---
title: Pleased and excited the six elder sisters at once followed the boy,… — The Lilac Fairy Book · tree and pragmatics
description: Pleased and excited the six elder sisters at once followed the boy, but the youngest, who was busy, and who did not care about strangers, stayed behind, to finish the work she was doing. Who acts: youngest, chief. A sentence of «The Lilac Fairy Book» by Andrew Lang, The Lilac Fairy Book, part 23, wi
---

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# The Lilac Fairy Book, The Lilac Fairy Book, part 23, sentence 3

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Pleased and excited the six elder sisters at once followed the boy, but the youngest, who was busy, and who did not care about strangers, stayed behind, to finish the work she was doing.

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**Who acts:** youngest, chief · **What happens:** please, follow, be, not care, stay, finish · **To what, where:** boy, work

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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 (youngest, chief), 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:pg3454:23:3
# text = Pleased and excited the six elder sisters at once followed the boy, but the youngest, who was busy, and who did not care about strangers, stayed behind, to finish the work she was doing.
1	Pleased	please	VERB	VBN	Tense=Past|VerbForm=Part|Voice=Pass	20	advcl	_	_
2	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	3	cc	_	_
3	excited	excited	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	1	xcomp	_	_
4	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	7	det	_	_
5	six	six	NUM	CD	NumForm=Word|NumType=Card	7	nummod	_	_
6	elder	elder	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	7	compound	_	_
7	sisters	sister	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	3	nsubj	_	_
8	at	at	SCONJ	IN	_	10	mark	_	_
9	once	once	ADV	RB	NumForm=Word|NumType=Mult	10	advmod	_	_
10	followed	follow	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=1|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	1	advcl	_	_
11	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	12	det	_	_
12	boy	boy	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	10	obj	_	SpaceAfter=No
13	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	20	punct	_	_
14	but	but	CCONJ	CC	_	20	cc	_	_
15	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	16	det	_	_
16	youngest	young	ADJ	JJS	Degree=Sup	20	nsubj	_	SpaceAfter=No
17	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	20	punct	_	_
18	who	who	PRON	WP	PronType=Rel	20	nsubj	_	_
19	was	be	AUX	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	20	cop	_	_
20	busy	busy	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	0	root	_	SpaceAfter=No
21	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	26	punct	_	_
22	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	26	cc	_	_
23	who	who	PRON	WP	PronType=Rel	26	nsubj	_	_
24	did	do	AUX	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=1|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	26	aux	_	_
25	not	not	PART	RB	Polarity=Neg	26	advmod	_	_
26	care	care	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	20	parataxis	_	_
27	about	about	ADP	IN	_	28	case	_	_
28	strangers	stranger	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	26	obl	_	SpaceAfter=No
29	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	30	punct	_	_
30	stayed	stay	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	26	conj	_	_
31	behind	behind	ADV	RB	_	30	advmod	_	SpaceAfter=No
32	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	34	punct	_	_
33	to	to	PART	TO	_	34	mark	_	_
34	finish	finish	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	26	advcl	_	_
35	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	36	det	_	_
36	work	work	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	34	obj	_	_
37	she	she	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Gender=Fem|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	39	nsubj	_	_
38	was	be	AUX	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	39	aux	_	_
39	doing	do	VERB	VBG	Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Part	34	ccomp	_	SpaceAfter=No
40	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	20	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

<!-- .fr -->
| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **please** | participle | the youngest *not said here* |  |  |  |  | excited *property* | vn amuse-31.1 «NP V ADV-Middle»: agent=Experiencer |
| 2 | **follow** | past | the youngest *not said here* | the boy |  |  |  | once *property* | vn chase-51.6 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent boy=Theme |
| 3 | **is** | past | the youngest |  |  |  |  | busy *property* | tree rules |
| 4 | **not** **care** | past · do-support |  |  |  |  |  | about strangers | vn care-88.1-1 «NP V PP.stimulus what S»: agent=Experiencer about stranger=Stimulus |
| 5 | **stay** | past |  |  |  |  |  | behind *property* | vn exist-47.1 «NP V»: agent=Theme |
| 6 | **finish** | to-infinitive |  | the work |  |  |  |  | tree rules |
| 7 | **do** | past · progressive | chief |  |  |  |  |  | vn act-114-1 «NP V»: agent=Agent |

<!-- .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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