--- title: ‘Last night was so stormy, and we caught so little,’ urged his wife;… — The Lilac Fairy Book · tree and pragmatics description: ‘Last night was so stormy, and we caught so little,’ urged his wife; ‘to-night the sea is like a mirror, and with the wind in this direction the herring are drawing towards land.’ Who acts: Last night, we, stormy, night. A sentence of «The Lilac Fairy Book» by Andrew Lang, The Lilac Fairy Book, part --- [Mova](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/) · [this page in HTML](https://mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg3454/23/91/) [home](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/) / [corpora](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/) / [tales](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/) / [The Lilac Fairy Book](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg3454/) / [The Lilac Fairy Book, part 23](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg3454/23/) / 91 # The Lilac Fairy Book, The Lilac Fairy Book, part 23, sentence 91 ‘Last night was so stormy, and we caught so little,’ urged his wife; ‘to-night the sea is like a mirror, and with the wind in this direction the herring are drawing towards land.’ **Who acts:** Last night, we, stormy, night, mirror · **What happens:** be, catch, urge, draw · **To what, where:** little, wife, land 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 (Last night, we, stormy, night), what happens, when and where, as Mova's frames read it from the tree. **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:pg3454:23:91 # text = ‘Last night was so stormy, and we caught so little,’ urged his wife; ‘to-night the sea is like a mirror, and with the wind in this direction the herring are drawing towards land.’ 1 ‘ ' PUNCT `` _ 6 punct _ SpaceAfter=No 2 Last last ADJ JJ Degree=Pos 3 amod _ _ 3 night night NOUN NN Number=Sing 6 nsubj _ _ 4 was be AUX VBD Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin 6 cop _ _ 5 so so ADV RB _ 6 advmod _ _ 6 stormy stormy ADJ JJ Degree=Pos 15 nsubj _ SpaceAfter=No 7 , , PUNCT , _ 10 punct _ _ 8 and and CCONJ CC _ 10 cc _ _ 9 we we PRON PRP Case=Nom|Number=Plur|Person=1|PronType=Prs 10 nsubj _ _ 10 caught catch VERB VBD Mood=Ind|Number=Plur|Person=1|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin 6 conj _ _ 11 so so ADV RB _ 12 advmod _ _ 12 little little ADJ JJ Degree=Pos 10 obj _ SpaceAfter=No 13 , , PUNCT , _ 6 punct _ SpaceAfter=No 14 ’ ' PUNCT '' _ 6 punct _ _ 15 urged urge VERB VBD Mood=Ind|Number=Plur|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin 0 root _ _ 16 his his PRON PRP$ Case=Gen|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|Poss=Yes|PronType=Prs 17 nmod:poss _ _ 17 wife wife NOUN NN Number=Sing 15 obj _ SpaceAfter=No 18 ; ; PUNCT : _ 28 punct _ _ 19 ‘ ' PUNCT `` _ 22 punct _ SpaceAfter=No 20 to to ADP IN _ 22 case _ SpaceAfter=No 21 - - PUNCT HYPH _ 20 punct _ SpaceAfter=No 22 night night NOUN NN Number=Sing 28 nsubj _ _ 23 the the DET DT Definite=Def|PronType=Art 24 det _ _ 24 sea sea NOUN NN Number=Sing 28 nsubj _ _ 25 is be AUX VBZ Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Fin 28 cop _ _ 26 like like ADP IN _ 28 case _ _ 27 a a DET DT Definite=Ind|PronType=Art 28 det _ _ 28 mirror mirror NOUN NN Number=Sing 40 nsubj _ SpaceAfter=No 29 , , PUNCT , _ 33 punct _ _ 30 and and CCONJ CC _ 33 cc _ _ 31 with with ADP IN _ 33 case _ _ 32 the the DET DT Definite=Def|PronType=Art 33 det _ _ 33 wind wind NOUN NN Number=Sing 28 conj _ _ 34 in in ADP IN _ 36 case _ _ 35 this this DET DT Number=Sing|PronType=Dem 36 det _ _ 36 direction direction NOUN NN Number=Sing 33 nmod _ _ 37 the the DET DT Definite=Def|PronType=Art 38 det _ _ 38 herring herring NOUN NN Number=Sing 36 nmod:unmarked _ _ 39 are be AUX VBP Mood=Ind|Number=Plur|Person=3|Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Fin 40 aux _ _ 40 drawing draw VERB VBG VerbForm=Ger 15 ccomp _ _ 41 towards towards ADP IN _ 42 case _ _ 42 land land NOUN NN Number=Sing 40 obl _ SpaceAfter=No 43 . . PUNCT . _ 40 punct _ SpaceAfter=No 44 ’ ' PUNCT '' _ 15 punct _ _ ``` ## Pragmatics {#pragmatics} | # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by | | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | | 1 | **is** | past | Last night | | | | | stormy *property* | tree rules | | 2 | **catch** | past | we | little | | | | | vn get-13.5.1 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent little=Theme | | 3 | **urge** | past | stormy | husband's wife | | | | | vn urge-58.1-1-1 «NP V NP that S»: agent=Agent wife=Recipient clause=Topic | | 4 | **is** | present | night | | | | | like a mirror and the wind in this direction the herring | tree rules | | 5 | **draw** | present · progressive | a mirror and the wind in this direction the herring | | | land | | | vn carry-11.4 «NP V NP PP.destination»: agent=Agent towards land=Destination | 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. **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. - ← previous: [sentence 90](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg3454/23/90/) - next →: [sentence 92](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg3454/23/92/) - ↑ back to [The Lilac Fairy Book, part 23](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg3454/23/)