---
title: One of the soldiers, a Breton, often tried to make them forget how c… — The Lilac Fairy Book · tree and pragmatics
description: One of the soldiers, a Breton, often tried to make them forget how cold and hungry they were by telling them tales of his native country, Brittany, which is full of wonderful things. Who acts: soldiers, Brittany, native country. A sentence of «The Lilac Fairy Book» by Andrew Lang, The Lilac Fairy Bo
---

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[Mova](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/) · [this page in HTML](https://mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg3454/25/48/)

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# The Lilac Fairy Book, The Lilac Fairy Book, part 25, sentence 48

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One of the soldiers, a Breton, often tried to make them forget how cold and hungry they were by telling them tales of his native country, Brittany, which is full of wonderful things.

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**Who acts:** soldiers, Brittany, native country · **What happens:** try, make, forget, tell, be · **To what, where:** soldiers, cold, tales, children · **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 25. The page gives its syntax tree — a dependency tree in the style of Universal Dependencies — and its pragmatics clause by clause: who acts (soldiers, Brittany, native country), 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:pg3454:25:48
# text = One of the soldiers, a Breton, often tried to make them forget how cold and hungry they were by telling them tales of his native country, Brittany, which is full of wonderful things.
1	One	one	NUM	CD	NumForm=Word|NumType=Card	0	root	_	_
2	of	of	ADP	IN	_	4	case	_	_
3	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	4	det	_	_
4	soldiers	soldier	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	1	nmod	_	SpaceAfter=No
5	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	7	punct	_	_
6	a	a	DET	DT	Definite=Ind|PronType=Art	7	det	_	_
7	Breton	Breton	PROPN	NNP	Number=Sing	4	nmod	_	SpaceAfter=No
8	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	10	punct	_	_
9	often	often	ADV	RB	_	10	advmod	_	_
10	tried	try	VERB	VBN	Tense=Past|VerbForm=Part|Voice=Pass	1	parataxis	_	_
11	to	to	PART	TO	_	12	mark	_	_
12	make	make	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	10	xcomp	_	_
13	them	they	PRON	PRP	Case=Acc|Number=Plur|Person=3|PronType=Prs	12	obj	_	_
14	forget	forget	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	12	xcomp	_	_
15	how	how	ADV	WRB	PronType=Int	16	advmod	_	_
16	cold	cold	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	14	obj	_	_
17	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	18	cc	_	_
18	hungry	hungry	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	16	conj	_	_
19	they	they	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Number=Plur|Person=3|PronType=Prs	22	nsubj	_	_
20	were	be	AUX	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Plur|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	22	aux	_	_
21	by	by	SCONJ	IN	_	22	mark	_	_
22	telling	tell	VERB	VBG	Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Part	16	parataxis	_	_
23	them	they	PRON	PRP	Case=Acc|Number=Plur|Person=3|PronType=Prs	22	iobj	_	_
24	tales	tale	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	22	obj	_	_
25	of	of	ADP	IN	_	28	case	_	_
26	his	his	PRON	PRP$	Case=Gen|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|Poss=Yes|PronType=Prs	28	nmod:poss	_	_
27	native	native	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	28	amod	_	_
28	country	country	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	24	nmod	_	SpaceAfter=No
29	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	30	punct	_	_
30	Brittany	Brittany	PROPN	NNP	Number=Sing	28	appos	_	SpaceAfter=No
31	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	34	punct	_	_
32	which	which	PRON	WDT	PronType=Rel	34	nsubj	_	_
33	is	be	AUX	VBZ	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Fin	34	cop	_	_
34	full	full	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	30	amod	_	_
35	of	of	ADP	IN	_	37	case	_	_
36	wonderful	wonderful	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	37	amod	_	_
37	things	thing	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	34	obl	_	SpaceAfter=No
38	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	1	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

<!-- .fr -->
| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **try** | participle |  |  |  |  |  | often *property* | vn try-61.1 «NP V S\_INF»: agent=Agent clause=Eventuality |
| 2 | **make** *not said to happen* | to-infinitive |  | soldiers *= soldier* |  |  |  |  | tree rules |
| 3 | **forget** *not said to happen* | infinitive | soldiers *= soldier* *not said here* | cold |  |  |  |  | tree rules |
| 4 | **tell** *speech: assert* | past · progressive | soldiers *= soldier* | tales of Russia's native country | children *= child* |  |  |  | vn transfer\_mesg-37.1.1-1-1 «NP V NP-Dative NP»: agent=Agent they=Recipient tale=Topic |
| 5 | **is** | present | Brittany |  |  |  |  | of wonderful things; full *property* | tree rules |
| 6 | **tell** |  | Russia's native country |  |  |  |  |  | nom tale «communication intransitive»: of=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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