---
title: ‘The donkey expected that as soon as they were left alone the lion w… — The Lilac Fairy Book · tree and pragmatics
description: ‘The donkey expected that as soon as they were left alone the lion would begin to speak of their marriage, and where they should live, but as he said nothing she looked up. Who acts: donkey, lion, visitors. A sentence of «The Lilac Fairy Book» by Andrew Lang, The Lilac Fairy Book, part 6, with its d
---

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[Mova](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/) · [this page in HTML](https://mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg3454/6/17/)

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# The Lilac Fairy Book, The Lilac Fairy Book, part 6, sentence 17

<!-- .ven lang=en -->
‘The donkey expected that as soon as they were left alone the lion would begin to speak of their marriage, and where they should live, but as he said nothing she looked up.

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**Who acts:** donkey, lion, visitors · **What happens:** expect, leave, begin, speak, live, say · **To what, where:** visitors, nothing · **Speech:** someone speaks here

<!-- .vabout -->
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 (donkey, lion, visitors), 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:pg3454:6:17
# text = ‘The donkey expected that as soon as they were left alone the lion would begin to speak of their marriage, and where they should live, but as he said nothing she looked up.
1	‘	'	PUNCT	``	_	4	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
2	The	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	3	det	_	_
3	donkey	donkey	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	4	nsubj	_	_
4	expected	expect	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	0	root	_	_
5	that	that	SCONJ	IN	_	11	mark	_	_
6	as	as	ADV	RB	_	7	advmod	_	_
7	soon	soon	ADV	RB	Degree=Pos	11	advmod	_	_
8	as	as	SCONJ	IN	_	11	mark	_	_
9	they	they	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Number=Plur|Person=3|PronType=Prs	11	nsubj	_	_
10	were	be	AUX	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Plur|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	11	aux:pass	_	_
11	left	leave	VERB	VBN	Tense=Past|VerbForm=Part|Voice=Pass	16	advcl	_	_
12	alone	alone	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	11	xcomp	_	_
13	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	14	det	_	_
14	lion	lion	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	16	nsubj	_	_
15	would	would	AUX	MD	VerbForm=Fin	16	aux	_	_
16	begin	begin	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	4	ccomp	_	_
17	to	to	PART	TO	_	18	mark	_	_
18	speak	speak	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	16	xcomp	_	_
19	of	of	ADP	IN	_	21	case	_	_
20	their	their	PRON	PRP$	Case=Gen|Number=Plur|Person=3|Poss=Yes|PronType=Prs	21	nmod:poss	_	_
21	marriage	marriage	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	18	obl	_	SpaceAfter=No
22	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	27	punct	_	_
23	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	27	cc	_	_
24	where	where	ADV	WRB	PronType=Rel	27	advmod	_	_
25	they	they	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Number=Plur|Person=3|PronType=Prs	27	nsubj	_	_
26	should	should	AUX	MD	VerbForm=Fin	27	aux	_	_
27	live	live	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	16	conj	_	SpaceAfter=No
28	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	32	punct	_	_
29	but	but	CCONJ	CC	_	32	cc	_	_
30	as	as	SCONJ	IN	_	32	mark	_	_
31	he	he	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	32	nsubj	_	_
32	said	say	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	4	conj	_	_
33	nothing	nothing	PRON	NN	Number=Sing|PronType=Neg	32	obj	_	_
34	she	she	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Gender=Fem|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	35	nsubj	_	_
35	looked	look	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	33	acl:relcl	_	_
36	up	up	ADP	RP	_	35	compound:prt	_	SpaceAfter=No
37	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	4	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

<!-- .fr -->
| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **expect** | past | the donkey |  |  |  |  |  | vn conjecture-29.5-1 «NP V that S»: agent=Agent clause=Theme |
| 2 | **leave** | past · passive |  | visitors *= visitor* |  |  |  | alone, soon *property* | vn keep-15.2 «NP V NP»: subject=Theme |
| 3 | **begin** | would | the lion |  |  |  |  |  | vn begin-55.1-1-1 «NP V S\_INF»: agent=Agent clause=Eventuality |
| 4 | **speak** *speech: other* | to-infinitive | the lion *not said here* |  |  |  |  | of visitors's marriage | vn talk-37.5 «NP V»: agent=Agent |
| 5 | **live** | should | visitors *= visitor* |  |  |  |  |  | vn exist-47.1-1 «NP V»: agent=Theme |
| 6 | **say** *speech: assert* | past | lion | nothing |  |  |  |  | vn say-37.7-1-1 «NP V NP.topic»: agent=Agent nothing=Topic |
| 7 | **look up** | past | donkey |  |  |  |  |  | vn stimulus\_subject-30.4 «NP V PP.attribute»: agent=Stimulus |
| 8 | **marry** |  | visitors *= visitor* |  |  |  |  |  | nom marriage «state transitive»: poss=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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