---
title: For hours they talked, but to no purpose, and in the end they hit up… — The Lilac Fairy Book · tree and pragmatics
description: For hours they talked, but to no purpose, and in the end they hit upon a plan which they might just as well have thought of at the beginning. Who acts: person. A sentence of «The Lilac Fairy Book» by Andrew Lang, The Lilac Fairy Book, part 3, with its dependency tree and the pragmatics of every clau
---

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# The Lilac Fairy Book, The Lilac Fairy Book, part 3, sentence 11

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For hours they talked, but to no purpose, and in the end they hit upon a plan which they might just as well have thought of at the beginning.

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**Who acts:** person · **What happens:** talk, hit, think · **To what, where:** end, person

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This is a sentence of «The Lilac Fairy Book» by Andrew Lang, The Lilac Fairy Book, part 3. The page gives its syntax tree — a dependency tree in the style of Universal Dependencies — and its pragmatics clause by clause: who acts (person), 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:pg3454:3:11
# text = For hours they talked, but to no purpose, and in the end they hit upon a plan which they might just as well have thought of at the beginning.
1	For	for	ADP	IN	_	2	case	_	_
2	hours	hour	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	4	obl	_	_
3	they	they	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Number=Plur|Person=3|PronType=Prs	4	nsubj	_	_
4	talked	talk	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Plur|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	0	root	_	SpaceAfter=No
5	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	9	punct	_	_
6	but	but	CCONJ	CC	_	9	cc	_	_
7	to	to	ADP	IN	_	9	case	_	_
8	no	no	DET	DT	PronType=Neg	9	det	_	_
9	purpose	purpose	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	4	obl	_	SpaceAfter=No
10	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	16	punct	_	_
11	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	16	cc	_	_
12	in	in	ADP	IN	_	14	case	_	_
13	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	14	det	_	_
14	end	end	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	16	obl	_	_
15	they	they	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Number=Plur|Person=3|PronType=Prs	16	nsubj	_	_
16	hit	hit	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Plur|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	4	conj	_	_
17	upon	upon	ADP	IN	_	19	case	_	_
18	a	a	DET	DT	Definite=Ind|PronType=Art	19	det	_	_
19	plan	plan	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	16	obl	_	_
20	which	which	PRON	WDT	PronType=Rel	27	obj	_	_
21	they	they	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Number=Plur|Person=3|PronType=Prs	27	nsubj:pass	_	_
22	might	might	AUX	MD	VerbForm=Fin	27	aux	_	_
23	just	just	ADV	RB	_	27	advmod	_	_
24	as	as	ADV	RB	ExtPos=CCONJ	27	cc	_	_
25	well	well	ADV	RB	Degree=Pos	24	fixed	_	_
26	have	have	AUX	VBP	Mood=Ind|Number=Plur|Person=3|Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Fin	27	aux	_	_
27	thought	think	VERB	VBN	Tense=Past|VerbForm=Part|Voice=Pass	19	acl:relcl	_	_
28	of	of	ADP	IN	_	31	case	_	_
29	at	at	ADP	IN	_	31	case	_	_
30	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	31	det	_	_
31	beginning	beginning	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	27	obl	_	SpaceAfter=No
32	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	4	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

<!-- .fr -->
| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **talk** | past | person |  |  |  | hour | to no purpose | vn talk-37.5 «NP V PP.co-agent»: agent=Agent to purpose=Co-Agent |
| 2 | **hit** | past | person |  |  |  | in the end | upon a plan | vn contiguous\_location-47.8-1 «NP V»: agent=Theme |
| 3 | **think** *speech: other* | might · perfect · passive |  | person |  |  | of the beginning |  | vn consider-29.9-2 «NP V NP ADJ»: subject=Theme which=Attribute |

<!-- .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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