---
title: Tephany tried to stammer some excuse, but her aunt was half mad with… — The Lilac Fairy Book · tree and pragmatics
description: Tephany tried to stammer some excuse, but her aunt was half mad with rage, and a box on the ears was her only answer. Who acts: Tephany, aunt, box. 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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[Mova](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/) · [this page in HTML](https://mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg3454/33/46/)

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# The Lilac Fairy Book, The Lilac Fairy Book, part 33, sentence 46

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Tephany tried to stammer some excuse, but her aunt was half mad with rage, and a box on the ears was her only answer.

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**Who acts:** Tephany, aunt, box · **What happens:** try, stammer, be, answer · **To what, where:** excuse, Tephany

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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 (Tephany, aunt, box), 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:pg3454:33:46
# text = Tephany tried to stammer some excuse, but her aunt was half mad with rage, and a box on the ears was her only answer.
1	Tephany	Tephany	PROPN	NNP	Number=Sing	2	nsubj	_	_
2	tried	try	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	0	root	_	_
3	to	to	PART	TO	_	4	mark	_	_
4	stammer	stammer	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	2	xcomp	_	_
5	some	some	DET	DT	PronType=Ind	6	det	_	_
6	excuse	excuse	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	4	obj	_	SpaceAfter=No
7	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	13	punct	_	_
8	but	but	CCONJ	CC	_	13	cc	_	_
9	her	her	PRON	PRP$	Case=Gen|Gender=Fem|Number=Sing|Person=3|Poss=Yes|PronType=Prs	10	nmod:poss	_	_
10	aunt	aunt	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	13	nsubj	_	_
11	was	be	AUX	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	13	cop	_	_
12	half	half	ADV	RB	NumForm=Word|NumType=Frac	13	advmod	_	_
13	mad	mad	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	2	parataxis	_	_
14	with	with	ADP	IN	_	15	case	_	_
15	rage	rage	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	13	obl	_	SpaceAfter=No
16	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	26	punct	_	_
17	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	26	cc	_	_
18	a	a	DET	DT	Definite=Ind|PronType=Art	19	det	_	_
19	box	box	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	24	nsubj	_	_
20	on	on	ADP	IN	_	22	case	_	_
21	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	22	det	_	_
22	ears	ear	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	19	nmod	_	_
23	was	be	AUX	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	24	cop	_	_
24	her	she	PRON	PRP	Case=Acc|Gender=Fem|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	26	obl	_	_
25	only	only	ADV	RB	_	26	advmod	_	_
26	answer	answer	VERB	VBP	Mood=Ind|Number=Plur|Person=3|Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Fin	13	conj	_	SpaceAfter=No
27	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	2	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

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| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **try** | past | Tephany |  |  |  |  |  | vn try-61.1 «NP V S\_INF»: agent=Agent clause=Eventuality |
| 2 | **stammer** *speech: other* *not said to happen* | to-infinitive | Tephany *not said here* | some excuse |  |  |  |  | vn manner\_speaking-37.3 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent excuse=Topic |
| 3 | **is** | past | Tephany's aunt |  |  |  |  | with rage; half, mad *property* | tree rules |
| 4 | **is a** | past | a box on the ears | Tephany |  |  |  |  | tree rules |
| 5 | **answer** *speech: assert* | present | Tephany's aunt *not said here* |  |  |  |  |  | vn reciprocate-112-1 «NP V»: agent=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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