---
title: He was wonderfully brave when he was in the midst of his companions… — The Lilac Fairy Book · tree and pragmatics
description: He was wonderfully brave when he was in the midst of his companions or at home with his brothers and sister, then he used often to say ‘One wolf is nothing, there ought to be at least four.’ Who acts: Walter, One wolf. A sentence of «The Lilac Fairy Book» by Andrew Lang, The Lilac Fairy Book, part 7
---

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# The Lilac Fairy Book, The Lilac Fairy Book, part 7, sentence 116

<!-- .ven lang=en -->
He was wonderfully brave when he was in the midst of his companions or at home with his brothers and sister, then he used often to say ‘One wolf is nothing, there ought to be at least four.’

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**Who acts:** Walter, One wolf · **What happens:** be, use, say · **To what, where:** midst, nothing, four, least · **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 7. The page gives its syntax tree — a dependency tree in the style of Universal Dependencies — and its pragmatics clause by clause: who acts (Walter, One wolf), 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:pg3454:7:116
# text = He was wonderfully brave when he was in the midst of his companions or at home with his brothers and sister, then he used often to say ‘One wolf is nothing, there ought to be at least four.’
1	He	he	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	4	nsubj	_	_
2	was	be	AUX	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	4	cop	_	_
3	wonderfully	wonderfully	ADV	RB	_	4	advmod	_	_
4	brave	brave	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	0	root	_	_
5	when	when	ADV	WRB	PronType=Int	10	advmod	_	_
6	he	he	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	10	nsubj	_	_
7	was	be	AUX	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	10	cop	_	_
8	in	in	ADP	IN	_	10	case	_	_
9	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	10	det	_	_
10	midst	midst	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	4	obl	_	_
11	of	of	ADP	IN	_	13	case	_	_
12	his	his	PRON	PRP$	Case=Gen|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|Poss=Yes|PronType=Prs	13	nmod:poss	_	_
13	companions	companion	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	10	nmod	_	_
14	or	or	CCONJ	CC	_	16	cc	_	_
15	at	at	ADP	IN	_	16	case	_	_
16	home	home	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	13	conj	_	_
17	with	with	ADP	IN	_	19	case	_	_
18	his	his	PRON	PRP$	Case=Gen|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|Poss=Yes|PronType=Prs	19	nmod:poss	_	_
19	brothers	brother	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	16	nmod	_	_
20	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	21	cc	_	_
21	sister	sister	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	19	conj	_	SpaceAfter=No
22	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	25	punct	_	_
23	then	then	ADV	RB	PronType=Dem	25	advmod	_	_
24	he	he	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	25	nsubj	_	_
25	used	use	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	4	conj	_	_
26	often	often	ADV	RB	_	25	advmod	_	_
27	to	to	PART	TO	_	28	mark	_	_
28	say	say	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	25	advcl	_	_
29	‘	'	PUNCT	``	_	33	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
30	One	one	NUM	CD	NumForm=Word|NumType=Card	31	nummod	_	_
31	wolf	wolf	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	33	nsubj	_	_
32	is	be	AUX	VBZ	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Fin	33	cop	_	_
33	nothing	nothing	PRON	NN	Number=Sing|PronType=Neg	28	ccomp	_	SpaceAfter=No
34	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	36	punct	_	_
35	there	there	PRON	EX	PronType=Dem	36	expl	_	_
36	ought	ought	AUX	MD	VerbForm=Fin	33	parataxis	_	_
37	to	to	PART	TO	_	41	mark	_	_
38	be	be	AUX	VB	VerbForm=Inf	41	cop	_	_
39	at	at	ADP	IN	_	40	case	_	_
40	least	least	ADJ	JJS	Degree=Sup	41	nmod	_	_
41	four	four	NUM	CD	NumForm=Word|NumType=Card	36	xcomp	_	SpaceAfter=No
42	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	4	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
43	’	'	PUNCT	''	_	4	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

<!-- .fr -->
| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **is** | past | Walter |  |  |  |  | brave, wonderfully *property* | tree rules |
| 2 | **is** | past | Walter |  |  | the midst |  | of Walter's companions or home with Walter's brothers and sister | tree rules |
| 3 | **use** | past | Walter |  |  |  | then | often *property* | vn eat-39.1 «NP V»: agent=Agent |
| 4 | **say** *speech: assert* | to-infinitive | Walter *not said here* |  |  |  |  |  | vn say-37.7-1-1 «NP V that S»: agent=Agent |
| 5 | **is a** | present | One wolf | nothing |  |  |  |  | tree rules |
| 6 | **is a** | to-infinitive | One wolf *not said here* | four |  | least |  |  | 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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