---
title: Heaven only knows how they ever came there; perhaps they were brough… — The Lilac Fairy Book · tree and pragmatics
description: Heaven only knows how they ever came there; perhaps they were brought by the winter storms. Who acts: Heaven, bushes, winter storms. A sentence of «The Lilac Fairy Book» by Andrew Lang, The Lilac Fairy Book, part 23, with its dependency tree and the pragmatics of every clause.
---

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# The Lilac Fairy Book, The Lilac Fairy Book, part 23, sentence 24

<!-- .ven lang=en -->
Heaven only knows how they ever came there; perhaps they were brought by the winter storms.

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**Who acts:** Heaven, bushes, winter storms · **What happens:** know, come, bring · **To what, where:** bushes · **Speech:** someone speaks here

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This is a sentence of «The Lilac Fairy Book» by Andrew Lang, The Lilac Fairy Book, part 23. The page gives its syntax tree — a dependency tree in the style of Universal Dependencies — and its pragmatics clause by clause: who acts (Heaven, bushes, winter storms), 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:pg3454:23:24
# text = Heaven only knows how they ever came there; perhaps they were brought by the winter storms.
1	Heaven	Heaven	PROPN	NNP	Number=Sing	3	nsubj	_	_
2	only	only	ADV	RB	_	3	advmod	_	_
3	knows	know	VERB	VBZ	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Fin	0	root	_	_
4	how	how	ADV	WRB	PronType=Int	7	advmod	_	_
5	they	they	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Number=Plur|Person=3|PronType=Prs	7	nsubj	_	_
6	ever	ever	ADV	RB	PronType=Ind	7	advmod	_	_
7	came	come	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Plur|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	3	ccomp	_	_
8	there	there	ADV	RB	PronType=Dem	7	advmod	_	SpaceAfter=No
9	;	;	PUNCT	,	_	13	punct	_	_
10	perhaps	perhaps	ADV	RB	_	13	advmod	_	_
11	they	they	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Number=Plur|Person=3|PronType=Prs	13	nsubj:pass	_	_
12	were	be	AUX	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Plur|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	13	aux:pass	_	_
13	brought	bring	VERB	VBN	Tense=Past|VerbForm=Part|Voice=Pass	3	conj	_	_
14	by	by	ADP	IN	_	17	case	_	_
15	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	17	det	_	_
16	winter	winter	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	17	compound	_	_
17	storms	storm	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	13	obl	_	SpaceAfter=No
18	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	3	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

<!-- .fr -->
| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **know** | present | Heaven |  |  |  |  |  | vn comprehend-87.2-1-1-1 «NP V how S\_INF»: agent=Experiencer clause=Stimulus |
| 2 | **come** | past | bushes *= bush* |  |  | there | ever |  | vn escape-51.1-1 «NP V»: agent=Theme |
| 3 | **bring** | past · passive | the winter storms | bushes *= bush* |  |  |  | perhaps *property* | vn bring-11.3-1 «NP V NP together»: agent=Agent subject=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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