---
title: But the fairies said they had left their book of magic at home, and… — The Red Fairy Book · tree and pragmatics
description: But the fairies said they had left their book of magic at home, and they would come another day and tell her. Who acts: fairies. A sentence of «The Red Fairy Book» by Andrew Lang, Princess Rosette, with its dependency tree and the pragmatics of every clause.
---

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# The Red Fairy Book, Princess Rosette, sentence 7

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But the fairies said they had left their book of magic at home, and they would come another day and tell her.

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**Who acts:** fairies · **What happens:** say, leave, come, tell · **To what, where:** book, home, Rosette · **Speech:** someone speaks here

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This is a sentence of «The Red Fairy Book» by Andrew Lang, Princess Rosette. The page gives its syntax tree — a dependency tree in the style of Universal Dependencies — and its pragmatics clause by clause: who acts (fairies), 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:pg540:11:7
# text = But the fairies said they had left their book of magic at home, and they would come another day and tell her.
1	But	but	CCONJ	CC	_	4	cc	_	_
2	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	3	det	_	_
3	fairies	fairy	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	4	nsubj	_	_
4	said	say	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Plur|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	0	root	_	_
5	they	they	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Number=Plur|Person=3|PronType=Prs	7	nsubj	_	_
6	had	have	AUX	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Plur|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	7	aux	_	_
7	left	leave	VERB	VBN	Tense=Past|VerbForm=Part	4	ccomp	_	_
8	their	their	PRON	PRP$	Case=Gen|Number=Plur|Person=3|Poss=Yes|PronType=Prs	9	nmod:poss	_	_
9	book	book	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	7	obj	_	_
10	of	of	ADP	IN	_	11	case	_	_
11	magic	magic	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	9	nmod	_	_
12	at	at	ADP	IN	_	13	case	_	_
13	home	home	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	7	obl	_	SpaceAfter=No
14	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	18	punct	_	_
15	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	18	cc	_	_
16	they	they	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Number=Plur|Person=3|PronType=Prs	18	nsubj	_	_
17	would	would	AUX	MD	VerbForm=Fin	18	aux	_	_
18	come	come	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	4	parataxis	_	_
19	another	another	DET	DT	PronType=Ind	20	det	_	_
20	day	day	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	18	obl:unmarked	_	_
21	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	22	cc	_	_
22	tell	tell	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	18	conj	_	_
23	her	she	PRON	PRP	Case=Acc|Gender=Fem|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	22	iobj	_	SpaceAfter=No
24	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	4	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

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| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **say** *speech: assert* | past | the fairies |  |  |  |  |  | vn say-37.7-1-1 «NP V that S»: agent=Agent clause=Topic |
| 2 | **leave** | past · perfect | fairies *= fairy* | fairies's book of magic |  | home |  |  | vn keep-15.2 «NP V NP PP.location»: agent=Agent book=Theme at home=Location |
| 3 | **come** | would | fairies *= fairy* |  |  |  | day |  | vn escape-51.1-1 «NP V»: agent=Theme |
| 4 | **tell** *speech: assert* | infinitive | fairies *= fairy* *not said here* |  | Rosette |  |  |  | vn transfer\_mesg-37.1.1-1-1 «NP V NP.recipient»: agent=Agent she=Recipient |

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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 Red Fairy Book» by Andrew Lang, Project Gutenberg book 540 (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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