---
title: So matters went on till one evening Denis told Tephany that he reall… — The Lilac Fairy Book · tree and pragmatics
description: So matters went on till one evening Denis told Tephany that he really could not stay a moment, as he had promised to go to a dance that was to be held in the next village. Who acts: Denis. A sentence of «The Lilac Fairy Book» by Andrew Lang, The Lilac Fairy Book, part 32, with its dependency tree an
---

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[Mova](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/) · [this page in HTML](https://mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg3454/32/93/)

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# The Lilac Fairy Book, The Lilac Fairy Book, part 32, sentence 93

<!-- .ven lang=en -->
So matters went on till one evening Denis told Tephany that he really could not stay a moment, as he had promised to go to a dance that was to be held in the next village.

<!-- .vintro -->
**Who acts:** Denis · **What happens:** go on, tell, not stay, promise, go, hold · **To what, where:** Tephany, dance, next village · **Speech:** someone speaks here

<!-- .vabout -->
This is a sentence of «The Lilac Fairy Book» by Andrew Lang, The Lilac Fairy Book, part 32. The page gives its syntax tree — a dependency tree in the style of Universal Dependencies — and its pragmatics clause by clause: who acts (Denis), 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:pg3454:32:93
# text = So matters went on till one evening Denis told Tephany that he really could not stay a moment, as he had promised to go to a dance that was to be held in the next village.
1	So	so	ADV	RB	_	3	advmod	_	_
2	matters	matter	VERB	VBZ	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Fin	3	aux:pass	_	_
3	went	go	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	0	root	_	_
4	on	on	ADV	RB	_	3	advmod	_	_
5	till	till	ADP	IN	_	7	case	_	_
6	one	one	NUM	CD	NumForm=Word|NumType=Card	7	nummod	_	_
7	evening	evening	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	3	obl	_	_
8	Denis	Denis	PROPN	NNP	Number=Sing	9	nsubj	_	_
9	told	tell	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	3	parataxis	_	_
10	Tephany	Tephany	PROPN	NNP	Number=Sing	9	iobj	_	_
11	that	that	SCONJ	IN	_	16	mark	_	_
12	he	he	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	16	nsubj	_	_
13	really	really	ADV	RB	_	16	advmod	_	_
14	could	could	AUX	MD	VerbForm=Fin	16	aux	_	_
15	not	not	PART	RB	Polarity=Neg	16	advmod	_	_
16	stay	stay	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	9	ccomp	_	_
17	a	a	DET	DT	Definite=Ind|PronType=Art	18	det	_	_
18	moment	moment	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	16	obj	_	SpaceAfter=No
19	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	23	punct	_	_
20	as	as	SCONJ	IN	_	23	mark	_	_
21	he	he	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	23	nsubj	_	_
22	had	have	AUX	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	23	aux	_	_
23	promised	promise	VERB	VBN	Tense=Past|VerbForm=Part	16	advcl	_	_
24	to	to	PART	TO	_	25	mark	_	_
25	go	go	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	23	xcomp	_	_
26	to	to	ADP	IN	_	28	case	_	_
27	a	a	DET	DT	Definite=Ind|PronType=Art	28	det	_	_
28	dance	dance	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	25	obl	_	_
29	that	that	PRON	WDT	PronType=Rel	33	nsubj:pass	_	_
30	was	be	AUX	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	33	aux:pass	_	_
31	to	to	PART	TO	_	33	mark	_	_
32	be	be	AUX	VB	VerbForm=Inf	33	aux:pass	_	_
33	held	hold	VERB	VBN	Tense=Past|VerbForm=Part|Voice=Pass	28	acl:relcl	_	_
34	in	in	ADP	IN	_	37	case	_	_
35	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	37	det	_	_
36	next	next	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	37	amod	_	_
37	village	village	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	33	obl	_	SpaceAfter=No
38	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	3	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

<!-- .fr -->
| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **go on** | present · passive |  |  |  |  | evening |  | vn function-105.2.1 «NP V» |
| 2 | **tell** *speech: assert* | past | Denis |  | Tephany |  |  |  | vn transfer\_mesg-37.1.1-1-1 «NP V NP S\_INF»: agent=Agent tephany=Recipient clause=Topic |
| 3 | **not** **stay** | could | Denis |  |  |  | moment |  | vn exist-47.1 «NP V»: agent=Theme |
| 4 | **promise** *speech: promise* | past · perfect | Denis |  |  |  |  |  | vn promise-37.13 «NP V that S»: agent=Agent clause=Topic |
| 5 | **go** *not said to happen* | to-infinitive | Denis *not said here* |  |  | a dance |  |  | vn escape-51.1-1 «NP V PP.initial\_location»: agent=Theme to dance=Initial\_Location |
| 6 | **hold** | past · passive | Denis *not said here* | a dance |  | the next village |  |  | vn keep-15.2 «NP V NP PP.location»: subject=Theme in village=Location |

<!-- .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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