---
title: The donkey was about to ask some further questions, when she suddenl… — The Lilac Fairy Book · tree and pragmatics
description: The donkey was about to ask some further questions, when she suddenly found herself unable to speak: the time allowed them for conversation was over. Who acts: donkey, Christian. A sentence of «The Lilac Fairy Book» by Andrew Lang, The Lilac Fairy Book, part 25, with its dependency tree and the prag
---

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[Mova](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/) · [this page in HTML](https://mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg3454/25/81/)

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# The Lilac Fairy Book, The Lilac Fairy Book, part 25, sentence 81

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The donkey was about to ask some further questions, when she suddenly found herself unable to speak: the time allowed them for conversation was over.

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**Who acts:** donkey, Christian · **What happens:** be, ask, find, speak, allow · **To what, where:** further questions, Christian, donkey · **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 (donkey, Christian), 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:pg3454:25:81
# text = The donkey was about to ask some further questions, when she suddenly found herself unable to speak: the time allowed them for conversation was over.
1	The	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	2	det	_	_
2	donkey	donkey	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	4	nsubj	_	_
3	was	be	AUX	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	4	cop	_	_
4	about	about	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	0	root	_	_
5	to	to	PART	TO	_	6	mark	_	_
6	ask	ask	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	4	xcomp	_	_
7	some	some	DET	DT	PronType=Ind	9	det	_	_
8	further	further	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	9	amod	_	_
9	questions	question	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	6	obj	_	SpaceAfter=No
10	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	14	punct	_	_
11	when	when	ADV	WRB	PronType=Int	14	advmod	_	_
12	she	she	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Gender=Fem|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	14	nsubj	_	_
13	suddenly	suddenly	ADV	RB	_	14	advmod	_	_
14	found	find	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	4	parataxis	_	_
15	herself	herself	PRON	PRP	Case=Acc|Gender=Fem|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs|Reflex=Yes	14	obj	_	_
16	unable	unable	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	14	xcomp	_	_
17	to	to	PART	TO	_	18	mark	_	_
18	speak	speak	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	16	xcomp	_	SpaceAfter=No
19	:	:	PUNCT	:	_	22	punct	_	_
20	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	21	det	_	_
21	time	time	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	22	obl:unmarked	_	_
22	allowed	allow	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	4	parataxis	_	_
23	them	they	PRON	PRP	Case=Acc|Number=Plur|Person=3|PronType=Prs	22	obj	_	_
24	for	for	ADP	IN	_	25	case	_	_
25	conversation	conversation	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	27	obl	_	_
26	was	be	AUX	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	27	cop	_	_
27	over	over	ADV	RB	_	22	advmod	_	SpaceAfter=No
28	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	4	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

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| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **is** | past | the donkey |  |  |  |  | about *property* | tree rules |
| 2 | **ask** *speech: ask* | to-infinitive | the donkey *not said here* | some further questions |  |  |  |  | vn inquire-37.1.2 «NP V NP.recipient»: agent=Agent question=Recipient |
| 3 | **find** | past | Christian | Christian |  |  |  | suddenly, unable *property* | vn discover-84 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent herself=Topic |
| 4 | **speak** *speech: other* | to-infinitive | Christian *not said here* |  |  |  |  |  | vn talk-37.5 «NP V»: agent=Agent |
| 5 | **allow** | past |  | donkey |  |  | time |  | vn allow-64.1-1 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent they=Beneficiary |
| 6 | **is** | past |  |  |  |  |  | for conversation; over *property* | tree rules |

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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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