---
title: They talked and they talked, but we needn’t mind what they said till… — The Lilac Fairy Book · tree and pragmatics
description: They talked and they talked, but we needn’t mind what they said till Friday night came, when both were standing where the mountain road crosses the one going to Ross. Who acts: women, we, Friday night, both. A sentence of «The Lilac Fairy Book» by Andrew Lang, The Lilac Fairy Book, part 6, with its 
---

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# The Lilac Fairy Book, The Lilac Fairy Book, part 6, sentence 118

<!-- .ven lang=en -->
They talked and they talked, but we needn’t mind what they said till Friday night came, when both were standing where the mountain road crosses the one going to Ross.

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**Who acts:** women, we, Friday night, both, mountain road, one · **What happens:** talk, not mind, say, come, stand, cross · **To what, where:** one, Ross · **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 6. The page gives its syntax tree — a dependency tree in the style of Universal Dependencies — and its pragmatics clause by clause: who acts (women, we, Friday night, both), 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:pg3454:6:118
# text = They talked and they talked, but we needn’t mind what they said till Friday night came, when both were standing where the mountain road crosses the one going to Ross.
1	They	they	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Number=Plur|Person=3|PronType=Prs	2	nsubj	_	_
2	talked	talk	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Plur|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	0	root	_	_
3	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	5	cc	_	_
4	they	they	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Number=Plur|Person=3|PronType=Prs	5	nsubj	_	_
5	talked	talk	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Plur|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	2	conj	_	SpaceAfter=No
6	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	11	punct	_	_
7	but	but	CCONJ	CC	_	11	cc	_	_
8	we	we	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Number=Plur|Person=1|PronType=Prs	11	nsubj	_	_
9	need	need	AUX	VBP	Mood=Ind|Number=Plur|Person=1|Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Fin	11	aux	_	SpaceAfter=No
10	n’t	not	PART	RB	Polarity=Neg	11	advmod	_	_
11	mind	mind	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	2	parataxis	_	_
12	what	what	PRON	WP	PronType=Int	14	obj	_	_
13	they	they	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Number=Plur|Person=3|PronType=Prs	14	nsubj	_	_
14	said	say	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Plur|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	11	ccomp	_	_
15	till	till	SCONJ	IN	_	18	mark	_	_
16	Friday	Friday	PROPN	NNP	Number=Sing	17	compound	_	_
17	night	night	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	18	nsubj	_	_
18	came	come	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	14	ccomp	_	SpaceAfter=No
19	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	23	punct	_	_
20	when	when	ADV	WRB	PronType=Int	23	advmod	_	_
21	both	both	DET	DT	PronType=Tot	23	nsubj	_	_
22	were	be	AUX	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Plur|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	23	aux	_	_
23	standing	stand	VERB	VBG	Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Part	18	advcl	_	_
24	where	where	ADV	WRB	PronType=Rel	28	advmod	_	_
25	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	27	det	_	_
26	mountain	mountain	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	27	compound	_	_
27	road	road	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	28	nsubj	_	_
28	crosses	cross	VERB	VBZ	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Fin	23	advcl	_	_
29	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	30	det	_	_
30	one	one	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	28	obj	_	_
31	going	go	VERB	VBG	VerbForm=Ger	30	acl	_	_
32	to	to	ADP	IN	_	33	case	_	_
33	Ross	Ross	PROPN	NNP	Number=Sing	31	obl	_	SpaceAfter=No
34	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	2	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

<!-- .fr -->
| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **talk** | past | women *= woman* |  |  |  |  |  | vn talk-37.5 «NP V»: agent=Agent |
| 2 | **talk** | past | women *= woman* |  |  |  |  |  | vn talk-37.5 «NP V»: agent=Agent |
| 3 | **not** **mind** | present | we |  |  |  |  |  | vn care-88.1 «NP V whether/if S»: agent=Experiencer clause=Stimulus |
| 4 | **say** *speech: assert* | past | women *= woman* |  |  |  |  |  | tree rules |
| 5 | **come** | past | Friday night |  |  |  |  |  | vn escape-51.1-1 «NP V»: agent=Theme |
| 6 | **stand** | past · progressive | both |  |  |  |  |  | vn assuming\_position-50 «NP V»: agent=Agent |
| 7 | **cross** | present | the mountain road | the one |  |  |  |  | vn crane-40.3.2 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent one=Patient |
| 8 | **go** | gerund | the one *not said here* |  |  | Ross |  |  | vn escape-51.1-1 «NP V PP.initial\_location»: agent=Theme to ross=Initial\_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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