--- title: At length, when you were away fighting in distant countries, she dec… — The Lilac Fairy Book · tree and pragmatics description: At length, when you were away fighting in distant countries, she decided what she would do, and adopted in secret the baby of a poor quarryman, sending a messenger to tell you that you had a son. Who acts: you, love. A sentence of «The Lilac Fairy Book» by Andrew Lang, The Lilac Fairy Book, part 3, --- [Mova](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/) · [this page in HTML](https://mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg3454/3/85/) [home](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/) / [corpora](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/) / [tales](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/) / [The Lilac Fairy Book](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg3454/) / [The Lilac Fairy Book, part 3](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg3454/3/) / 85 # The Lilac Fairy Book, The Lilac Fairy Book, part 3, sentence 85 At length, when you were away fighting in distant countries, she decided what she would do, and adopted in secret the baby of a poor quarryman, sending a messenger to tell you that you had a son. **Who acts:** you, love · **What happens:** fight, decide, do, adopt, send, tell · **To what, where:** distant countries, length, baby, secret, messenger, you · **Speech:** someone speaks here 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 (you, love), what happens, when and where, as Mova's frames read it from the tree. **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:pg3454:3:85 # text = At length, when you were away fighting in distant countries, she decided what she would do, and adopted in secret the baby of a poor quarryman, sending a messenger to tell you that you had a son. 1 At at ADP IN _ 2 case _ _ 2 length length NOUN NN Number=Sing 14 obl _ SpaceAfter=No 3 , , PUNCT , _ 2 punct _ _ 4 when when SCONJ WRB _ 8 mark _ _ 5 you you PRON PRP Case=Nom|Person=2|PronType=Prs 8 nsubj _ _ 6 were be AUX VBD Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=2|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin 8 aux _ _ 7 away away ADV RB _ 8 advmod _ _ 8 fighting fight VERB VBG Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Part 2 acl _ _ 9 in in ADP IN _ 11 case _ _ 10 distant distant ADJ JJ Degree=Pos 11 amod _ _ 11 countries country NOUN NNS Number=Plur 8 obl _ SpaceAfter=No 12 , , PUNCT , _ 2 punct _ _ 13 she she PRON PRP Case=Nom|Gender=Fem|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs 14 nsubj _ _ 14 decided decide VERB VBD Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin 0 root _ _ 15 what what PRON WP PronType=Int 18 obj _ _ 16 she she PRON PRP Case=Nom|Gender=Fem|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs 18 nsubj _ _ 17 would would AUX MD VerbForm=Fin 18 aux _ _ 18 do do VERB VB VerbForm=Inf 14 ccomp _ SpaceAfter=No 19 , , PUNCT , _ 21 punct _ _ 20 and and CCONJ CC _ 21 cc _ _ 21 adopted adopt VERB VBN Tense=Past|VerbForm=Part|Voice=Pass 14 conj _ _ 22 in in ADP IN _ 23 case _ _ 23 secret secret NOUN NN Number=Sing 21 obl _ _ 24 the the DET DT Definite=Def|PronType=Art 25 det _ _ 25 baby baby NOUN NN Number=Sing 21 obj _ _ 26 of of ADP IN _ 29 case _ _ 27 a a DET DT Definite=Ind|PronType=Art 29 det _ _ 28 poor poor ADJ JJ Degree=Pos 29 amod _ _ 29 quarryman quarryman NOUN NN Number=Sing 25 nmod _ SpaceAfter=No 30 , , PUNCT , _ 31 punct _ _ 31 sending send VERB VBG Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Part 21 advcl _ _ 32 a a DET DT Definite=Ind|PronType=Art 33 det _ _ 33 messenger messenger NOUN NN Number=Sing 31 obj _ _ 34 to to PART TO _ 35 mark _ _ 35 tell tell VERB VB VerbForm=Inf 31 advcl _ _ 36 you you PRON PRP Case=Acc|Person=2|PronType=Prs 35 iobj _ _ 37 that that SCONJ IN _ 39 mark _ _ 38 you you PRON PRP Case=Nom|Person=2|PronType=Prs 39 nsubj _ _ 39 had have VERB VBD Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=2|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin 35 ccomp _ _ 40 a a DET DT Definite=Ind|PronType=Art 41 det _ _ 41 son son NOUN NN Number=Sing 39 obj _ SpaceAfter=No 42 . . PUNCT . _ 14 punct _ _ ``` ## Pragmatics {#pragmatics} | # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by | | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | | 1 | **fight** | past · progressive | you | | | distant countries | | away *property* | vn battle-36.4-1 «NP V»: agent=Agent | | 2 | **decide** | past | love | | | length | | | vn correspond-36.1-1 «NP V what S\_INF»: agent=Agent clause=Topic | | 3 | **do** | would | love | | | | | | vn act-114-1 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent what=Eventuality | | 4 | **adopt** | participle | love *not said here* | the baby of a poor quarryman | | secret | | | vn appoint-29.1 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent baby=Theme | | 5 | **send** | gerund | love *not said here* | a messenger | | | | | vn confine-92-1 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent messenger=Theme | | 6 | **tell** *speech: assert* | to-infinitive | love *not said here* | | you | | | | vn transfer\_mesg-37.1.1-1-1 «NP V NP S\_INF»: agent=Agent you=Recipient clause=Topic | | 7 | **have** | past | you | a son | | | | | vn birth-28.2-1 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent son=Patient | 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. **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. - ← previous: [sentence 84](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg3454/3/84/) - next →: [sentence 86](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg3454/3/86/) - ↑ back to [The Lilac Fairy Book, part 3](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg3454/3/)