---
title: But the girl, who had just been out to look at her tree, told him th… — The Lilac Fairy Book · tree and pragmatics
description: But the girl, who had just been out to look at her tree, told him that they were all eaten, so he went back empty-handed to his mistress. Who acts: girl, brother. 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 
---

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# The Lilac Fairy Book, The Lilac Fairy Book, part 20, sentence 77

<!-- .ven lang=en -->
But the girl, who had just been out to look at her tree, told him that they were all eaten, so he went back empty-handed to his mistress.

<!-- .vintro -->
**Who acts:** girl, brother · **What happens:** be, look, tell, eat, go back, hand · **To what, where:** brother, trees, mistress · **Speech:** someone speaks here

<!-- .vabout -->
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 (girl, brother), 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:pg3454:20:77
# text = But the girl, who had just been out to look at her tree, told him that they were all eaten, so he went back empty-handed to his mistress.
1	But	but	CCONJ	CC	_	16	cc	_	_
2	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	3	det	_	_
3	girl	girl	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	16	nsubj	_	SpaceAfter=No
4	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	9	punct	_	_
5	who	who	PRON	WP	PronType=Rel	9	nsubj	_	_
6	had	have	AUX	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Plur|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	9	aux	_	_
7	just	just	ADV	RB	_	9	advmod	_	_
8	been	be	AUX	VBN	Tense=Past|VerbForm=Part	9	cop	_	_
9	out	out	ADV	RB	_	3	advmod	_	_
10	to	to	PART	TO	_	11	mark	_	_
11	look	look	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	9	advcl	_	_
12	at	at	ADP	IN	_	14	case	_	_
13	her	her	PRON	PRP$	Case=Gen|Gender=Fem|Number=Sing|Person=3|Poss=Yes|PronType=Prs	14	nmod:poss	_	_
14	tree	tree	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	11	obl	_	SpaceAfter=No
15	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	3	punct	_	_
16	told	tell	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	0	root	_	_
17	him	he	PRON	PRP	Case=Acc|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	16	iobj	_	_
18	that	that	SCONJ	IN	_	22	mark	_	_
19	they	they	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Number=Plur|Person=3|PronType=Prs	22	nsubj	_	_
20	were	be	AUX	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Plur|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	22	aux:pass	_	_
21	all	all	ADV	RB	_	22	advmod	_	_
22	eaten	eat	VERB	VBN	Tense=Past|VerbForm=Part|Voice=Pass	16	ccomp	_	SpaceAfter=No
23	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	26	punct	_	_
24	so	so	ADV	RB	_	26	advmod	_	_
25	he	he	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	26	nsubj	_	_
26	went	go	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	16	conj	_	_
27	back	back	ADV	RB	_	26	advmod	_	_
28	empty	empty	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	26	xcomp	_	SpaceAfter=No
29	-	-	PUNCT	HYPH	_	28	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
30	handed	hand	VERB	VBN	Tense=Past|VerbForm=Part|Voice=Pass	26	xcomp	_	_
31	to	to	ADP	IN	_	33	case	_	_
32	his	his	PRON	PRP$	Case=Gen|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|Poss=Yes|PronType=Prs	33	nmod:poss	_	_
33	mistress	mistress	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	30	obl	_	SpaceAfter=No
34	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	16	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

<!-- .fr -->
| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **is** | past · perfect | the girl |  |  |  |  | out *property* | tree rules |
| 2 | **look** | to-infinitive | the girl *not said here* |  |  |  |  | at few's tree | vn peer-30.3 «NP V PP.theme»: agent=Agent at tree=Theme |
| 3 | **tell** *speech: assert* | past | the girl |  | brother |  |  |  | vn transfer\_mesg-37.1.1-1-1 «NP V NP S\_INF»: agent=Agent he=Recipient clause=Topic |
| 4 | **eat** | past · passive |  | trees *= tree* |  |  |  | all *property* | vn eat-39.1-1 «NP V NP»: subject=Patient |
| 5 | **go back** | past | brother |  |  |  |  | empty *property* | tree rules |
| 6 | **hand** | participle | brother *not said here* |  | brother's mistress |  |  |  | vn send-11.1-1 «NP V NP PP.destination»: agent=Agent to mistress=Destination |

<!-- .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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