---
title: A few weeks after that the Black Gallows Bird had news of a wedding… — The Lilac Fairy Book · tree and pragmatics
description: A few weeks after that the Black Gallows Bird had news of a wedding that was to be held near the town; and the bridegroom had many friends and everybody sent him a present. Who acts: few weeks, bridegroom, everybody. A sentence of «The Lilac Fairy Book» by Andrew Lang, The Lilac Fairy Book, part 2, 
---

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# The Lilac Fairy Book, The Lilac Fairy Book, part 2, sentence 18

<!-- .ven lang=en -->
A few weeks after that the Black Gallows Bird had news of a wedding that was to be held near the town; and the bridegroom had many friends and everybody sent him a present.

<!-- .vintro -->
**Who acts:** few weeks, bridegroom, everybody · **What happens:** have, hold, send · **To what, where:** news, wedding, town, many friends, present, bridegroom

<!-- .vabout -->
This is a sentence of «The Lilac Fairy Book» by Andrew Lang, The Lilac Fairy Book, part 2. The page gives its syntax tree — a dependency tree in the style of Universal Dependencies — and its pragmatics clause by clause: who acts (few weeks, bridegroom, everybody), 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:pg3454:2:18
# text = A few weeks after that the Black Gallows Bird had news of a wedding that was to be held near the town; and the bridegroom had many friends and everybody sent him a present.
1	A	a	DET	DT	Definite=Ind|PronType=Art	3	det	_	_
2	few	few	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	3	amod	_	_
3	weeks	week	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	10	nsubj	_	_
4	after	after	SCONJ	IN	_	10	mark	_	_
5	that	that	SCONJ	IN	_	10	mark	_	_
6	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	8	det	_	_
7	Black	Black	ADJ	NNP	Degree=Pos	8	amod	_	_
8	Gallows	Gallows	PROPN	NNPS	Number=Plur	10	nsubj	_	_
9	Bird	Bird	PROPN	NNP	Number=Sing	8	compound	_	_
10	had	have	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Plur|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	0	root	_	_
11	news	news	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	10	obj	_	_
12	of	of	ADP	IN	_	14	case	_	_
13	a	a	DET	DT	Definite=Ind|PronType=Art	14	det	_	_
14	wedding	wedding	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	11	nmod	_	_
15	that	that	PRON	WDT	PronType=Rel	19	nsubj:pass	_	_
16	was	be	AUX	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	19	aux:pass	_	_
17	to	to	PART	TO	_	19	mark	_	_
18	be	be	AUX	VB	VerbForm=Inf	19	aux:pass	_	_
19	held	hold	VERB	VBN	Tense=Past|VerbForm=Part|Voice=Pass	14	acl:relcl	_	_
20	near	near	ADP	IN	_	22	case	_	_
21	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	22	det	_	_
22	town	town	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	19	obl	_	SpaceAfter=No
23	;	;	PUNCT	,	_	27	punct	_	_
24	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	27	cc	_	_
25	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	26	det	_	_
26	bridegroom	bridegroom	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	27	nsubj	_	_
27	had	have	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	10	parataxis	_	_
28	many	many	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	29	amod	_	_
29	friends	friend	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	27	obj	_	_
30	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	32	cc	_	_
31	everybody	everybody	PRON	NN	Number=Sing|PronType=Tot	32	nsubj	_	_
32	sent	send	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	27	conj	_	_
33	him	he	PRON	PRP	Case=Acc|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	32	obj	_	_
34	a	a	DET	DT	Definite=Ind|PronType=Art	35	det	_	_
35	present	present	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	32	obj	_	SpaceAfter=No
36	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	10	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

<!-- .fr -->
| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **have** | past | a few weeks | news of a wedding |  |  |  |  | vn birth-28.2-1 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent news=Patient |
| 2 | **hold** | past · passive | a few weeks *not said here* | a wedding |  | the town |  |  | vn keep-15.2 «NP V NP PP.location»: subject=Theme near town=Location |
| 3 | **have** | past | the bridegroom | many friends |  |  |  |  | vn birth-28.2-1 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent friend=Patient |
| 4 | **send** | past | everybody | a present | bridegroom |  |  |  | vn send-11.1-1 «NP V NP-Dative NP»: agent=Agent he=Destination present=Theme |

<!-- .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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