---
title: When they came to the mill Walter immediately asked if there had bee… — The Lilac Fairy Book · tree and pragmatics
description: When they came to the mill Walter immediately asked if there had been any wolves in the neighbourhood lately. Who acts: Wolves. A sentence of «The Lilac Fairy Book» by Andrew Lang, The Lilac Fairy Book, part 7, with its dependency tree and the pragmatics of every clause.
---

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# The Lilac Fairy Book, The Lilac Fairy Book, part 7, sentence 130

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When they came to the mill Walter immediately asked if there had been any wolves in the neighbourhood lately.

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**Who acts:** Wolves · **What happens:** come, ask, be · **To what, where:** mill

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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 (Wolves), 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:pg3454:7:130
# text = When they came to the mill Walter immediately asked if there had been any wolves in the neighbourhood lately.
1	When	when	ADV	WRB	PronType=Int	3	advmod	_	_
2	they	they	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Number=Plur|Person=3|PronType=Prs	3	nsubj	_	_
3	came	come	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Plur|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	9	advcl	_	_
4	to	to	ADP	IN	_	6	case	_	_
5	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	6	det	_	_
6	mill	mill	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	3	obl	_	_
7	Walter	Walter	PROPN	NNP	Number=Sing	6	appos	_	_
8	immediately	immediately	ADV	RB	_	9	advmod	_	_
9	asked	ask	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=1|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	0	root	_	_
10	if	if	SCONJ	IN	_	13	mark	_	_
11	there	there	PRON	EX	PronType=Dem	13	expl	_	_
12	had	have	AUX	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Plur|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	13	aux	_	_
13	been	be	VERB	VBN	Tense=Past|VerbForm=Part	9	ccomp	_	_
14	any	any	DET	DT	PronType=Ind	15	det	_	_
15	wolves	wolf	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	13	nsubj	_	_
16	in	in	ADP	IN	_	18	case	_	_
17	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	18	det	_	_
18	neighbourhood	neighbourhood	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	15	nmod	_	_
19	lately	lately	ADV	RB	_	13	advmod	_	SpaceAfter=No
20	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	9	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

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| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **come** | past | Wolves *= wolf* |  |  | the mill |  |  | vn escape-51.1-1 «NP V PP.initial\_location»: agent=Theme to mill=Initial\_Location |
| 2 | **ask** *speech: ask* | past |  |  |  |  |  | immediately *property* | vn inquire-37.1.2 «NP V how S»: agent=Agent clause=Topic |
| 3 | **be** *a condition, not said to happen* | past · perfect | any wolves in the neighbourhood |  |  | there |  | lately *property* | vn exist-47.1 «NP V»: agent=Theme |

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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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