---
title: Ever since he had been a little boy he had been unwilling to do any… — The Red Fairy Book · tree and pragmatics
description: Ever since he had been a little boy he had been unwilling to do any work, and had just sat raking about among the ashes. Who acts: couple. A sentence of «The Red Fairy Book» by Andrew Lang, Soria Moria Castle, with its dependency tree and the pragmatics of every clause.
---

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# The Red Fairy Book, Soria Moria Castle, sentence 2

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Ever since he had been a little boy he had been unwilling to do any work, and had just sat raking about among the ashes.

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**Who acts:** couple · **What happens:** be, unwill, do, have, sit, rake · **To what, where:** little boy, work, ashes

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This is a sentence of «The Red Fairy Book» by Andrew Lang, Soria Moria Castle. The page gives its syntax tree — a dependency tree in the style of Universal Dependencies — and its pragmatics clause by clause: who acts (couple), 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:pg540:6:2
# text = Ever since he had been a little boy he had been unwilling to do any work, and had just sat raking about among the ashes.
1	Ever	ever	ADV	RB	PronType=Ind	8	advmod	_	_
2	since	since	SCONJ	IN	_	8	mark	_	_
3	he	he	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	8	nsubj	_	_
4	had	have	AUX	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	8	aux	_	_
5	been	be	AUX	VBN	Tense=Past|VerbForm=Part	8	cop	_	_
6	a	a	DET	DT	Definite=Ind|PronType=Art	8	det	_	_
7	little	little	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	8	amod	_	_
8	boy	boy	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	0	root	_	_
9	he	he	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	12	nsubj	_	_
10	had	have	AUX	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	12	aux	_	_
11	been	be	AUX	VBN	Tense=Past|VerbForm=Part	12	aux	_	_
12	unwilling	unwill	VERB	VBG	Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Part	8	acl:relcl	_	_
13	to	to	PART	TO	_	14	mark	_	_
14	do	do	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	12	xcomp	_	_
15	any	any	DET	DT	PronType=Ind	16	det	_	_
16	work	work	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	14	obj	_	SpaceAfter=No
17	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	19	punct	_	_
18	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	19	cc	_	_
19	had	have	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=1|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	12	parataxis	_	_
20	just	just	ADV	RB	_	21	advmod	_	_
21	sat	sit	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	19	ccomp	_	_
22	raking	rake	VERB	VBG	Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Part	21	advcl	_	_
23	about	about	ADV	RB	_	22	advmod	_	_
24	among	among	ADP	IN	_	26	case	_	_
25	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	26	det	_	_
26	ashes	ash	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	22	obl	_	SpaceAfter=No
27	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	8	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

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| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **is a** | past · perfect | couple | a little boy |  |  | ever |  | tree rules |
| 2 | **unwill** | past · perfect · progressive | couple | a little boy *not said here* |  |  |  |  | tree rules |
| 3 | **do** | to-infinitive | couple *not said here* | any work |  |  |  |  | vn act-114-1 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent work=Eventuality |
| 4 | **have** | past |  |  |  |  |  |  | tree rules |
| 5 | **sit** | past |  |  |  |  |  |  | vn assuming\_position-50 «NP V»: agent=Agent |
| 6 | **rake** | gerund |  |  |  | the ashes |  | about *property* | vn search-35.2 «NP V PP.location»: agent=Agent among ash=Location |

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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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