---
title: The king welcomed the girls eagerly, and asked them all manner of qu… — The Lilac Fairy Book · tree and pragmatics
description: The king welcomed the girls eagerly, and asked them all manner of questions about the tree, but as they had never even heard of its existence, they could tell him nothing. Who acts: king, girls, tree. A sentence of «The Lilac Fairy Book» by Andrew Lang, The Lilac Fairy Book, part 23, with its depend
---

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# The Lilac Fairy Book, The Lilac Fairy Book, part 23, sentence 4

<!-- .ven lang=en -->
The king welcomed the girls eagerly, and asked them all manner of questions about the tree, but as they had never even heard of its existence, they could tell him nothing.

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**Who acts:** king, girls, tree · **What happens:** welcome, ask, not hear, tell, exist · **To what, where:** girls, manner, nothing, king · **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 (king, girls, tree), 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:pg3454:23:4
# text = The king welcomed the girls eagerly, and asked them all manner of questions about the tree, but as they had never even heard of its existence, they could tell him nothing.
1	The	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	2	det	_	_
2	king	king	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	3	nsubj	_	_
3	welcomed	welcome	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	0	root	_	_
4	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	5	det	_	_
5	girls	girl	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	3	obj	_	_
6	eagerly	eagerly	ADV	RB	_	3	advmod	_	SpaceAfter=No
7	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	9	punct	_	_
8	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	9	cc	_	_
9	asked	ask	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	3	parataxis	_	_
10	them	they	PRON	PRP	Case=Acc|Number=Plur|Person=3|PronType=Prs	9	obj	_	_
11	all	all	DET	DT	PronType=Tot	12	det	_	_
12	manner	manner	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	9	obj	_	_
13	of	of	ADP	IN	_	14	case	_	_
14	questions	question	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	12	nmod	_	_
15	about	about	ADP	IN	_	17	case	_	_
16	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	17	det	_	_
17	tree	tree	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	14	nmod	_	SpaceAfter=No
18	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	32	punct	_	_
19	but	but	CCONJ	CC	_	32	cc	_	_
20	as	as	SCONJ	IN	_	25	mark	_	_
21	they	they	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Number=Plur|Person=3|PronType=Prs	25	nsubj	_	_
22	had	have	AUX	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Plur|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	25	aux	_	_
23	never	never	ADV	RB	PronType=Neg	25	advmod	_	_
24	even	even	ADV	RB	_	25	advmod	_	_
25	heard	hear	VERB	VBN	Tense=Past|VerbForm=Part	32	advcl	_	_
26	of	of	ADP	IN	_	28	case	_	_
27	its	its	PRON	PRP$	Case=Gen|Gender=Neut|Number=Sing|Person=3|Poss=Yes|PronType=Prs	28	nmod:poss	_	_
28	existence	existence	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	25	obl	_	SpaceAfter=No
29	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	25	punct	_	_
30	they	they	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Number=Plur|Person=3|PronType=Prs	32	nsubj	_	_
31	could	could	AUX	MD	VerbForm=Fin	32	aux	_	_
32	tell	tell	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	9	conj	_	_
33	him	he	PRON	PRP	Case=Acc|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	32	iobj	_	_
34	nothing	nothing	PRON	NN	Number=Sing|PronType=Neg	32	obj	_	SpaceAfter=No
35	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	3	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

<!-- .fr -->
| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **welcome** | past | the king | the girls |  |  |  | eagerly *property* | vn admit-64.3-1 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent girl=Theme |
| 2 | **ask** *speech: ask* | past |  | all manner of questions about the tree | girls *= girl* |  |  |  | tree rules |
| 3 | **not** **hear** | past · perfect | girls *= girl* |  |  |  |  | of tree's existence | vn see-30.1-1-1 «NP V PP.stimulus»: agent=Experiencer of existence=Stimulus |
| 4 | **tell** *speech: assert* | could | girls *= girl* | nothing | king |  |  |  | vn transfer\_mesg-37.1.1-1-1 «NP V NP-Dative NP»: agent=Agent he=Recipient nothing=Topic |
| 5 | **exist** |  | tree |  |  |  |  |  | nom existence «state intransitive»: poss=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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