---
title: But in spite of that, he was almost too late, and every fight had be… — The Lilac Fairy Book · tree and pragmatics
description: But in spite of that, he was almost too late, and every fight had been fought save the last, which was between a snake and a great black raven. Who acts: news. A sentence of «The Lilac Fairy Book» by Andrew Lang, The Lilac Fairy Book, part 28, with its dependency tree and the pragmatics of every cla
---

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# The Lilac Fairy Book, The Lilac Fairy Book, part 28, sentence 32

<!-- .ven lang=en -->
But in spite of that, he was almost too late, and every fight had been fought save the last, which was between a snake and a great black raven.

<!-- .vintro -->
**Who acts:** news · **What happens:** be, fight, spite · **To what, where:** spite, fight, that

<!-- .vabout -->
This is a sentence of «The Lilac Fairy Book» by Andrew Lang, The Lilac Fairy Book, part 28. The page gives its syntax tree — a dependency tree in the style of Universal Dependencies — and its pragmatics clause by clause: who acts (news), 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:pg3454:28:32
# text = But in spite of that, he was almost too late, and every fight had been fought save the last, which was between a snake and a great black raven.
1	But	but	CCONJ	CC	_	11	cc	_	_
2	in	in	ADP	IN	_	3	case	_	_
3	spite	spite	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	11	obl	_	_
4	of	of	ADP	IN	_	5	case	_	_
5	that	that	PRON	DT	Number=Sing|PronType=Dem	3	nmod	_	SpaceAfter=No
6	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	3	punct	_	_
7	he	he	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	11	nsubj	_	_
8	was	be	AUX	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	11	cop	_	_
9	almost	almost	ADV	RB	_	10	advmod	_	_
10	too	too	ADV	RB	_	11	advmod	_	_
11	late	late	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	0	root	_	SpaceAfter=No
12	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	18	punct	_	_
13	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	18	cc	_	_
14	every	every	DET	DT	PronType=Tot	15	det	_	_
15	fight	fight	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	18	nsubj:pass	_	_
16	had	have	AUX	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	18	aux	_	_
17	been	be	AUX	VBN	Tense=Past|VerbForm=Part	18	aux:pass	_	_
18	fought	fight	VERB	VBN	Tense=Past|VerbForm=Part|Voice=Pass	11	conj	_	_
19	save	save	ADP	IN	_	21	case	_	_
20	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	21	det	_	_
21	last	last	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	18	obl	_	SpaceAfter=No
22	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	27	punct	_	_
23	which	which	PRON	WDT	PronType=Rel	27	nsubj	_	_
24	was	be	AUX	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	27	cop	_	_
25	between	between	ADP	IN	_	27	case	_	_
26	a	a	DET	DT	Definite=Ind|PronType=Art	27	det	_	_
27	snake	snake	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	18	obl	_	_
28	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	32	cc	_	_
29	a	a	DET	DT	Definite=Ind|PronType=Art	32	det	_	_
30	great	great	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	32	amod	_	_
31	black	black	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	32	amod	_	_
32	raven	raven	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	27	conj	_	SpaceAfter=No
33	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	11	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

<!-- .fr -->
| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **is** | past | news |  |  | spite of that |  | late *property* | tree rules |
| 2 | **fight** | past · perfect · passive |  | every fight |  |  |  | save the last | vn battle-36.4-1 «NP V NP»: subject=Co-Agent |
| 3 | **is** | past |  |  |  |  |  | between a snake and a great black raven | tree rules |
| 4 | **spite** |  |  | that |  |  |  |  | nom spite «feeling transitive»: of=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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