---
title: In the yard some of the merry children were playing, who had danced… — The Pink Fairy Book · tree and pragmatics
description: In the yard some of the merry children were playing, who had danced so gaily round the tree at Christmas. Who acts: some. A sentence of «The Pink Fairy Book» by Andrew Lang, The Pink Fairy Book, part 12, with its dependency tree and the pragmatics of every clause.
---

<!-- md -->
[Mova](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/) · [this page in HTML](https://mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg5615/12/3/)

<!-- crumbs -->
[home](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/) / [corpora](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/) / [tales](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/) / [The Pink Fairy Book](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg5615/) / [The Pink Fairy Book, part 12](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg5615/12/) / 3

# The Pink Fairy Book, The Pink Fairy Book, part 12, sentence 3

<!-- .ven lang=en -->
In the yard some of the merry children were playing, who had danced so gaily round the tree at Christmas.

<!-- .vintro -->
**Who acts:** some · **What happens:** play, dance · **To what, where:** Christmas

<!-- .vabout -->
This is a sentence of «The Pink Fairy Book» by Andrew Lang, The Pink Fairy Book, part 12. The page gives its syntax tree — a dependency tree in the style of Universal Dependencies — and its pragmatics clause by clause: who acts (some), what happens, when and where, as Mova's frames read it from the tree.

<!-- .note-en -->
**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:pg5615:12:3
# text = In the yard some of the merry children were playing, who had danced so gaily round the tree at Christmas.
1	In	in	ADP	IN	_	3	case	_	_
2	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	3	det	_	_
3	yard	yard	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	10	obl	_	_
4	some	some	DET	DT	PronType=Ind	10	nsubj	_	_
5	of	of	ADP	IN	_	8	case	_	_
6	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	8	det	_	_
7	merry	merry	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	8	amod	_	_
8	children	child	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	4	nmod	_	_
9	were	be	AUX	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Plur|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	10	aux	_	_
10	playing	play	VERB	VBG	Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Part	0	root	_	SpaceAfter=No
11	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	14	punct	_	_
12	who	who	PRON	WP	PronType=Rel	14	nsubj	_	_
13	had	have	AUX	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Plur|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	14	aux	_	_
14	danced	dance	VERB	VBN	Tense=Past|VerbForm=Part	10	parataxis	_	_
15	so	so	ADV	RB	_	16	advmod	_	_
16	gaily	gaily	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	14	xcomp	_	_
17	round	round	ADP	IN	_	19	case	_	_
18	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	19	det	_	_
19	tree	tree	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	14	obl	_	_
20	at	at	ADP	IN	_	21	case	_	_
21	Christmas	Christmas	PROPN	NNP	Number=Sing	14	obl	_	SpaceAfter=No
22	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	10	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

<!-- .fr -->
| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **play** | past · progressive | some |  |  |  |  | in the yard | vn performance-26.7-1 «NP V»: agent=Agent |
| 2 | **dance** | past · perfect |  |  |  | Christmas |  | round the tree; gaily *property* | vn modes\_of\_being\_with\_motion-47.3 «NP V PP.location»: agent=Theme at christmas=Location |

<!-- .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.

<!-- div src -->

**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.

<!-- /div -->

<!-- pn -->
- ← previous: [sentence 2](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg5615/12/2/)
- next →: [sentence 4](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg5615/12/4/)
- ↑ back to [The Pink Fairy Book, part 12](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg5615/12/)