---
title: ‘When first I came hither,’ said he, ‘the plain was bare save for on… — The Lilac Fairy Book · tree and pragmatics
description: ‘When first I came hither,’ said he, ‘the plain was bare save for one oak sapling, which grew up to be an oak with a hundred branches. Who acts: I, race, plain, one oak sapling. A sentence of «The Lilac Fairy Book» by Andrew Lang, The Lilac Fairy Book, part 39, with its dependency tree and the pragm
---

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# The Lilac Fairy Book, The Lilac Fairy Book, part 39, sentence 105

<!-- .ven lang=en -->
‘When first I came hither,’ said he, ‘the plain was bare save for one oak sapling, which grew up to be an oak with a hundred branches.

<!-- .vintro -->
**Who acts:** I, race, plain, one oak sapling · **What happens:** come, say, be, grow up · **To what, where:** bare save, oak · **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 39. The page gives its syntax tree — a dependency tree in the style of Universal Dependencies — and its pragmatics clause by clause: who acts (I, race, plain, one oak sapling), 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:pg3454:39:105
# text = ‘When first I came hither,’ said he, ‘the plain was bare save for one oak sapling, which grew up to be an oak with a hundred branches.
1	‘	'	PUNCT	``	_	5	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
2	When	when	ADV	WRB	PronType=Int	3	advmod	_	_
3	first	first	ADV	RB	NumForm=Word|NumType=Ord	5	advmod	_	_
4	I	I	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Number=Sing|Person=1|PronType=Prs	5	nsubj	_	_
5	came	come	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=1|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	9	advcl	_	_
6	hither	hither	ADV	RB	_	5	advmod	_	SpaceAfter=No
7	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	5	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
8	’	'	PUNCT	''	_	5	punct	_	_
9	said	say	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	0	root	_	_
10	he	he	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	9	nsubj	_	SpaceAfter=No
11	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	17	punct	_	_
12	‘	'	PUNCT	``	_	17	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
13	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	14	det	_	_
14	plain	plain	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	17	nsubj	_	_
15	was	be	AUX	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	17	cop	_	_
16	bare	bare	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	17	amod	_	_
17	save	save	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	9	ccomp	_	_
18	for	for	ADP	IN	_	21	case	_	_
19	one	one	NUM	CD	NumForm=Word|NumType=Card	21	nummod	_	_
20	oak	oak	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	21	compound	_	_
21	sapling	sapling	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	17	nmod	_	SpaceAfter=No
22	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	24	punct	_	_
23	which	which	PRON	WDT	PronType=Rel	24	nsubj	_	_
24	grew	grow	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	21	acl:relcl	_	_
25	up	up	ADP	RP	_	24	compound:prt	_	_
26	to	to	PART	TO	_	29	mark	_	_
27	be	be	AUX	VB	VerbForm=Inf	29	cop	_	_
28	an	a	DET	DT	Definite=Ind|PronType=Art	29	det	_	_
29	oak	oak	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	24	advcl	_	_
30	with	with	ADP	IN	_	33	case	_	_
31	a	a	DET	DT	Definite=Ind|PronType=Art	32	det	_	_
32	hundred	hundred	NUM	CD	NumForm=Word|NumType=Card	33	nummod	_	_
33	branches	branch	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	29	nmod	_	SpaceAfter=No
34	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	9	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

<!-- .fr -->
| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **come** | past | I |  |  |  |  | first, hither *property* | vn escape-51.1-1 «NP V»: agent=Theme |
| 2 | **say** *speech: assert* | past | race |  |  |  |  |  | vn say-37.7-1-1 «NP V that S»: agent=Agent |
| 3 | **is a** | past | the plain | bare save |  |  |  | for one oak sapling | tree rules |
| 4 | **grow up** | past | one oak sapling |  |  |  |  |  | vn appear-48.1.1 «NP V»: agent=Theme |
| 5 | **is a** | to-infinitive | one oak sapling *not said here* | a oak |  |  |  | with hundred branches | tree rules |

<!-- .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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