---
title: It was certainly tiresome sometimes climbing over the fallen trees,… — The Lilac Fairy Book · tree and pragmatics
description: It was certainly tiresome sometimes climbing over the fallen trees, and getting caught in the branches, and waging war with the juniper bushes and the midges, but what did that matter? Who acts: wood. A sentence of «The Lilac Fairy Book» by Andrew Lang, The Lilac Fairy Book, part 24, with its depend
---

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# The Lilac Fairy Book, The Lilac Fairy Book, part 24, sentence 127

<!-- .ven lang=en -->
It was certainly tiresome sometimes climbing over the fallen trees, and getting caught in the branches, and waging war with the juniper bushes and the midges, but what did that matter?

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**Who acts:** wood · **What happens:** be, climb, fall, catch, wage, do · **To what, where:** fallen trees, branches, war, matter

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This is a sentence of «The Lilac Fairy Book» by Andrew Lang, The Lilac Fairy Book, part 24. The page gives its syntax tree — a dependency tree in the style of Universal Dependencies — and its pragmatics clause by clause: who acts (wood), 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:pg3454:24:127
# text = It was certainly tiresome sometimes climbing over the fallen trees, and getting caught in the branches, and waging war with the juniper bushes and the midges, but what did that matter?
1	It	it	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Gender=Neut|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	4	nsubj	_	_
2	was	be	AUX	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	4	cop	_	_
3	certainly	certainly	ADV	RB	_	4	advmod	_	_
4	tiresome	tiresome	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	0	root	_	_
5	sometimes	sometimes	ADV	RB	PronType=Ind	6	advmod	_	_
6	climbing	climb	VERB	VBG	Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Part	4	advcl	_	_
7	over	over	ADP	IN	_	10	case	_	_
8	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	10	det	_	_
9	fallen	fall	VERB	VBN	Tense=Past|VerbForm=Part|Voice=Pass	10	amod	_	_
10	trees	tree	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	6	obl	_	SpaceAfter=No
11	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	14	punct	_	_
12	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	14	cc	_	_
13	getting	get	AUX	VBG	Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Part	14	aux:pass	_	_
14	caught	catch	VERB	VBN	Tense=Past|VerbForm=Part|Voice=Pass	4	parataxis	_	_
15	in	in	ADP	IN	_	17	case	_	_
16	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	17	det	_	_
17	branches	branch	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	14	obl	_	SpaceAfter=No
18	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	20	punct	_	_
19	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	20	cc	_	_
20	waging	wage	VERB	VBG	Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Part	4	conj	_	_
21	war	war	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	20	obj	_	_
22	with	with	ADP	IN	_	25	case	_	_
23	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	25	det	_	_
24	juniper	juniper	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	25	compound	_	_
25	bushes	bush	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	20	obl	_	_
26	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	28	cc	_	_
27	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	28	det	_	_
28	midges	midge	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	25	conj	_	SpaceAfter=No
29	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	32	punct	_	_
30	but	but	CCONJ	CC	_	32	cc	_	_
31	what	what	PRON	WP	PronType=Int	32	nsubj	_	_
32	did	do	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	4	parataxis	_	_
33	that	that	DET	DT	Number=Sing|PronType=Dem	34	det	_	_
34	matter	matter	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	32	obj	_	SpaceAfter=No
35	?	?	PUNCT	.	_	4	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

<!-- .fr -->
| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **is** | past | wood |  |  |  |  | certainly, tiresome *property* | tree rules |
| 2 | **climb** | gerund | wood *not said here* |  |  | the fallen trees |  | sometimes *property* | vn run-51.3.2 «NP V PP.location»: agent=Theme over tree=Trajectory |
| 3 | **fall** | participle |  |  |  |  |  |  | vn occur-48.3 «NP V»: agent=Theme |
| 4 | **catch** | gerund · passive |  |  |  | the branches |  |  | vn get-13.5.1 «NP V NP» |
| 5 | **wage** | gerund | wood *not said here* | war |  |  |  | with the juniper bushes and the midges | tree rules |
| 6 | **do** | past |  | that matter |  |  |  |  | vn act-114-1 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent matter=Eventuality |

<!-- .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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