---
title: While the food was cooking they all stretched themselves lazily out… — The Lilac Fairy Book · tree and pragmatics
description: While the food was cooking they all stretched themselves lazily out under the tree, and were just dropping off to sleep when a big black cloud which they had never noticed spread over the sun, and heavy drops of rain began to fall, so that the fire was almost put out, and that, you know, is a very s
---

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# The Lilac Fairy Book, The Lilac Fairy Book, part 17, sentence 74

<!-- .ven lang=en -->
While the food was cooking they all stretched themselves lazily out under the tree, and were just dropping off to sleep when a big black cloud which they had never noticed spread over the sun, and heavy drops of rain began to fall, so that the fire was almost put out, and that, you know, is a very serious thing in savage countries where they have no matches, for it is very hard to light it again.

<!-- .vintro -->
**Who acts:** food, fishes, big black cloud, heavy drops, you · **What happens:** cook, stretch, drop off, sleep, not notice, spread · **To what, where:** fishes, tree, big black cloud, sun, that, fire · **Speech:** someone speaks here

<!-- .vabout -->
This is a sentence of «The Lilac Fairy Book» by Andrew Lang, The Lilac Fairy Book, part 17. The page gives its syntax tree — a dependency tree in the style of Universal Dependencies — and its pragmatics clause by clause: who acts (food, fishes, big black cloud, heavy drops), 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:pg3454:17:74
# text = While the food was cooking they all stretched themselves lazily out under the tree, and were just dropping off to sleep when a big black cloud which they had never noticed spread over the sun, and heavy drops of rain began to fall, so that the fire was almost put out, and that, you know, is a very serious thing in savage countries where they have no matches, for it is very hard to light it again.
1	While	while	SCONJ	IN	_	5	mark	_	_
2	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	3	det	_	_
3	food	food	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	5	nsubj	_	_
4	was	be	AUX	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	5	aux	_	_
5	cooking	cook	VERB	VBG	Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Part	8	advcl	_	_
6	they	they	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Number=Plur|Person=3|PronType=Prs	8	nsubj	_	_
7	all	all	DET	DT	PronType=Tot	8	advmod	_	_
8	stretched	stretch	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Plur|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	0	root	_	_
9	themselves	themselves	PRON	PRP	Case=Acc|Number=Plur|Person=3|PronType=Prs|Reflex=Yes	8	obj	_	_
10	lazily	lazily	ADV	RB	_	11	advmod	_	_
11	out	out	ADV	RB	_	8	advmod	_	_
12	under	under	ADP	IN	_	14	case	_	_
13	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	14	det	_	_
14	tree	tree	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	8	obl	_	SpaceAfter=No
15	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	19	punct	_	_
16	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	19	cc	_	_
17	were	be	AUX	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	19	aux	_	_
18	just	just	ADV	RB	_	19	advmod	_	_
19	dropping	drop	VERB	VBG	Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Part	8	advcl	_	_
20	off	off	ADP	RP	_	19	compound:prt	_	_
21	to	to	PART	TO	_	22	mark	_	_
22	sleep	sleep	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	19	advcl	_	_
23	when	when	ADV	WRB	PronType=Int	22	advmod	_	_
24	a	a	DET	DT	Definite=Ind|PronType=Art	27	det	_	_
25	big	big	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	27	amod	_	_
26	black	black	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	27	amod	_	_
27	cloud	cloud	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	23	nsubj	_	_
28	which	which	PRON	WDT	PronType=Rel	32	nsubj:pass	_	_
29	they	they	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Number=Plur|Person=3|PronType=Prs	32	nsubj	_	_
30	had	have	AUX	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	32	aux	_	_
31	never	never	ADV	RB	PronType=Neg	32	advmod	_	_
32	noticed	notice	VERB	VBN	Tense=Past|VerbForm=Part|Voice=Pass	27	acl:relcl	_	_
33	spread	spread	VERB	VBN	Tense=Past|VerbForm=Part|Voice=Pass	32	xcomp	_	_
34	over	over	ADP	IN	_	36	case	_	_
35	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	36	det	_	_
36	sun	sun	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	33	obl	_	SpaceAfter=No
37	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	43	punct	_	_
38	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	43	cc	_	_
39	heavy	heavy	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	40	amod	_	_
40	drops	drop	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	43	nsubj	_	_
41	of	of	ADP	IN	_	42	case	_	_
42	rain	rain	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	40	nmod	_	_
43	began	begin	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Plur|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	8	conj	_	_
44	to	to	PART	TO	_	45	mark	_	_
45	fall	fall	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	43	xcomp	_	SpaceAfter=No
46	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	53	punct	_	_
47	so	so	SCONJ	IN	ExtPos=SCONJ	53	mark	_	_
48	that	that	SCONJ	IN	_	47	fixed	_	_
49	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	50	det	_	_
50	fire	fire	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	53	nsubj:pass	_	_
51	was	be	AUX	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	53	aux:pass	_	_
52	almost	almost	ADV	RB	_	53	advmod	_	_
53	put	put	VERB	VBN	Tense=Past|VerbForm=Part|Voice=Pass	45	conj	_	_
54	out	out	ADP	RP	_	53	compound:prt	_	SpaceAfter=No
55	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	57	punct	_	_
56	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	57	cc	_	_
57	that	that	PRON	DT	Number=Sing|PronType=Dem	43	obl	_	SpaceAfter=No
58	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	60	punct	_	_
59	you	you	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Person=2|PronType=Prs	60	nsubj	_	_
60	know	know	VERB	VBP	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=2|Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Fin	43	parataxis	_	SpaceAfter=No
61	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	66	punct	_	_
62	is	be	AUX	VBZ	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Fin	66	cop	_	_
63	a	a	DET	DT	Definite=Ind|PronType=Art	66	det	_	_
64	very	very	ADV	RB	_	65	advmod	_	_
65	serious	serious	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	66	amod	_	_
66	thing	thing	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	60	ccomp	_	_
67	in	in	ADP	IN	_	69	case	_	_
68	savage	savage	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	69	amod	_	_
69	countries	country	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	66	nmod	_	_
70	where	where	ADV	WRB	PronType=Rel	72	advmod	_	_
71	they	they	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Number=Plur|Person=3|PronType=Prs	72	nsubj	_	_
72	have	have	VERB	VBP	Mood=Ind|Number=Plur|Person=3|Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Fin	69	acl:relcl	_	_
73	no	no	DET	DT	PronType=Neg	74	det	_	_
74	matches	match	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	72	obj	_	SpaceAfter=No
75	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	80	punct	_	_
76	for	for	ADP	IN	_	80	case	_	_
77	it	it	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Gender=Neut|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	80	expl	_	_
78	is	be	AUX	VBZ	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Fin	80	cop	_	_
79	very	very	ADV	RB	_	80	advmod	_	_
80	hard	hard	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	60	conj	_	_
81	to	to	PART	TO	_	82	mark	_	_
82	light	light	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	80	csubj	_	_
83	it	it	PRON	PRP	Case=Acc|Gender=Neut|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	82	obj	_	_
84	again	again	ADV	RB	_	82	advmod	_	SpaceAfter=No
85	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	8	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

<!-- .fr -->
| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **cook** | past · progressive | the food |  |  |  |  |  | vn cooking-45.3 «NP.patient V»: agent=Patient |
| 2 | **stretch** | past | fishes *= fish* | fishes *= fish* |  | the tree |  | out *property* | vn bend-45.2 «NP V NP.patient»: agent=Agent themselves=Patient |
| 3 | **drop off** | past · progressive | fishes *= fish* *not said here* |  |  |  |  |  | vn roll-51.3.1 «NP.theme V»: agent=Theme |
| 4 | **sleep** | to-infinitive | fishes *= fish* *not said here* |  |  |  |  |  | vn snooze-40.4-1 «NP V»: agent=Agent |
| 5 | **not** **notice** | past · perfect · passive |  | a big black cloud |  |  |  |  | tree rules |
| 6 | **spread** | participle | a big black cloud *not said here* |  |  | the sun |  |  | vn appear-48.1.1 «NP V PP.location»: agent=Theme over sun=Location |
| 7 | **begin** | past | heavy drops of rain | that |  |  |  |  | vn begin-55.1-1-1 «NP V S\_INF»: agent=Agent clause=Eventuality |
| 8 | **fall** | to-infinitive | heavy drops of rain *not said here* |  |  |  |  |  | vn occur-48.3 «NP V»: agent=Theme |
| 9 | **put out** | past · passive |  | the fire |  |  |  | almost *property* | vn invest-13.5.4-1 «NP V PP»: subject=Goal |
| 10 | **know** | present | you |  |  |  |  |  | vn comprehend-87.2-1-1-1 «NP V»: agent=Experiencer |
| 11 | **is a** | present |  | a serious thing |  | savage countries |  |  | tree rules |
| 12 | **have** | present | fishes *= fish* | no matches |  |  |  |  | vn birth-28.2-1 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent match=Patient |
| 13 | **is** | present | you *not said here* |  |  |  |  | hard *property* | tree rules |
| 14 | **light** | to-infinitive |  | fire |  |  | again |  | vn preparing-26.3-1 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent it=Product |

<!-- .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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