---
title: ‘It is no affair of ours,’ and the conversation dropped once more, b… — The Lilac Fairy Book · tree and pragmatics
description: ‘It is no affair of ours,’ and the conversation dropped once more, but as time went on, the woman spoke less and less, and seemed so wretched that her husband grew quite frightened about her. Who acts: dinner, affair, woman, husband. A sentence of «The Lilac Fairy Book» by Andrew Lang, The Lilac Fai
---

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# The Lilac Fairy Book, The Lilac Fairy Book, part 7, sentence 74

<!-- .ven lang=en -->
‘It is no affair of ours,’ and the conversation dropped once more, but as time went on, the woman spoke less and less, and seemed so wretched that her husband grew quite frightened about her.

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**Who acts:** dinner, affair, woman, husband · **What happens:** be, drop, go on, speak, seem, grow · **To what, where:** affair · **Speech:** someone speaks here

<!-- .vabout -->
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 (dinner, affair, woman, husband), 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:pg3454:7:74
# text = ‘It is no affair of ours,’ and the conversation dropped once more, but as time went on, the woman spoke less and less, and seemed so wretched that her husband grew quite frightened about her.
1	‘	'	PUNCT	``	_	5	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
2	It	it	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Gender=Neut|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	5	nsubj	_	_
3	is	be	AUX	VBZ	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Fin	5	cop	_	_
4	no	no	DET	DT	PronType=Neg	5	det	_	_
5	affair	affair	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	13	nsubj	_	_
6	of	of	ADP	IN	_	7	case	_	_
7	ours	our	PRON	PRP	Number=Plur|Person=1|Poss=Yes|PronType=Prs	5	nmod	_	SpaceAfter=No
8	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	5	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
9	’	'	PUNCT	''	_	5	punct	_	_
10	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	12	cc	_	_
11	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	12	det	_	_
12	conversation	conversation	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	5	conj	_	_
13	dropped	drop	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	0	root	_	_
14	once	once	ADV	RB	NumForm=Word|NumType=Mult	15	advmod	_	_
15	more	more	ADV	RBR	Degree=Cmp	13	advmod	_	SpaceAfter=No
16	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	25	punct	_	_
17	but	but	CCONJ	CC	_	25	cc	_	_
18	as	as	SCONJ	IN	_	20	mark	_	_
19	time	time	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	20	obl:unmarked	_	_
20	went	go	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=1|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	25	advcl	_	_
21	on	on	ADV	RB	_	20	advmod	_	SpaceAfter=No
22	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	20	punct	_	_
23	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	24	det	_	_
24	woman	woman	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	25	nsubj	_	_
25	spoke	speak	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	13	parataxis	_	_
26	less	less	ADV	RBR	Degree=Cmp	25	advmod	_	_
27	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	28	cc	_	_
28	less	less	ADV	RBR	Degree=Cmp	26	conj	_	SpaceAfter=No
29	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	31	punct	_	_
30	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	31	cc	_	_
31	seemed	seem	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	13	parataxis	_	_
32	so	so	ADV	RB	_	33	advmod	_	_
33	wretched	wretched	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	31	xcomp	_	_
34	that	that	SCONJ	IN	_	37	mark	_	_
35	her	her	PRON	PRP$	Case=Gen|Gender=Fem|Number=Sing|Person=3|Poss=Yes|PronType=Prs	36	nmod:poss	_	_
36	husband	husband	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	37	nsubj	_	_
37	grew	grow	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	33	advcl	_	_
38	quite	quite	ADV	RB	_	39	advmod	_	_
39	frightened	frightened	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	37	xcomp	_	_
40	about	about	ADP	IN	_	41	case	_	_
41	her	she	PRON	PRP	Case=Acc|Gender=Fem|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	39	obl	_	SpaceAfter=No
42	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	13	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

<!-- .fr -->
| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **is a** | present | dinner | no affair and the conversation |  |  |  | of ours | tree rules |
| 2 | **drop** | past | no affair and the conversation |  |  |  |  |  | vn roll-51.3.1 «NP.theme V»: agent=Theme |
| 3 | **go on** | past | the woman *not said here* |  |  |  | time |  | vn function-105.2.1 «NP V»: agent=Theme |
| 4 | **speak** *speech: other* | past | the woman |  |  |  |  | less *property* | vn talk-37.5 «NP V»: agent=Agent |
| 5 | **seem** | past |  |  |  |  |  | wretched *property* | vn seem-109-1-1-1 «NP V S\_INF»: agent=Theme |
| 6 | **grow** | past | woman's husband |  |  |  |  | frightened *property* | vn appear-48.1.1 «NP V»: agent=Theme |

<!-- .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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