---
title: Suppose it was useless; suppose the mare, and not the colt, ate the… — The Lilac Fairy Book · tree and pragmatics
description: Suppose it was useless; suppose the mare, and not the colt, ate the crumbs? Who acts: you, slice, colt. A sentence of «The Lilac Fairy Book» by Andrew Lang, The Lilac Fairy Book, part 27, with its dependency tree and the pragmatics of every clause.
---

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# The Lilac Fairy Book, The Lilac Fairy Book, part 27, sentence 10

<!-- .ven lang=en -->
Suppose it was useless; suppose the mare, and not the colt, ate the crumbs?

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**Who acts:** you, slice, colt · **What happens:** suppose, be, eat · **To what, where:** mare, crumbs · **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 27. The page gives its syntax tree — a dependency tree in the style of Universal Dependencies — and its pragmatics clause by clause: who acts (you, slice, colt), 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:pg3454:27:10
# text = Suppose it was useless; suppose the mare, and not the colt, ate the crumbs?
1	Suppose	suppose	VERB	VB	Mood=Imp|VerbForm=Fin	0	root	_	_
2	it	it	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Gender=Neut|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	4	nsubj	_	_
3	was	be	AUX	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	4	cop	_	_
4	useless	useless	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	1	ccomp	_	SpaceAfter=No
5	;	;	PUNCT	:	_	6	punct	_	_
6	suppose	suppose	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	1	ccomp	_	_
7	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	8	det	_	_
8	mare	mare	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	6	obj	_	SpaceAfter=No
9	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	15	punct	_	_
10	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	15	cc	_	_
11	not	not	PART	RB	Polarity=Neg	13	advmod	_	_
12	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	13	det	_	_
13	colt	colt	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	15	nsubj	_	SpaceAfter=No
14	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	13	punct	_	_
15	ate	eat	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	6	advcl	_	_
16	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	17	det	_	_
17	crumbs	crumb	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	15	obj	_	SpaceAfter=No
18	?	?	PUNCT	.	_	1	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

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| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **suppose** | imperative | you *not said here* |  |  |  |  |  | vn consider-29.9-2 «NP V how S»: agent=Agent clause=Theme |
| 2 | **is** | past | slice |  |  |  |  | useless *property* | tree rules |
| 3 | **suppose** | infinitive |  | the mare |  |  |  |  | vn consider-29.9-2 «NP V NP ADJ»: agent=Agent mare=Attribute |
| 4 | **eat** | past | the colt | the crumbs |  |  |  |  | vn eat-39.1-1 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent crumb=Patient |

<!-- .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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