---
title: But when evening was drawing near she said that it would now be bett… — The Blue Fairy Book · tree and pragmatics
description: But when evening was drawing near she said that it would now be better for him to clean out the stable before the giant came home. Who acts: many, it, giant. A sentence of «The Blue Fairy Book» by Andrew Lang, The Master-maid, part 1, with its dependency tree and the pragmatics of every clause.
---

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# The Blue Fairy Book, The Master-maid, part 1, sentence 32

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But when evening was drawing near she said that it would now be better for him to clean out the stable before the giant came home.

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**Who acts:** many, it, giant · **What happens:** draw, say, be, clean out, come · **To what, where:** stable · **Speech:** someone speaks here

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This is a sentence of «The Blue Fairy Book» by Andrew Lang, The Master-maid, part 1. The page gives its syntax tree — a dependency tree in the style of Universal Dependencies — and its pragmatics clause by clause: who acts (many, it, giant), 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:pg503:17:32
# text = But when evening was drawing near she said that it would now be better for him to clean out the stable before the giant came home.
1	But	but	CCONJ	CC	_	8	cc	_	_
2	when	when	ADV	WRB	PronType=Int	5	advmod	_	_
3	evening	evening	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	5	compound	_	_
4	was	be	AUX	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	5	aux	_	_
5	drawing	draw	VERB	VBG	Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Part	8	advcl	_	_
6	near	near	ADP	IN	_	8	mark	_	_
7	she	she	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Gender=Fem|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	8	nsubj	_	_
8	said	say	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	0	root	_	_
9	that	that	SCONJ	IN	_	14	mark	_	_
10	it	it	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Gender=Neut|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	14	nsubj	_	_
11	would	would	AUX	MD	VerbForm=Fin	14	aux	_	_
12	now	now	ADV	RB	PronType=Dem	14	advmod	_	_
13	be	be	AUX	VB	VerbForm=Inf	14	cop	_	_
14	better	good	ADJ	JJR	Degree=Cmp	8	parataxis	_	_
15	for	for	SCONJ	IN	_	18	mark	_	_
16	him	he	PRON	PRP	Case=Acc|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	18	nsubj	_	_
17	to	to	PART	TO	_	18	mark	_	_
18	clean	clean	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	14	csubj	_	_
19	out	out	ADP	RP	_	18	compound:prt	_	_
20	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	21	det	_	_
21	stable	stable	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	18	obj	_	_
22	before	before	SCONJ	IN	_	25	mark	_	_
23	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	24	det	_	_
24	giant	giant	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	25	nsubj	_	_
25	came	come	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	18	advcl	_	_
26	home	home	ADV	RB	_	25	advmod	_	SpaceAfter=No
27	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	8	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

<!-- .fr -->
| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **draw** | past · progressive | many *not said here* |  |  |  |  |  | vn scribble-25.2-1 «NP V»: agent=Agent |
| 2 | **say** *speech: assert* | past | many |  |  |  |  |  | vn say-37.7-1-1 «NP V that S»: agent=Agent |
| 3 | **is** | would | it |  |  |  | now | good *property* | tree rules |
| 4 | **clean out** | to-infinitive | giant | the stable |  |  |  |  | vn other\_cos-45.4 «NP V NP.patient»: agent=Agent stable=Patient |
| 5 | **come** | past | the giant |  |  |  |  | home *property* | vn escape-51.1-1 «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 Blue Fairy Book» by Andrew Lang, Project Gutenberg book 503 (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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