---
title: ‘All this time neither the man nor the damsels had spoken one word,… — The Lilac Fairy Book · tree and pragmatics
description: ‘All this time neither the man nor the damsels had spoken one word, but when our dinner was half over, and my hunger was stilled, the man began to ask who I was. Who acts: dinner, man, I, my. A sentence of «The Lilac Fairy Book» by Andrew Lang, The Lilac Fairy Book, part 30, with its dependency tree
---

<!-- md -->
[Mova](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/) · [this page in HTML](https://mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg3454/30/17/)

<!-- crumbs -->
[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 30](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg3454/30/) / 17

# The Lilac Fairy Book, The Lilac Fairy Book, part 30, sentence 17

<!-- .ven lang=en -->
‘All this time neither the man nor the damsels had spoken one word, but when our dinner was half over, and my hunger was stilled, the man began to ask who I was.

<!-- .vintro -->
**Who acts:** dinner, man, I, my · **What happens:** speak, be, still, begin, ask, hunger · **To what, where:** man, hunger · **Speech:** someone speaks here

<!-- .vabout -->
This is a sentence of «The Lilac Fairy Book» by Andrew Lang, The Lilac Fairy Book, part 30. The page gives its syntax tree — a dependency tree in the style of Universal Dependencies — and its pragmatics clause by clause: who acts (dinner, man, I, my), 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:pg3454:30:17
# text = ‘All this time neither the man nor the damsels had spoken one word, but when our dinner was half over, and my hunger was stilled, the man began to ask who I was.
1	‘	'	PUNCT	``	_	12	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
2	All	all	DET	PDT	PronType=Tot	4	det:predet	_	_
3	this	this	DET	DT	Number=Sing|PronType=Dem	4	det	_	_
4	time	time	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	12	obl:unmarked	_	_
5	neither	neither	CCONJ	CC	Polarity=Neg	7	cc:preconj	_	_
6	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	7	det	_	_
7	man	man	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	12	nsubj:pass	_	_
8	nor	nor	CCONJ	CC	Polarity=Neg	10	cc	_	_
9	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	10	det	_	_
10	damsels	damsel	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	7	conj	_	_
11	had	have	AUX	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	12	aux	_	_
12	spoken	speak	VERB	VBN	Tense=Past|VerbForm=Part|Voice=Pass	0	root	_	_
13	one	one	NUM	CD	NumForm=Word|NumType=Card	14	nummod	_	_
14	word	word	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	12	obj	_	SpaceAfter=No
15	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	22	punct	_	_
16	but	but	CCONJ	CC	_	22	cc	_	_
17	when	when	ADV	WRB	PronType=Int	22	advmod	_	_
18	our	our	PRON	PRP$	Case=Gen|Number=Plur|Person=1|Poss=Yes|PronType=Prs	19	nmod:poss	_	_
19	dinner	dinner	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	22	nsubj	_	_
20	was	be	AUX	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	22	cop	_	_
21	half	half	ADV	RB	NumForm=Word|NumType=Frac	22	advmod	_	_
22	over	over	ADV	RB	_	12	advmod	_	SpaceAfter=No
23	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	28	punct	_	_
24	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	28	cc	_	_
25	my	my	PRON	PRP$	Case=Gen|Number=Sing|Person=1|Poss=Yes|PronType=Prs	26	nmod:poss	_	_
26	hunger	hunger	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	28	nsubj:pass	_	_
27	was	be	AUX	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	28	aux:pass	_	_
28	stilled	still	VERB	VBN	Tense=Past|VerbForm=Part|Voice=Pass	12	conj	_	SpaceAfter=No
29	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	32	punct	_	_
30	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	31	det	_	_
31	man	man	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	32	nsubj	_	_
32	began	begin	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	28	conj	_	_
33	to	to	PART	TO	_	34	mark	_	_
34	ask	ask	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	32	xcomp	_	_
35	who	who	PRON	WP	PronType=Int	34	ccomp	_	_
36	I	I	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Number=Sing|Person=1|PronType=Prs	35	nsubj	_	_
37	was	be	AUX	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	35	cop	_	SpaceAfter=No
38	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	12	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

<!-- .fr -->
| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **speak** *speech: other* | past · perfect · passive |  | the man nor the damsels |  |  | time |  | tree rules |
| 2 | **is** | past | our dinner |  |  |  |  | half, over *property* | tree rules |
| 3 | **still** | past · passive |  | my hunger |  |  |  |  | vn subjugate-42.3 «NP V NP»: subject=Patient |
| 4 | **begin** | past | the man |  |  |  |  |  | vn begin-55.1-1-1 «NP V S\_INF»: agent=Agent clause=Eventuality |
| 5 | **ask** *speech: ask* | to-infinitive | the man *not said here* |  |  |  |  |  | vn inquire-37.1.2 «NP V»: agent=Agent |
| 6 | **is a** | past | I |  |  |  |  |  | tree rules |
| 7 | **hunger** |  | my |  |  |  |  |  | nom hunger «state intransitive»: 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.

<!-- div src -->

**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.

<!-- /div -->

<!-- pn -->
- ← previous: [sentence 16](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg3454/30/16/)
- next →: [sentence 18](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg3454/30/18/)
- ↑ back to [The Lilac Fairy Book, part 30](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg3454/30/)