---
title: They chattered much about many things, and told Halvor of this and o… — The Red Fairy Book · tree and pragmatics
description: They chattered much about many things, and told Halvor of this and of that, and at last he asked them if they had never had any child. Who acts: vessels, Halvor. 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 89

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They chattered much about many things, and told Halvor of this and of that, and at last he asked them if they had never had any child.

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**Who acts:** vessels, Halvor · **What happens:** chatter, tell, ask, not have · **To what, where:** Halvor, vessels, last, child · **Speech:** someone speaks here

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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 (vessels, Halvor), 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:pg540:6:89
# text = They chattered much about many things, and told Halvor of this and of that, and at last he asked them if they had never had any child.
1	They	they	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Number=Plur|Person=3|PronType=Prs	2	nsubj	_	_
2	chattered	chatter	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Plur|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	0	root	_	_
3	much	much	ADV	RB	_	2	advmod	_	_
4	about	about	ADP	IN	_	6	case	_	_
5	many	many	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	6	amod	_	_
6	things	thing	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	2	obl	_	SpaceAfter=No
7	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	9	punct	_	_
8	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	9	cc	_	_
9	told	tell	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	2	parataxis	_	_
10	Halvor	Halvor	PROPN	NNP	Number=Sing	9	iobj	_	_
11	of	of	ADP	IN	_	12	case	_	_
12	this	this	PRON	DT	Number=Sing|PronType=Dem	9	obl	_	_
13	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	15	cc	_	_
14	of	of	ADP	IN	_	15	case	_	_
15	that	that	PRON	DT	Number=Sing|PronType=Dem	9	conj	_	SpaceAfter=No
16	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	21	punct	_	_
17	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	21	cc	_	_
18	at	at	ADP	IN	_	19	case	_	_
19	last	last	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	21	obl	_	_
20	he	he	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	21	nsubj	_	_
21	asked	ask	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	2	parataxis	_	_
22	them	they	PRON	PRP	Case=Acc|Number=Plur|Person=3|PronType=Prs	21	obj	_	_
23	if	if	SCONJ	IN	_	27	mark	_	_
24	they	they	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Number=Plur|Person=3|PronType=Prs	27	nsubj	_	_
25	had	have	AUX	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Plur|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	27	aux	_	_
26	never	never	ADV	RB	PronType=Neg	27	advmod	_	_
27	had	have	VERB	VBN	Tense=Past|VerbForm=Part	21	ccomp	_	_
28	any	any	DET	DT	PronType=Ind	29	det	_	_
29	child	child	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	27	obj	_	SpaceAfter=No
30	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	2	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

<!-- .fr -->
| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **chatter** | past | vessels *= vessel* |  |  |  |  | about many things | vn chit\_chat-37.6 «NP V PP.topic»: agent=Agent about thing=Topic |
| 2 | **tell** *speech: assert* | past |  |  | Halvor |  |  | of this | vn transfer\_mesg-37.1.1-1-1 «NP V NP.recipient»: agent=Agent halvor=Recipient |
| 3 | **ask** *speech: ask* | past | Halvor |  | vessels *= vessel* | last |  |  | vn inquire-37.1.2 «NP V NP whether S»: agent=Agent they=Recipient clause=Topic |
| 4 | **not** **have** *a condition, not said to happen* | past · perfect | vessels *= vessel* | any child |  |  |  |  | vn birth-28.2-1 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent child=Patient |

<!-- .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 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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