---
title: The house she was seeking was in a broad street, and ought to have b… — The Lilac Fairy Book · tree and pragmatics
description: The house she was seeking was in a broad street, and ought to have been very magnificent, but the carved stone portico enclosed a mean little door of rough wood, while a row of beautiful pillars led to nothing. Who acts: wife, house, carved stone portico, row. A sentence of «The Lilac Fairy Book» by
---

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# The Lilac Fairy Book, The Lilac Fairy Book, part 19, sentence 56

<!-- .ven lang=en -->
The house she was seeking was in a broad street, and ought to have been very magnificent, but the carved stone portico enclosed a mean little door of rough wood, while a row of beautiful pillars led to nothing.

<!-- .vintro -->
**Who acts:** wife, house, carved stone portico, row · **What happens:** seek, be, carve, enclose, lead · **To what, where:** house, broad street, mean little door

<!-- .vabout -->
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 (wife, house, carved stone portico, row), 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:pg3454:19:56
# text = The house she was seeking was in a broad street, and ought to have been very magnificent, but the carved stone portico enclosed a mean little door of rough wood, while a row of beautiful pillars led to nothing.
1	The	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	2	det	_	_
2	house	house	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	10	nsubj	_	_
3	she	she	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Gender=Fem|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	5	nsubj	_	_
4	was	be	AUX	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	5	aux	_	_
5	seeking	seek	VERB	VBG	Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Part	2	acl:relcl	_	_
6	was	be	AUX	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	10	cop	_	_
7	in	in	ADP	IN	_	10	case	_	_
8	a	a	DET	DT	Definite=Ind|PronType=Art	10	det	_	_
9	broad	broad	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	10	amod	_	_
10	street	street	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	0	root	_	SpaceAfter=No
11	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	18	punct	_	_
12	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	18	cc	_	_
13	ought	ought	AUX	MD	VerbForm=Fin	18	aux	_	_
14	to	to	PART	TO	_	18	mark	_	_
15	have	have	AUX	VB	VerbForm=Inf	18	aux	_	_
16	been	be	AUX	VBN	Tense=Past|VerbForm=Part	18	cop	_	_
17	very	very	ADV	RB	_	18	advmod	_	_
18	magnificent	magnificent	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	10	parataxis	_	SpaceAfter=No
19	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	25	punct	_	_
20	but	but	CCONJ	CC	_	25	cc	_	_
21	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	24	det	_	_
22	carved	carve	VERB	VBN	Tense=Past|VerbForm=Part|Voice=Pass	24	amod	_	_
23	stone	stone	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	24	compound	_	_
24	portico	portico	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	25	nsubj	_	_
25	enclosed	enclose	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	18	parataxis	_	_
26	a	a	DET	DT	Definite=Ind|PronType=Art	29	det	_	_
27	mean	mean	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	29	amod	_	_
28	little	little	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	29	amod	_	_
29	door	door	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	25	obj	_	_
30	of	of	ADP	IN	_	32	case	_	_
31	rough	rough	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	32	amod	_	_
32	wood	wood	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	29	nmod	_	SpaceAfter=No
33	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	40	punct	_	_
34	while	while	SCONJ	IN	_	40	mark	_	_
35	a	a	DET	DT	Definite=Ind|PronType=Art	36	det	_	_
36	row	row	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	40	nsubj	_	_
37	of	of	ADP	IN	_	39	case	_	_
38	beautiful	beautiful	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	39	amod	_	_
39	pillars	pillar	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	36	nmod	_	_
40	led	lead	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	25	conj	_	_
41	to	to	ADP	IN	_	42	case	_	_
42	nothing	nothing	PRON	NN	Number=Sing|PronType=Neg	40	obl	_	SpaceAfter=No
43	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	10	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

<!-- .fr -->
| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **seek** | past · progressive | wife | the house *not said here* |  |  |  |  | vn hunt-35.1 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent house=Theme |
| 2 | **is** | past | the house |  |  | a broad street |  |  | tree rules |
| 3 | **is** | ought · perfect |  |  |  |  |  | magnificent *property* | tree rules |
| 4 | **carve** | participle |  |  |  |  |  |  | vn scribble-25.2-1 «NP V»: agent=Agent |
| 5 | **enclose** | past | the carved stone portico | a mean little door of rough wood |  |  |  |  | vn contiguous\_location-47.8 «NP V NP»: agent=Theme door=Co-Theme |
| 6 | **lead** | past | a row of beautiful pillars |  |  |  |  | to nothing | vn result-27.2 «NP V PP»: agent=Precondition to nothing=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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