---
title: ‘Sire, this morning we were all playing tennis in the court, the pri… — The Lilac Fairy Book · tree and pragmatics
description: ‘Sire, this morning we were all playing tennis in the court, the prince and this gentleman with the rest, when there broke out some dispute about the game. Who acts: we. A sentence of «The Lilac Fairy Book» by Andrew Lang, The Lilac Fairy Book, part 3, with its dependency tree and the pragmatics of 
---

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# The Lilac Fairy Book, The Lilac Fairy Book, part 3, sentence 40

<!-- .ven lang=en -->
‘Sire, this morning we were all playing tennis in the court, the prince and this gentleman with the rest, when there broke out some dispute about the game.

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**Who acts:** we · **What happens:** play, break out · **To what, where:** tennis, court, Sire

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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 (we), 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:pg3454:3:40
# text = ‘Sire, this morning we were all playing tennis in the court, the prince and this gentleman with the rest, when there broke out some dispute about the game.
1	‘	'	PUNCT	``	_	2	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
2	Sire	sire	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	26	obl	_	SpaceAfter=No
3	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	9	punct	_	_
4	this	this	DET	DT	Number=Sing|PronType=Dem	5	det	_	_
5	morning	morning	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	9	obl:unmarked	_	_
6	we	we	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Number=Plur|Person=1|PronType=Prs	9	nsubj	_	_
7	were	be	AUX	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Plur|Person=1|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	9	aux	_	_
8	all	all	ADV	RB	_	9	advmod	_	_
9	playing	play	VERB	VBG	Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Part	2	acl	_	_
10	tennis	tennis	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	9	obj	_	_
11	in	in	ADP	IN	_	13	case	_	_
12	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	13	det	_	_
13	court	court	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	9	obl	_	SpaceAfter=No
14	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	16	punct	_	_
15	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	16	det	_	_
16	prince	prince	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	13	appos	_	_
17	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	19	cc	_	_
18	this	this	DET	DT	Number=Sing|PronType=Dem	19	det	_	_
19	gentleman	gentleman	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	13	conj	_	_
20	with	with	ADP	IN	_	22	case	_	_
21	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	22	det	_	_
22	rest	rest	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	19	nmod	_	SpaceAfter=No
23	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	26	punct	_	_
24	when	when	ADV	WRB	PronType=Int	26	advmod	_	_
25	there	there	PRON	EX	PronType=Dem	26	expl	_	_
26	broke	break	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	0	root	_	_
27	out	out	ADP	RP	_	26	compound:prt	_	_
28	some	some	DET	DT	PronType=Ind	29	det	_	_
29	dispute	dispute	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	26	obj	_	_
30	about	about	ADP	IN	_	32	case	_	_
31	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	32	det	_	_
32	game	game	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	29	nmod	_	SpaceAfter=No
33	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	26	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

<!-- .fr -->
| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **play** | past · progressive | we | tennis |  | the court and this gentleman with the rest | morning | all *property* | vn use-105.1 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent tennis=Theme |
| 2 | **break out** | past |  | Sire |  | there |  |  | vn hurt-40.8.3-1-1 «NP V NP»: agent=Experiencer dispute=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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