---
title: There was his mother, too, moving her old bones as light as the youn… — The Lilac Fairy Book · tree and pragmatics
description: There was his mother, too, moving her old bones as light as the youngest girl of them all; but her dancing, no, nor the dancing of all the rest, is not worthy the speaking about to the work that was going on down upon the strand. Who acts: mother, dancing, work. A sentence of «The Lilac Fairy Book» 
---

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# The Lilac Fairy Book, The Lilac Fairy Book, part 18, sentence 32

<!-- .ven lang=en -->
There was his mother, too, moving her old bones as light as the youngest girl of them all; but her dancing, no, nor the dancing of all the rest, is not worthy the speaking about to the work that was going on down upon the strand.

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**Who acts:** mother, dancing, work · **What happens:** be, move, not be, speak, go on, dance · **To what, where:** old bones, strand, rest · **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 18. The page gives its syntax tree — a dependency tree in the style of Universal Dependencies — and its pragmatics clause by clause: who acts (mother, dancing, work), 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:pg3454:18:32
# text = There was his mother, too, moving her old bones as light as the youngest girl of them all; but her dancing, no, nor the dancing of all the rest, is not worthy the speaking about to the work that was going on down upon the strand.
1	There	there	PRON	EX	PronType=Dem	2	expl	_	_
2	was	be	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	0	root	_	_
3	his	his	PRON	PRP$	Case=Gen|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|Poss=Yes|PronType=Prs	4	nmod:poss	_	_
4	mother	mother	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	2	nsubj	_	SpaceAfter=No
5	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	6	punct	_	_
6	too	too	ADV	RB	_	2	advmod	_	SpaceAfter=No
7	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	8	punct	_	_
8	moving	move	VERB	VBG	Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Part	2	advcl	_	_
9	her	her	PRON	PRP$	Case=Gen|Gender=Fem|Number=Sing|Person=3|Poss=Yes|PronType=Prs	11	nmod:poss	_	_
10	old	old	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	11	amod	_	_
11	bones	bone	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	8	obj	_	_
12	as	as	ADV	RB	_	13	advmod	_	_
13	light	light	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	8	parataxis	_	_
14	as	as	ADP	IN	_	17	case	_	_
15	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	17	det	_	_
16	youngest	young	ADJ	JJS	Degree=Sup	17	amod	_	_
17	girl	girl	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	13	obl	_	_
18	of	of	ADP	IN	_	19	case	_	_
19	them	they	PRON	PRP	Case=Acc|Number=Plur|Person=3|PronType=Prs	17	nmod	_	_
20	all	all	DET	DT	PronType=Tot	19	nmod:unmarked	_	SpaceAfter=No
21	;	;	PUNCT	:	_	38	punct	_	_
22	but	but	CCONJ	CC	_	38	cc	_	_
23	her	her	PRON	PRP$	Case=Gen|Gender=Fem|Number=Sing|Person=3|Poss=Yes|PronType=Prs	24	nmod:poss	_	_
24	dancing	dancing	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	38	nsubj	_	SpaceAfter=No
25	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	30	punct	_	_
26	no	no	INTJ	UH	Polarity=Neg	30	discourse	_	SpaceAfter=No
27	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	30	punct	_	_
28	nor	nor	CCONJ	CC	Polarity=Neg	30	cc	_	_
29	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	30	det	_	_
30	dancing	dancing	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	24	appos	_	_
31	of	of	ADP	IN	_	34	case	_	_
32	all	all	DET	PDT	PronType=Tot	34	det:predet	_	_
33	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	34	det	_	_
34	rest	rest	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	30	nmod	_	SpaceAfter=No
35	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	24	punct	_	_
36	is	be	AUX	VBZ	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Fin	38	cop	_	_
37	not	not	PART	RB	Polarity=Neg	38	advmod	_	_
38	worthy	worthy	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	2	parataxis	_	_
39	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	40	det	_	_
40	speaking	speak	VERB	VBG	Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Part	38	advcl	_	_
41	about	about	ADP	IN	_	44	case	_	_
42	to	to	ADP	IN	_	44	case	_	_
43	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	44	det	_	_
44	work	work	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	40	obl	_	_
45	that	that	PRON	WDT	PronType=Rel	47	nsubj	_	_
46	was	be	AUX	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	47	aux	_	_
47	going	go	VERB	VBG	Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Part	44	acl:relcl	_	_
48	on	on	ADP	RP	_	47	compound:prt	_	_
49	down	down	ADV	RB	_	47	advmod	_	_
50	upon	upon	ADP	IN	_	52	case	_	_
51	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	52	det	_	_
52	strand	strand	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	47	obl	_	SpaceAfter=No
53	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	2	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

<!-- .fr -->
| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **be** | past | Maurice's mother |  |  | there |  |  | vn exist-47.1 «NP V»: agent=Theme |
| 2 | **move** | gerund | Maurice's mother *not said here* | mother's old bones |  |  |  |  | vn roll-51.3.1 «NP V NP.theme»: agent=Agent bone=Theme |
| 3 | **not** **is** | present | mother's dancing |  |  |  |  | worthy *property* | tree rules |
| 4 | **speak** *speech: other* | gerund | mother's dancing *not said here* |  |  |  |  | about the work | vn talk-37.5 «NP V PP.topic»: agent=Agent about work=Topic |
| 5 | **go on** | past · progressive | the work |  |  | the strand |  | down *property* | vn occur-48.3 «NP V PP»: agent=Theme upon strand=Location |
| 6 | **dance** |  | mother |  |  |  |  |  | nom dancing «act transitive»: poss=agent |
| 7 | **dance** |  |  | all rest |  |  |  |  | nom dancing «act transitive»: of=patient |

<!-- .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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