---
title: But it was no use staying: perhaps next morning the old man might li… — The Lilac Fairy Book · tree and pragmatics
description: But it was no use staying: perhaps next morning the old man might listen to reason, though in his heart the son felt that he would never take back his words. Who acts: face, old man, man. A sentence of «The Lilac Fairy Book» by Andrew Lang, The Lilac Fairy Book, part 19, with its dependency tree and
---

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# The Lilac Fairy Book, The Lilac Fairy Book, part 19, sentence 29

<!-- .ven lang=en -->
But it was no use staying: perhaps next morning the old man might listen to reason, though in his heart the son felt that he would never take back his words.

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**Who acts:** face, old man, man · **What happens:** stay, listen, feel, not take back, word · **To what, where:** next morning, heart, words

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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 (face, old man, man), 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:pg3454:19:29
# text = But it was no use staying: perhaps next morning the old man might listen to reason, though in his heart the son felt that he would never take back his words.
1	But	but	CCONJ	CC	_	6	cc	_	_
2	it	it	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Gender=Neut|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	6	nsubj	_	_
3	was	be	AUX	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	6	aux	_	_
4	no	no	DET	DT	PronType=Neg	5	det	_	_
5	use	use	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	6	nsubj	_	_
6	staying	stay	VERB	VBG	Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Part	0	root	_	SpaceAfter=No
7	:	:	PUNCT	:	_	10	punct	_	_
8	perhaps	perhaps	ADV	RB	_	10	advmod	_	_
9	next	next	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	10	amod	_	_
10	morning	morning	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	6	obl:unmarked	_	_
11	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	13	det	_	_
12	old	old	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	13	amod	_	_
13	man	man	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	15	nsubj	_	_
14	might	might	AUX	MD	VerbForm=Fin	15	aux	_	_
15	listen	listen	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	10	acl:relcl	_	_
16	to	to	ADP	IN	_	17	case	_	_
17	reason	reason	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	15	obl	_	SpaceAfter=No
18	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	25	punct	_	_
19	though	though	SCONJ	IN	_	25	mark	_	_
20	in	in	ADP	IN	_	22	case	_	_
21	his	his	PRON	PRP$	Case=Gen|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|Poss=Yes|PronType=Prs	22	nmod:poss	_	_
22	heart	heart	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	25	obl	_	_
23	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	24	det	_	_
24	son	son	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	22	nmod:unmarked	_	_
25	felt	feel	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	6	conj	_	_
26	that	that	SCONJ	IN	_	30	mark	_	_
27	he	he	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	30	nsubj	_	_
28	would	would	AUX	MD	VerbForm=Fin	30	aux	_	_
29	never	never	ADV	RB	PronType=Neg	30	advmod	_	_
30	take	take	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	25	ccomp	_	_
31	back	back	ADV	RB	_	30	advmod	_	_
32	his	his	PRON	PRP$	Case=Gen|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|Poss=Yes|PronType=Prs	33	nmod:poss	_	_
33	words	word	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	30	obj	_	SpaceAfter=No
34	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	6	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

<!-- .fr -->
| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **stay** | past · progressive | face |  |  |  | morning |  | vn exist-47.1 «NP V»: agent=Theme |
| 2 | **listen** | might | the old man | next morning *not said here* |  |  |  | to reason | tree rules |
| 3 | **feel** | past | face *not said here* |  |  | man's heart  the son |  |  | vn conjecture-29.5-2 «NP V that S»: agent=Agent clause=Theme |
| 4 | **not** **take back** | would | man | man's words |  |  |  |  | vn bring-11.3 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent word=Theme |
| 5 | **word** |  | man |  |  |  |  |  | nom word «communication 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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