---
title: They sat down to supper, and ate with such a good appetite as please… — The Blue Fairy Book · tree and pragmatics
description: They sat down to supper, and ate with such a good appetite as pleased both father and mother, whom they acquainted how frightened they were in the forest, speaking almost always all together. Who acts: makers. A sentence of «The Blue Fairy Book» by Andrew Lang, Little Thumb, with its dependency tree
---

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# The Blue Fairy Book, Little Thumb, sentence 45

<!-- .ven lang=en -->
They sat down to supper, and ate with such a good appetite as pleased both father and mother, whom they acquainted how frightened they were in the forest, speaking almost always all together.

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**Who acts:** makers · **What happens:** sit down, eat, acquaint, frighten, be, speak · **To what, where:** pleased father, forest · **Speech:** someone speaks here

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This is a sentence of «The Blue Fairy Book» by Andrew Lang, Little Thumb. The page gives its syntax tree — a dependency tree in the style of Universal Dependencies — and its pragmatics clause by clause: who acts (makers), 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:pg503:33:45
# text = They sat down to supper, and ate with such a good appetite as pleased both father and mother, whom they acquainted how frightened they were in the forest, speaking almost always all together.
1	They	they	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Number=Plur|Person=3|PronType=Prs	2	nsubj	_	_
2	sat	sit	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Plur|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	0	root	_	_
3	down	down	ADP	RP	_	2	compound:prt	_	_
4	to	to	ADP	IN	_	5	case	_	_
5	supper	supper	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	2	obl	_	SpaceAfter=No
6	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	8	punct	_	_
7	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	8	cc	_	_
8	ate	eat	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Plur|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	2	conj	_	_
9	with	with	ADP	IN	_	13	case	_	_
10	such	such	DET	PDT	PronType=Ind	13	det:predet	_	_
11	a	a	DET	DT	Definite=Ind|PronType=Art	13	det	_	_
12	good	good	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	13	amod	_	_
13	appetite	appetite	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	8	obl	_	_
14	as	as	ADP	IN	_	17	case	_	_
15	pleased	pleased	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	17	amod	_	_
16	both	both	CCONJ	CC	_	17	cc:preconj	_	_
17	father	father	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	8	obl	_	_
18	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	19	cc	_	_
19	mother	mother	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	17	conj	_	SpaceAfter=No
20	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	23	punct	_	_
21	whom	whom	PRON	WP	PronType=Rel	23	obj	_	_
22	they	they	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Number=Plur|Person=3|PronType=Prs	23	nsubj	_	_
23	acquainted	acquaint	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Plur|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	17	conj	_	_
24	how	how	ADV	WRB	PronType=Int	25	advmod	_	_
25	frightened	frighten	VERB	VBN	Tense=Past|VerbForm=Part|Voice=Pass	30	advcl	_	_
26	they	they	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Number=Plur|Person=3|PronType=Prs	30	nsubj	_	_
27	were	be	AUX	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Plur|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	30	cop	_	_
28	in	in	ADP	IN	_	30	case	_	_
29	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	30	det	_	_
30	forest	forest	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	23	ccomp	_	SpaceAfter=No
31	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	32	punct	_	_
32	speaking	speak	VERB	VBG	Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Part	8	advcl	_	_
33	almost	almost	ADV	RB	_	34	advmod	_	_
34	always	always	ADV	RB	PronType=Tot	32	advmod	_	_
35	all	all	ADV	RB	_	36	advmod	_	_
36	together	together	ADV	RB	_	32	advmod	_	SpaceAfter=No
37	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	2	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

<!-- .fr -->
| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **sit down** | past | makers *= maker* |  |  |  |  | to supper | vn assuming\_position-50 «NP V»: agent=Agent |
| 2 | **eat** | past | makers *= maker* *not said here* |  |  |  |  | with such good appetite; as pleased father and mother | vn eat-39.1-1 «NP V»: agent=Agent |
| 3 | **acquaint** *speech: other* | past | makers *= maker* |  | pleased father and mother |  |  |  | vn tell-37.2 «NP V NP.recipient»: agent=Agent whom=Recipient |
| 4 | **frighten** | participle | makers *= maker* *not said here* |  |  |  |  |  | vn amuse-31.1 «NP V ADV-Middle»: agent=Experiencer |
| 5 | **is** | past | makers *= maker* |  |  | the forest |  |  | tree rules |
| 6 | **speak** *speech: other* | gerund | makers *= maker* *not said here* |  |  |  |  | always, together *property* | vn talk-37.5 «NP V»: agent=Agent |

<!-- .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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