--- title: They would have been quite happy except for one thing: they had no c… — The Pink Fairy Book · tree and pragmatics description: They would have been quite happy except for one thing: they had no children to play with, and as they were now old people they did not find that watching the children of their neighbours at all made up to them for having one of their own. Who acts: Slaves, children, watching. A sentence of «The Pink --- [Mova](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/) · [this page in HTML](https://mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg5615/15/86/) [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 15](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg5615/15/) / 86 # The Pink Fairy Book, The Pink Fairy Book, part 15, sentence 86 They would have been quite happy except for one thing: they had no children to play with, and as they were now old people they did not find that watching the children of their neighbours at all made up to them for having one of their own. **Who acts:** Slaves, children, watching · **What happens:** be, have, play, not find, watch, make up · **To what, where:** children, all, Slaves, one · **Speech:** someone speaks here This is a sentence of «The Pink Fairy Book» by Andrew Lang, The Pink Fairy Book, part 15. The page gives its syntax tree — a dependency tree in the style of Universal Dependencies — and its pragmatics clause by clause: who acts (Slaves, children, watching), what happens, when and where, as Mova's frames read it from the tree. **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:pg5615:15:86 # text = They would have been quite happy except for one thing: they had no children to play with, and as they were now old people they did not find that watching the children of their neighbours at all made up to them for having one of their own. 1 They they PRON PRP Case=Nom|Number=Plur|Person=3|PronType=Prs 6 nsubj _ _ 2 would would AUX MD VerbForm=Fin 6 aux _ _ 3 have have AUX VB VerbForm=Inf 6 aux _ _ 4 been be AUX VBN Tense=Past|VerbForm=Part 6 cop _ _ 5 quite quite ADV RB _ 6 advmod _ _ 6 happy happy ADJ JJ Degree=Pos 0 root _ _ 7 except except ADP IN _ 10 case _ _ 8 for for ADP IN _ 10 case _ _ 9 one one NUM CD NumForm=Word|NumType=Card 10 nummod _ _ 10 thing thing NOUN NN Number=Sing 6 obl _ SpaceAfter=No 11 : : PUNCT : _ 13 punct _ _ 12 they they PRON PRP Case=Nom|Number=Plur|Person=3|PronType=Prs 13 nsubj _ _ 13 had have VERB VBD Mood=Ind|Number=Plur|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin 6 advcl _ _ 14 no no DET DT PronType=Neg 15 det _ _ 15 children child NOUN NNS Number=Plur 13 obj _ _ 16 to to PART TO _ 17 mark _ _ 17 play play VERB VB VerbForm=Inf 13 xcomp _ _ 18 with with ADP IN _ 17 obl _ SpaceAfter=No 19 , , PUNCT , _ 30 punct _ _ 20 and and CCONJ CC _ 30 cc _ _ 21 as as ADP IN _ 26 case _ _ 22 they they PRON PRP Case=Nom|Number=Plur|Person=3|PronType=Prs 26 nsubj _ _ 23 were be AUX VBD Mood=Ind|Number=Plur|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin 26 cop _ _ 24 now now ADV RB PronType=Dem 26 advmod _ _ 25 old old ADJ JJ Degree=Pos 26 amod _ _ 26 people people NOUN NNS Number=Plur 30 obl _ _ 27 they they PRON PRP Case=Nom|Number=Plur|Person=3|PronType=Prs 30 nsubj _ _ 28 did do AUX VBD Mood=Ind|Number=Plur|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin 30 aux _ _ 29 not not PART RB Polarity=Neg 30 advmod _ _ 30 find find VERB VB VerbForm=Inf 6 parataxis _ _ 31 that that SCONJ IN _ 40 mark _ _ 32 watching watch VERB VBG VerbForm=Ger 40 csubj _ _ 33 the the DET DT Definite=Def|PronType=Art 34 det _ _ 34 children child NOUN NNS Number=Plur 32 obj _ _ 35 of of ADP IN _ 37 case _ _ 36 their their PRON PRP$ Case=Gen|Number=Plur|Person=3|Poss=Yes|PronType=Prs 37 nmod:poss _ _ 37 neighbours neighbour NOUN NNS Number=Plur 34 nmod _ _ 38 at at ADP IN _ 39 case _ _ 39 all all DET DT PronType=Tot 32 obl _ _ 40 made make VERB VBN Tense=Past|VerbForm=Part|Voice=Pass 30 ccomp _ _ 41 up up ADP RP _ 40 compound:prt _ _ 42 to to ADP IN _ 43 case _ _ 43 them they PRON PRP Case=Acc|Number=Plur|Person=3|PronType=Prs 40 obl _ _ 44 for for SCONJ IN _ 45 mark _ _ 45 having have VERB VBG Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Part 40 advcl _ _ 46 one one NUM CD NumForm=Word|NumType=Card 45 obj _ _ 47 of of ADP IN _ 49 case _ _ 48 their their PRON PRP$ Case=Gen|Number=Plur|Person=3|Poss=Yes|PronType=Prs 49 nmod:poss _ _ 49 own own ADJ JJ Degree=Pos 46 nmod _ SpaceAfter=No 50 . . PUNCT . _ 6 punct _ _ ``` ## Pragmatics {#pragmatics} | # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by | | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | | 1 | **is** | would · perfect | Slaves *= slave* | | | | | except one thing; happy *property* | tree rules | | 2 | **have** | past | Slaves *= slave* | no children | | | | | tree rules | | 3 | **play** | to-infinitive | no children *not said here* | | | | | | vn performance-26.7-1 «NP V»: agent=Agent | | 4 | **is** | past | Slaves *= slave* | | | | now | as old people | tree rules | | 5 | **not** **find** | past · do-support | Slaves *= slave* | | | | | | vn declare-29.4-1-1 «NP V what S\_INF»: agent=Agent clause=Theme | | 6 | **watch** | gerund | | the children of Slaves's neighbours | | all | | | vn assessment-34.1 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent child=Theme | | 7 | **make up** | participle | watching | | Slaves *= slave* | | | | vn comprise-107.2-1 «NP V NP»: agent=Theme | | 8 | **have** | gerund | watching *not said here* | one of Slaves's own | | | | | vn birth-28.2-1 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent one=Patient | 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. **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. - ← previous: [sentence 85](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg5615/15/85/) - next →: [The Pink Fairy Book, part 16, 1](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg5615/16/1/) - ↑ back to [The Pink Fairy Book, part 15](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg5615/15/)