---
title: But when two more winters had passed the fir-tree was so tall that t… — The Pink Fairy Book · tree and pragmatics
description: But when two more winters had passed the fir-tree was so tall that the hare had to run round it. Who acts: two more winters, fir tree, hare. A sentence of «The Pink Fairy Book» by Andrew Lang, The Pink Fairy Book, part 11, with its dependency tree and the pragmatics of every clause.
---

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[Mova](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/) · [this page in HTML](https://mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg5615/11/6/)

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# The Pink Fairy Book, The Pink Fairy Book, part 11, sentence 6

<!-- .ven lang=en -->
But when two more winters had passed the fir-tree was so tall that the hare had to run round it.

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**Who acts:** two more winters, fir tree, hare · **What happens:** pass, be, have, run

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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 (two more winters, fir tree, hare), 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:pg5615:11:6
# text = But when two more winters had passed the fir-tree was so tall that the hare had to run round it.
1	But	but	CCONJ	CC	_	7	cc	_	_
2	when	when	ADV	WRB	PronType=Int	7	advmod	_	_
3	two	two	NUM	CD	NumForm=Word|NumType=Card	5	nummod	_	_
4	more	more	ADJ	JJR	Degree=Cmp	5	amod	_	_
5	winters	winter	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	7	nsubj	_	_
6	had	have	AUX	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Plur|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	7	aux	_	_
7	passed	pass	VERB	VBN	Tense=Past|VerbForm=Part	0	root	_	_
8	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	11	det	_	_
9	fir	fir	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	11	compound	_	SpaceAfter=No
10	-	-	PUNCT	HYPH	_	9	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
11	tree	tree	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	14	nsubj	_	_
12	was	be	AUX	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	14	cop	_	_
13	so	so	ADV	RB	_	14	advmod	_	_
14	tall	tall	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	7	parataxis	_	_
15	that	that	SCONJ	IN	_	18	mark	_	_
16	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	17	det	_	_
17	hare	hare	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	18	nsubj	_	_
18	had	have	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	14	advcl	_	_
19	to	to	PART	TO	_	20	mark	_	_
20	run	run	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	18	xcomp	_	_
21	round	round	ADP	IN	_	22	case	_	_
22	it	it	PRON	PRP	Case=Acc|Gender=Neut|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	20	obl	_	SpaceAfter=No
23	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	7	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

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| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **pass** | past · perfect | two more winters |  |  |  |  |  | vn occur-48.3-1 «NP V»: agent=Theme |
| 2 | **is** | past | the fir tree |  |  |  |  | tall *property* | tree rules |
| 3 | **have** | past | the hare |  |  |  |  |  | tree rules |
| 4 | **run** | to-infinitive | the hare *not said here* |  |  |  |  | round hare | vn run-51.3.2-2-1 «NP V PP.location»: agent=Theme round it=Trajectory |

<!-- .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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