---
title: A long time ago a little town made up of a collection of low huts st… — The Lilac Fairy Book · tree and pragmatics
description: A long time ago a little town made up of a collection of low huts stood in a tiny green valley at the foot of a cliff. Who acts: little town. A sentence of «The Lilac Fairy Book» by Andrew Lang, The Lilac Fairy Book, part 5, with its dependency tree and the pragmatics of every clause.
---

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# The Lilac Fairy Book, The Lilac Fairy Book, part 5, sentence 21

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A long time ago a little town made up of a collection of low huts stood in a tiny green valley at the foot of a cliff.

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**Who acts:** little town · **What happens:** make up, stand · **To what, where:** little town, tiny green valley

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This is a sentence of «The Lilac Fairy Book» by Andrew Lang, The Lilac Fairy Book, part 5. The page gives its syntax tree — a dependency tree in the style of Universal Dependencies — and its pragmatics clause by clause: who acts (little town), 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:pg3454:5:21
# text = A long time ago a little town made up of a collection of low huts stood in a tiny green valley at the foot of a cliff.
1	A	a	DET	DT	Definite=Ind|PronType=Art	3	det	_	_
2	long	long	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	3	amod	_	_
3	time	time	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	16	obl	_	_
4	ago	ago	ADV	RB	_	3	advmod	_	_
5	a	a	DET	DT	Definite=Ind|PronType=Art	7	det	_	_
6	little	little	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	7	amod	_	_
7	town	town	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	16	nsubj	_	_
8	made	make	VERB	VBN	Tense=Past|VerbForm=Part|Voice=Pass	7	acl	_	_
9	up	up	ADP	RP	_	8	compound:prt	_	_
10	of	of	ADP	IN	_	12	case	_	_
11	a	a	DET	DT	Definite=Ind|PronType=Art	12	det	_	_
12	collection	collection	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	8	obl	_	_
13	of	of	ADP	IN	_	15	case	_	_
14	low	low	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	15	amod	_	_
15	huts	hut	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	12	nmod	_	_
16	stood	stand	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	0	root	_	_
17	in	in	ADP	IN	_	21	case	_	_
18	a	a	DET	DT	Definite=Ind|PronType=Art	21	det	_	_
19	tiny	tiny	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	21	amod	_	_
20	green	green	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	21	amod	_	_
21	valley	valley	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	16	obl	_	_
22	at	at	ADP	IN	_	24	case	_	_
23	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	24	det	_	_
24	foot	foot	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	16	obl	_	_
25	of	of	ADP	IN	_	27	case	_	_
26	a	a	DET	DT	Definite=Ind|PronType=Art	27	det	_	_
27	cliff	cliff	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	24	nmod	_	SpaceAfter=No
28	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	16	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

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| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **make up** | participle |  | a little town *not said here* |  |  |  | of a collection of low huts | vn comprise-107.2-1 «NP V NP»: agent=Theme |
| 2 | **stand** | past | a little town |  |  | a tiny green valley | time | at the foot of a cliff | vn assuming\_position-50 «NP V PP.location»: agent=Agent in valley=Location |

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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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