---
title: So the attendant went into the ballroom and did as the king had bidd… — The Lilac Fairy Book · tree and pragmatics
description: So the attendant went into the ballroom and did as the king had bidden him, when, to his surprise, not one man, but twenty, stepped forward, all with black dots on their faces. Who acts: attendant, king, Man. A sentence of «The Lilac Fairy Book» by Andrew Lang, The Lilac Fairy Book, part 3, with its
---

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# The Lilac Fairy Book, The Lilac Fairy Book, part 3, sentence 8

<!-- .ven lang=en -->
So the attendant went into the ballroom and did as the king had bidden him, when, to his surprise, not one man, but twenty, stepped forward, all with black dots on their faces.

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**Who acts:** attendant, king, Man · **What happens:** go, do, bid, step forward, surprise · **To what, where:** ballroom, Man, twenty

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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 (attendant, king, Man), 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:pg3454:3:8
# text = So the attendant went into the ballroom and did as the king had bidden him, when, to his surprise, not one man, but twenty, stepped forward, all with black dots on their faces.
1	So	so	ADV	RB	_	4	advmod	_	_
2	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	3	det	_	_
3	attendant	attendant	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	4	nsubj	_	_
4	went	go	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	0	root	_	_
5	into	into	ADP	IN	_	7	case	_	_
6	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	7	det	_	_
7	ballroom	ballroom	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	4	obl	_	_
8	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	9	cc	_	_
9	did	do	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	4	conj	_	_
10	as	as	SCONJ	IN	_	14	mark	_	_
11	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	12	det	_	_
12	king	king	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	14	nsubj	_	_
13	had	have	AUX	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	14	aux	_	_
14	bidden	bid	VERB	VBN	Tense=Past|VerbForm=Part	9	advcl	_	_
15	him	he	PRON	PRP	Case=Acc|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	14	obj	_	SpaceAfter=No
16	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	17	punct	_	_
17	when	when	ADV	WRB	PronType=Int	14	advmod	_	SpaceAfter=No
18	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	21	punct	_	_
19	to	to	ADP	IN	_	21	case	_	_
20	his	his	PRON	PRP$	Case=Gen|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|Poss=Yes|PronType=Prs	21	nmod:poss	_	_
21	surprise	surprise	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	14	obl	_	SpaceAfter=No
22	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	25	punct	_	_
23	not	not	PART	RB	Polarity=Neg	25	advmod	_	_
24	one	one	NUM	CD	NumForm=Word|NumType=Card	25	nummod	_	_
25	man	man	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	21	appos	_	SpaceAfter=No
26	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	30	punct	_	_
27	but	but	CCONJ	CC	_	30	cc	_	_
28	twenty	twenty	NUM	CD	NumForm=Word|NumType=Card	30	obl	_	SpaceAfter=No
29	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	28	punct	_	_
30	stepped	step	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	4	conj	_	_
31	forward	forward	ADV	RB	_	30	advmod	_	SpaceAfter=No
32	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	33	punct	_	_
33	all	all	DET	DT	PronType=Tot	30	obl	_	_
34	with	with	ADP	IN	_	36	case	_	_
35	black	black	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	36	amod	_	_
36	dots	dot	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	33	nmod	_	_
37	on	on	ADP	IN	_	39	case	_	_
38	their	their	PRON	PRP$	Case=Gen|Number=Plur|Person=3|Poss=Yes|PronType=Prs	39	nmod:poss	_	_
39	faces	face	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	36	nmod	_	SpaceAfter=No
40	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	4	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

<!-- .fr -->
| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **go** | past | the attendant |  |  | the ballroom |  |  | vn escape-51.1-1 «NP V PP.initial\_location»: agent=Theme into ballroom=Initial\_Location |
| 2 | **do** | past | the attendant *not said here* |  |  |  |  |  | vn act-114-1 «NP V»: agent=Agent |
| 3 | **bid** | past · perfect | the king | Man |  |  |  | to Man's surprise | tree rules |
| 4 | **step forward** | past | the attendant *not said here* | twenty |  |  |  | all *obl*; forward *property* | vn run-51.3.2 «NP V»: agent=Theme |
| 5 | **surprise** |  | Man |  |  |  |  |  | nom surprise «feeling transitive»: poss=agent |

<!-- .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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