---
title: During that time my life is dependent on the little worm’s life, so… — The Lilac Fairy Book · tree and pragmatics
description: During that time my life is dependent on the little worm’s life, so that a bird can eat me, a child can pick me with the berries and trample under foot my thousand years of life. Who acts: life, bird, child. A sentence of «The Lilac Fairy Book» by Andrew Lang, The Lilac Fairy Book, part 25, with its
---

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# The Lilac Fairy Book, The Lilac Fairy Book, part 25, sentence 23

<!-- .ven lang=en -->
During that time my life is dependent on the little worm’s life, so that a bird can eat me, a child can pick me with the berries and trample under foot my thousand years of life.

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**Who acts:** life, bird, child · **What happens:** be, eat, pick, trample · **To what, where:** life, me, foot

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This is a sentence of «The Lilac Fairy Book» by Andrew Lang, The Lilac Fairy Book, part 25. The page gives its syntax tree — a dependency tree in the style of Universal Dependencies — and its pragmatics clause by clause: who acts (life, bird, child), 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:pg3454:25:23
# text = During that time my life is dependent on the little worm’s life, so that a bird can eat me, a child can pick me with the berries and trample under foot my thousand years of life.
1	During	during	ADP	IN	_	3	case	_	_
2	that	that	DET	DT	Number=Sing|PronType=Dem	3	det	_	_
3	time	time	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	7	obl	_	_
4	my	my	PRON	PRP$	Case=Gen|Number=Sing|Person=1|Poss=Yes|PronType=Prs	5	nmod:poss	_	_
5	life	life	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	7	nsubj	_	_
6	is	be	AUX	VBZ	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Fin	7	cop	_	_
7	dependent	dependent	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	0	root	_	_
8	on	on	ADP	IN	_	13	case	_	_
9	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	11	det	_	_
10	little	little	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	11	amod	_	_
11	worm	worm	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	13	nmod:poss	_	SpaceAfter=No
12	’s	's	PART	POS	_	11	case	_	_
13	life	life	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	7	obl	_	SpaceAfter=No
14	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	20	punct	_	_
15	so	so	SCONJ	IN	ExtPos=SCONJ	20	mark	_	_
16	that	that	SCONJ	IN	_	15	fixed	_	_
17	a	a	DET	DT	Definite=Ind|PronType=Art	18	det	_	_
18	bird	bird	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	20	nsubj	_	_
19	can	can	AUX	MD	VerbForm=Fin	20	aux	_	_
20	eat	eat	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	7	parataxis	_	_
21	me	I	PRON	PRP	Case=Acc|Number=Sing|Person=1|PronType=Prs	20	obj	_	SpaceAfter=No
22	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	26	punct	_	_
23	a	a	DET	DT	Definite=Ind|PronType=Art	24	det	_	_
24	child	child	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	26	nsubj	_	_
25	can	can	AUX	MD	VerbForm=Fin	26	aux	_	_
26	pick	pick	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	20	parataxis	_	_
27	me	I	PRON	PRP	Case=Acc|Number=Sing|Person=1|PronType=Prs	26	obj	_	_
28	with	with	ADP	IN	_	30	case	_	_
29	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	30	det	_	_
30	berries	berry	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	26	obl	_	_
31	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	32	cc	_	_
32	trample	trample	VERB	VBP	Mood=Ind|Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Fin	26	conj	_	_
33	under	under	ADP	IN	_	34	case	_	_
34	foot	foot	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	32	obl	_	_
35	my	my	PRON	PRP$	Case=Gen|Number=Sing|Person=1|Poss=Yes|PronType=Prs	37	nmod:poss	_	_
36	thousand	thousand	NUM	CD	NumForm=Word|NumType=Card	37	nummod	_	_
37	years	year	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	32	obl:unmarked	_	_
38	of	of	ADP	IN	_	39	case	_	_
39	life	life	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	37	nmod	_	SpaceAfter=No
40	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	7	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

<!-- .fr -->
| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **is** | present | my life |  |  | the little worm's life | time | dependent *property* | tree rules |
| 2 | **eat** | can | a bird | me |  |  |  |  | vn eat-39.1-1 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent i=Patient |
| 3 | **pick** | can | a child | me |  |  |  | with the berries | vn chew-39.2 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent i=Patient |
| 4 | **trample** | present | a child *not said here* |  |  | foot | year |  | tree rules |

<!-- .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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