---
title: ‘Ah, it was not all for buying or selling that your handsome son has… — The Lilac Fairy Book · tree and pragmatics
description: ‘Ah, it was not all for buying or selling that your handsome son has been coming to town every week these many months past. Who acts: more, handsome son. A sentence of «The Lilac Fairy Book» by Andrew Lang, The Lilac Fairy Book, part 19, with its dependency tree and the pragmatics of every clause.
---

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# The Lilac Fairy Book, The Lilac Fairy Book, part 19, sentence 11

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‘Ah, it was not all for buying or selling that your handsome son has been coming to town every week these many months past.

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**Who acts:** more, handsome son · **What happens:** buy, sell, come · **To what, where:** town

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This is a sentence of «The Lilac Fairy Book» by Andrew Lang, The Lilac Fairy Book, part 19. The page gives its syntax tree — a dependency tree in the style of Universal Dependencies — and its pragmatics clause by clause: who acts (more, handsome son), 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:pg3454:19:11
# text = ‘Ah, it was not all for buying or selling that your handsome son has been coming to town every week these many months past.
1	‘	'	PUNCT	``	_	9	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
2	Ah	ah	INTJ	UH	_	9	discourse	_	SpaceAfter=No
3	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	2	punct	_	_
4	it	it	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Gender=Neut|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	9	nsubj	_	_
5	was	be	AUX	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	9	aux	_	_
6	not	not	PART	RB	Polarity=Neg	7	advmod	_	_
7	all	all	ADV	RB	_	9	advmod	_	_
8	for	for	SCONJ	IN	_	9	mark	_	_
9	buying	buy	VERB	VBG	Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Part	0	root	_	_
10	or	or	CCONJ	CC	_	11	cc	_	_
11	selling	sell	VERB	VBG	Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Part	9	conj	_	_
12	that	that	SCONJ	IN	_	18	mark	_	_
13	your	your	PRON	PRP$	Case=Gen|Person=2|Poss=Yes|PronType=Prs	15	nmod:poss	_	_
14	handsome	handsome	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	15	amod	_	_
15	son	son	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	18	nsubj	_	_
16	has	have	AUX	VBZ	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Fin	18	aux	_	_
17	been	be	AUX	VBN	Tense=Past|VerbForm=Part	18	aux	_	_
18	coming	come	VERB	VBG	Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Part	9	advcl	_	_
19	to	to	ADP	IN	_	20	case	_	_
20	town	town	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	18	obl	_	_
21	every	every	DET	DT	PronType=Tot	22	det	_	_
22	week	week	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	18	obl:unmarked	_	_
23	these	this	DET	DT	Number=Plur|PronType=Dem	25	det	_	_
24	many	many	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	25	amod	_	_
25	months	month	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	18	obl:unmarked	_	_
26	past	past	ADV	RB	_	18	advmod	_	SpaceAfter=No
27	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	9	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

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| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **buy** | past · progressive | more |  |  |  |  | all *property* | vn accept-77.1 «NP V how S»: agent=Agent |
| 2 | **sell** | gerund | more *not said here* |  |  |  |  |  | vn give-13.1-1 «NP V PP.recipient»: agent=Agent |
| 3 | **come** | present · perfect · progressive | your handsome son |  |  | town | month; week | past *property* | vn escape-51.1-1 «NP V PP.initial\_location»: agent=Theme to town=Initial\_Location |

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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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