---
title: When they were ready, one of the king’s special servants entered, an… — The Lilac Fairy Book · tree and pragmatics
description: When they were ready, one of the king’s special servants entered, and took them into a small hall, where dinner was laid, and this pleased them better than anything else. Who acts: servants. A sentence of «The Lilac Fairy Book» by Andrew Lang, The Lilac Fairy Book, part 7, with its dependency tree a
---

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# The Lilac Fairy Book, The Lilac Fairy Book, part 7, sentence 49

<!-- .ven lang=en -->
When they were ready, one of the king’s special servants entered, and took them into a small hall, where dinner was laid, and this pleased them better than anything else.

<!-- .vintro -->
**Who acts:** servants · **What happens:** be, enter, take, lay · **To what, where:** one, servants, small hall, dinner

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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 (servants), what happens, when and where, as Mova's frames read it from the tree.

<!-- .note-en -->
**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:pg3454:7:49
# text = When they were ready, one of the king’s special servants entered, and took them into a small hall, where dinner was laid, and this pleased them better than anything else.
1	When	when	ADV	WRB	PronType=Int	4	advmod	_	_
2	they	they	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Number=Plur|Person=3|PronType=Prs	4	nsubj	_	_
3	were	be	AUX	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Plur|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	4	cop	_	_
4	ready	ready	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	13	advcl	_	SpaceAfter=No
5	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	6	punct	_	_
6	one	one	NUM	CD	NumForm=Word|NumType=Card	13	obl	_	_
7	of	of	ADP	IN	_	12	case	_	_
8	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	9	det	_	_
9	king	king	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	12	nmod:poss	_	SpaceAfter=No
10	’s	's	PART	POS	_	9	case	_	_
11	special	special	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	12	amod	_	_
12	servants	servant	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	13	obl	_	_
13	entered	enter	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=1|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	0	root	_	SpaceAfter=No
14	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	16	punct	_	_
15	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	16	cc	_	_
16	took	take	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=1|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	13	advcl	_	_
17	them	they	PRON	PRP	Case=Acc|Number=Plur|Person=3|PronType=Prs	16	obj	_	_
18	into	into	ADP	IN	_	21	case	_	_
19	a	a	DET	DT	Definite=Ind|PronType=Art	21	det	_	_
20	small	small	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	21	amod	_	_
21	hall	hall	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	16	obl	_	SpaceAfter=No
22	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	26	punct	_	_
23	where	where	ADV	WRB	PronType=Rel	26	advmod	_	_
24	dinner	dinner	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	26	nsubj:pass	_	_
25	was	be	AUX	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	26	aux:pass	_	_
26	laid	lay	VERB	VBN	Tense=Past|VerbForm=Part|Voice=Pass	21	acl:relcl	_	SpaceAfter=No
27	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	30	punct	_	_
28	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	30	cc	_	_
29	this	this	PRON	DT	Number=Sing|PronType=Dem	30	nsubj	_	_
30	pleased	pleased	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	16	conj	_	_
31	them	they	PRON	PRP	Case=Acc|Number=Plur|Person=3|PronType=Prs	30	obj	_	_
32	better	well	ADV	RBR	Degree=Cmp	30	advmod	_	_
33	than	than	ADP	IN	_	34	case	_	_
34	anything	anything	PRON	NN	Number=Sing|PronType=Ind	32	obl	_	_
35	else	else	ADV	RB	_	34	advmod	_	SpaceAfter=No
36	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	13	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

<!-- .fr -->
| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **is** | past | servants *= servant* |  |  |  |  | ready *property* | tree rules |
| 2 | **enter** | past |  | one |  |  |  | of the king's special servants | vn escape-51.1-1-2 «NP V PP.initial\_location»: agent=Theme of servant=Initial\_Location |
| 3 | **take** | past |  | servants *= servant* |  | a small hall |  |  | vn bring-11.3 «NP V NP PP.destination»: agent=Agent they=Theme into hall=Destination |
| 4 | **lay** | past · passive |  | dinner |  |  |  |  | vn create-26.4 «NP V NP»: subject=Result |

<!-- .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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