---
title: They were all very happy together for many years, and then the fathe… — The Lilac Fairy Book · tree and pragmatics
description: They were all very happy together for many years, and then the father became very ill, and felt he was going to die. Who acts: sons, father. A sentence of «The Lilac Fairy Book» by Andrew Lang, The Lilac Fairy Book, part 20, with its dependency tree and the pragmatics of every clause.
---

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# The Lilac Fairy Book, The Lilac Fairy Book, part 20, sentence 40

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They were all very happy together for many years, and then the father became very ill, and felt he was going to die.

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**Who acts:** sons, father · **What happens:** be, become, feel, go, die

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This is a sentence of «The Lilac Fairy Book» by Andrew Lang, The Lilac Fairy Book, part 20. The page gives its syntax tree — a dependency tree in the style of Universal Dependencies — and its pragmatics clause by clause: who acts (sons, father), 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:pg3454:20:40
# text = They were all very happy together for many years, and then the father became very ill, and felt he was going to die.
1	They	they	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Number=Plur|Person=3|PronType=Prs	5	nsubj	_	_
2	were	be	AUX	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Plur|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	5	cop	_	_
3	all	all	ADV	RB	_	5	advmod	_	_
4	very	very	ADV	RB	_	5	advmod	_	_
5	happy	happy	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	0	root	_	_
6	together	together	ADV	RB	_	5	advmod	_	_
7	for	for	ADP	IN	_	9	case	_	_
8	many	many	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	9	amod	_	_
9	years	year	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	5	obl	_	SpaceAfter=No
10	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	15	punct	_	_
11	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	15	cc	_	_
12	then	then	ADV	RB	PronType=Dem	15	advmod	_	_
13	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	14	det	_	_
14	father	father	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	15	nsubj	_	_
15	became	become	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	5	parataxis	_	_
16	very	very	ADV	RB	_	17	advmod	_	_
17	ill	ill	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	15	xcomp	_	SpaceAfter=No
18	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	20	punct	_	_
19	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	20	cc	_	_
20	felt	feel	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	15	conj	_	_
21	he	he	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	23	nsubj	_	_
22	was	be	AUX	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	23	aux	_	_
23	going	go	VERB	VBG	Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Part	20	ccomp	_	_
24	to	to	PART	TO	_	25	mark	_	_
25	die	die	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	23	xcomp	_	SpaceAfter=No
26	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	5	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

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| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **is** | past | sons *= son* |  |  |  | year | all, happy, together *property* | tree rules |
| 2 | **become** | past | the father |  |  |  | then | ill *property* | vn become-109.1-1-1 «NP V PP.attribute»: agent=Patient |
| 3 | **feel** | past | the father *not said here* |  |  |  |  |  | vn see-30.1-1 «NP V S\_ING»: agent=Experiencer clause=Stimulus |
| 4 | **go** | past · progressive | father |  |  |  |  |  | vn say-37.7 «NP V S-Quote»: agent=Agent clause=Topic |
| 5 | **die** | to-infinitive | father *not said here* |  |  |  |  |  | vn calibratable\_cos-45.6.1 «NP.attribute V»: agent=Attribute |

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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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