det	_	_
20	poor	poor	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	22	amod	_	_
21	little	little	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	22	amod	_	_
22	rat	rat	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	18	obj	_	_
23	of	of	ADP	IN	_	25	case	_	_
24	a	a	DET	DT	Definite=Ind|PronType=Art	25	det	_	_
25	pony	pony	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	22	nmod	_	_
26	that	that	PRON	WDT	PronType=Rel	28	nsubj:pass	_	_
27	was	be	AUX	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	28	aux:pass	_	_
28	used	use	VERB	VBN	Tense=Past|VerbForm=Part|Voice=Pass	25	acl:relcl	_	_
29	to	to	PART	TO	_	30	mark	_	_
30	carry	carry	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	28	xcomp	_	_
31	grass	grass	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	30	obj	_	_
32	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	33	cc	_	_
33	water	water	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	31	conj	_	_
34	for	for	ADP	IN	_	36	case	_	_
35	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	36	det	_	_
36	rest	rest	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	30	obl	_	_
37	of	of	ADP	IN	_	39	case	_	_
38	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	39	det	_	_
39	stable	stable	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	36	nmod	_	SpaceAfter=No
40	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	2	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

<!-- .fr -->
| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **be** | past | plenty of fine horses in the stalls |  |  | there |  |  | vn exist-47.1 «NP V»: agent=Theme |
| 2 | **choose** | past | Moti | a poor little rat of a pony |  |  |  | to the king's astonishment | vn get-13.5.1 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent rat=Theme |
| 3 | **use** | past · passive |  | a pony |  |  |  |  | vn use-105.1 «NP V NP S\_INF»: subject=Theme clause=Eventuality |
| 4 | **carry** | to-infinitive |  | grass and water |  |  |  | for the rest of the stable | vn carry-11.4 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent grass=Theme |
| 5 | **astonish** |  | the king |  |  |  |  |  | nom astonishment «feeling transitive»: poss=agent |

<!-- .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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