---
title: At last the little mice went off also, and the tree said, sighing: ‘… — The Pink Fairy Book · tree and pragmatics
description: At last the little mice went off also, and the tree said, sighing: ‘Really it was very pleasant when the lively little mice sat round and listened whilst I told them stories. Who acts: last little mice, tree, tallow, lively little mice. A sentence of «The Pink Fairy Book» by Andrew Lang, The Pink Fa
---

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[Mova](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/) · [this page in HTML](https://mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg5615/11/156/)

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# The Pink Fairy Book, The Pink Fairy Book, part 11, sentence 156

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At last the little mice went off also, and the tree said, sighing: ‘Really it was very pleasant when the lively little mice sat round and listened whilst I told them stories.

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**Who acts:** last little mice, tree, tallow, lively little mice, I · **What happens:** go off, say, sigh, be, sit, listen · **To what, where:** stories, rats · **Speech:** someone speaks here

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This is a sentence of «The Pink Fairy Book» by Andrew Lang, The Pink Fairy Book, part 11. The page gives its syntax tree — a dependency tree in the style of Universal Dependencies — and its pragmatics clause by clause: who acts (last little mice, tree, tallow, lively little mice), 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:pg5615:11:156
# text = At last the little mice went off also, and the tree said, sighing: ‘Really it was very pleasant when the lively little mice sat round and listened whilst I told them stories.
1	At	at	ADP	IN	_	2	case	_	_
2	last	last	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	5	amod	_	_
3	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	5	det	_	_
4	little	little	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	5	amod	_	_
5	mice	mouse	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	6	nsubj	_	_
6	went	go	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Plur|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	0	root	_	_
7	off	off	ADP	RP	_	6	compound:prt	_	_
8	also	also	ADV	RB	_	6	advmod	_	SpaceAfter=No
9	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	13	punct	_	_
10	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	13	cc	_	_
11	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	12	det	_	_
12	tree	tree	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	13	nsubj	_	_
13	said	say	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	6	parataxis	_	SpaceAfter=No
14	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	15	punct	_	_
15	sighing	sigh	VERB	VBG	VerbForm=Ger	13	advcl	_	SpaceAfter=No
16	:	:	PUNCT	:	_	22	punct	_	_
17	‘	'	PUNCT	``	_	22	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
18	Really	really	ADV	RB	_	22	advmod	_	_
19	it	it	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Gender=Neut|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	22	nsubj	_	_
20	was	be	AUX	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	22	cop	_	_
21	very	very	ADV	RB	_	22	advmod	_	_
22	pleasant	pleasant	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	15	conj	_	_
23	when	when	ADV	WRB	PronType=Int	28	advmod	_	_
24	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	27	det	_	_
25	lively	lively	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	27	amod	_	_
26	little	little	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	27	amod	_	_
27	mice	mouse	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	28	nsubj	_	_
28	sat	sit	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Plur|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	22	advcl	_	_
29	round	round	ADV	RB	_	28	advmod	_	_
30	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	31	cc	_	_
31	listened	listen	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Plur|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	28	conj	_	_
32	whilst	whilst	SCONJ	IN	_	34	mark	_	_
33	I	I	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Number=Sing|Person=1|PronType=Prs	34	nsubj	_	_
34	told	tell	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=1|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	31	advcl	_	_
35	them	they	PRON	PRP	Case=Acc|Number=Plur|Person=3|PronType=Prs	34	iobj	_	_
36	stories	story	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	34	obj	_	SpaceAfter=No
37	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	6	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

<!-- .fr -->
| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **go off** | past | the last little mice |  |  |  |  |  | vn occur-48.3-2 «NP V ADV»: agent=Theme |
| 2 | **say** *speech: assert* | past | the tree |  |  |  |  |  | vn say-37.7-1-1 «NP V that S»: agent=Agent |
| 3 | **sigh** | gerund | the tree *not said here* |  |  |  |  |  | vn manner\_speaking-37.3 «NP V»: agent=Agent |
| 4 | **is** | past | tallow |  |  |  |  | pleasant *property* | tree rules |
| 5 | **sit** | past | the lively little mice |  |  |  |  | round *property* | vn assuming\_position-50 «NP V»: agent=Agent |
| 6 | **listen** | past | the lively little mice *not said here* |  |  |  |  |  | vn peer-30.3 «NP V PP.theme»: agent=Agent |
| 7 | **tell** *speech: assert* | past | I | stories | rats *= rat* |  |  |  | vn transfer\_mesg-37.1.1-1-1 «NP V NP-Dative NP»: agent=Agent they=Recipient story=Topic |

<!-- .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 Pink Fairy Book» by Andrew Lang, Project Gutenberg book 5615 (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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