---
title: But it often happened that for weeks at a time they were quite alone… — The Lilac Fairy Book · tree and pragmatics
description: But it often happened that for weeks at a time they were quite alone on the rock Ahtola, and had nothing to look at except their little yellow-brown dog, which bore the grand name of Prince, their grass tufts, their bushes and blooms, the sea bays and fish, a stormy sky and the blue, white-crested w
---

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# The Lilac Fairy Book, The Lilac Fairy Book, part 23, sentence 30

<!-- .ven lang=en -->
But it often happened that for weeks at a time they were quite alone on the rock Ahtola, and had nothing to look at except their little yellow-brown dog, which bore the grand name of Prince, their grass tufts, their bushes and blooms, the sea bays and fish, a stormy sky and the blue, white-crested waves.

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**Who acts:** it, Matte, little brown dog · **What happens:** happen, be, have, look, bear, name · **To what, where:** rock, nothing, grand name, Prince

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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 (it, Matte, little brown dog), 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:pg3454:23:30
# text = But it often happened that for weeks at a time they were quite alone on the rock Ahtola, and had nothing to look at except their little yellow-brown dog, which bore the grand name of Prince, their grass tufts, their bushes and blooms, the sea bays and fish, a stormy sky and the blue, white-crested waves.
1	But	but	CCONJ	CC	_	4	cc	_	_
2	it	it	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Gender=Neut|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	4	nsubj	_	_
3	often	often	ADV	RB	_	4	advmod	_	_
4	happened	happen	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	0	root	_	_
5	that	that	SCONJ	IN	_	7	mark	_	_
6	for	for	ADP	IN	_	7	case	_	_
7	weeks	week	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	4	obl:unmarked	_	_
8	at	at	ADP	IN	_	10	case	_	_
9	a	a	DET	DT	Definite=Ind|PronType=Art	10	det	_	_
10	time	time	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	7	nmod	_	_
11	they	they	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Number=Plur|Person=3|PronType=Prs	14	nsubj	_	_
12	were	be	AUX	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Plur|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	14	cop	_	_
13	quite	quite	ADV	RB	_	14	advmod	_	_
14	alone	alone	ADV	RB	_	10	conj	_	_
15	on	on	ADP	IN	_	17	case	_	_
16	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	17	det	_	_
17	rock	rock	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	14	obl	_	_
18	Ahtola	Ahtola	PROPN	NNP	Number=Sing	17	appos	_	SpaceAfter=No
19	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	21	punct	_	_
20	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	21	cc	_	_
21	had	have	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	4	conj	_	_
22	nothing	nothing	PRON	NN	Number=Sing|PronType=Neg	21	obj	_	_
23	to	to	PART	TO	_	24	mark	_	_
24	look	look	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	22	acl	_	_
25	at	at	ADP	IN	_	32	case	_	_
26	except	except	ADP	IN	_	32	case	_	_
27	their	their	PRON	PRP$	Case=Gen|Number=Plur|Person=3|Poss=Yes|PronType=Prs	32	nmod:poss	_	_
28	little	little	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	32	amod	_	_
29	yellow	yellow	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	31	amod	_	SpaceAfter=No
30	-	-	PUNCT	HYPH	_	29	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
31	brown	brown	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	32	amod	_	_
32	dog	dog	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	24	obl	_	SpaceAfter=No
33	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	35	punct	_	_
34	which	which	PRON	WDT	PronType=Rel	35	nsubj	_	_
35	bore	bear	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	32	acl:relcl	_	_
36	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	38	det	_	_
37	grand	grand	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	38	amod	_	_
38	name	name	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	35	obj	_	_
39	of	of	ADP	IN	_	40	case	_	_
40	Prince	Prince	PROPN	NNP	Number=Sing	38	nmod	_	SpaceAfter=No
41	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	44	punct	_	_
42	their	their	PRON	PRP$	Case=Gen|Number=Plur|Person=3|Poss=Yes|PronType=Prs	44	nmod:poss	_	_
43	grass	grass	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	44	compound	_	_
44	tufts	tuft	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	38	nmod	_	SpaceAfter=No
45	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	47	punct	_	_
46	their	their	PRON	PRP$	Case=Gen|Number=Plur|Person=3|Poss=Yes|PronType=Prs	47	nmod:poss	_	_
47	bushes	bush	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	44	conj	_	_
48	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	49	cc	_	_
49	blooms	bloom	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	47	conj	_	SpaceAfter=No
50	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	53	punct	_	_
51	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	53	det	_	_
52	sea	sea	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	53	compound	_	_
53	bays	bay	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	44	conj	_	_
54	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	55	cc	_	_
55	fish	fish	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	53	conj	_	SpaceAfter=No
56	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	59	punct	_	_
57	a	a	DET	DT	Definite=Ind|PronType=Art	59	det	_	_
58	stormy	stormy	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	59	amod	_	_
59	sky	sky	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	44	conj	_	_
60	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	67	cc	_	_
61	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	67	det	_	_
62	blue	blue	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	67	amod	_	SpaceAfter=No
63	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	62	punct	_	_
64	white	white	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	66	amod	_	SpaceAfter=No
65	-	-	PUNCT	HYPH	_	64	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
66	crested	crested	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	67	amod	_	_
67	waves	wave	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	38	conj	_	SpaceAfter=No
68	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	4	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

<!-- .fr -->
| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **happen** | past | it |  |  |  | week | often *property* | vn occur-48.3-1 «NP V»: agent=Theme |
| 2 | **is** | past | Matte |  |  | the rock |  | alone *property* | tree rules |
| 3 | **have** | past |  | nothing |  |  |  |  | vn birth-28.2-1 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent nothing=Patient |
| 4 | **look** | to-infinitive |  | nothing *not said here* |  |  |  | at Matte's little brown dog | vn peer-30.3 «NP V PP.theme»: agent=Agent at dog=Theme |
| 5 | **bear** | past | Matte's little brown dog | the grand name of Prince  Matte's grass tufts and Matte's bushes and blooms and the sea bays and fish and a stormy sky and the blue crested waves |  |  |  |  | vn birth-28.2-1-1 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent name=Patient |
| 6 | **name** |  |  | Prince |  |  |  |  | nom name «communication transitive»: of=patient |

<!-- .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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