---
title: ‘He was too busy,’ he said, ‘and really it was only rich people who… — The Lilac Fairy Book · tree and pragmatics
description: ‘He was too busy,’ he said, ‘and really it was only rich people who could afford to waste time in talking.’ Who acts: charm, work, rich people. A sentence of «The Lilac Fairy Book» by Andrew Lang, The Lilac Fairy Book, part 33, with its dependency tree and the pragmatics of every clause.
---

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# The Lilac Fairy Book, The Lilac Fairy Book, part 33, sentence 29

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‘He was too busy,’ he said, ‘and really it was only rich people who could afford to waste time in talking.’

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**Who acts:** charm, work, rich people · **What happens:** be, say, afford, waste, talk · **To what, where:** rich people · **Speech:** someone speaks here

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This is a sentence of «The Lilac Fairy Book» by Andrew Lang, The Lilac Fairy Book, part 33. The page gives its syntax tree — a dependency tree in the style of Universal Dependencies — and its pragmatics clause by clause: who acts (charm, work, rich people), 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:pg3454:33:29
# text = ‘He was too busy,’ he said, ‘and really it was only rich people who could afford to waste time in talking.’
1	‘	'	PUNCT	``	_	5	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
2	He	he	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	5	nsubj	_	_
3	was	be	AUX	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	5	cop	_	_
4	too	too	ADV	RB	_	5	advmod	_	_
5	busy	busy	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	9	ccomp	_	SpaceAfter=No
6	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	5	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
7	’	'	PUNCT	''	_	5	punct	_	_
8	he	he	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	9	nsubj	_	_
9	said	say	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	0	root	_	SpaceAfter=No
10	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	9	punct	_	_
11	‘	‘	PUNCT	:	_	21	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
12	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	18	cc	_	_
13	really	really	ADV	RB	_	18	advmod	_	_
14	it	it	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Gender=Neut|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	18	nsubj	_	_
15	was	be	AUX	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	18	cop	_	_
16	only	only	ADV	RB	_	18	advmod	_	_
17	rich	rich	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	18	amod	_	_
18	people	people	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	21	nsubj	_	_
19	who	who	PRON	WP	PronType=Rel	21	nsubj	_	_
20	could	could	AUX	MD	VerbForm=Fin	21	aux	_	_
21	afford	afford	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	9	ccomp	_	_
22	to	to	PART	TO	_	23	mark	_	_
23	waste	waste	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	21	xcomp	_	_
24	time	time	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	23	obj	_	_
25	in	in	SCONJ	IN	_	26	mark	_	_
26	talking	talk	VERB	VBG	Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Part	23	advcl	_	SpaceAfter=No
27	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	21	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
28	’	'	PUNCT	''	_	21	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

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| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **is** | past | charm |  |  |  |  | busy *property* | tree rules |
| 2 | **say** *speech: assert* | past | charm |  |  |  |  |  | vn say-37.7-1-1 «NP V how S»: agent=Agent clause=Topic |
| 3 | **is a** | past | work | rich people |  |  |  |  | tree rules |
| 4 | **afford** | could | rich people |  |  |  |  |  | tree rules |
| 5 | **waste** | to-infinitive | rich people *not said here* |  |  |  | time |  | vn destroy-44 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent |
| 6 | **talk** | gerund | rich people *not said here* |  |  |  |  |  | vn talk-37.5 «NP V»: agent=Agent |

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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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