---
title: And trees were cut down, and great preparations made, and in a few d… — The Pink Fairy Book · tree and pragmatics
description: And trees were cut down, and great preparations made, and in a few days everybody knew what it was all for; and there was a crowd of old people pressing round the gates of the yard, where the young man spent the most of his day. Who acts: everybody, crowd, old people, young man. A sentence of «The P
---

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[Mova](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/) · [this page in HTML](https://mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg5615/19/24/)

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# The Pink Fairy Book, The Pink Fairy Book, part 19, sentence 24

<!-- .ven lang=en -->
And trees were cut down, and great preparations made, and in a few days everybody knew what it was all for; and there was a crowd of old people pressing round the gates of the yard, where the young man spent the most of his day.

<!-- .vintro -->
**Who acts:** everybody, crowd, old people, young man · **What happens:** cut down, make, know, be, press, spend · **To what, where:** trees, great preparations, gates, most

<!-- .vabout -->
This is a sentence of «The Pink Fairy Book» by Andrew Lang, The Pink Fairy Book, part 19. The page gives its syntax tree — a dependency tree in the style of Universal Dependencies — and its pragmatics clause by clause: who acts (everybody, crowd, old people, young man), 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:pg5615:19:24
# text = And trees were cut down, and great preparations made, and in a few days everybody knew what it was all for; and there was a crowd of old people pressing round the gates of the yard, where the young man spent the most of his day.
1	And	and	CCONJ	CC	_	4	cc	_	_
2	trees	tree	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	4	nsubj:pass	_	_
3	were	be	AUX	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Plur|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	4	aux:pass	_	_
4	cut	cut	VERB	VBN	Tense=Past|VerbForm=Part|Voice=Pass	0	root	_	_
5	down	down	ADP	RP	_	4	compound:prt	_	SpaceAfter=No
6	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	10	punct	_	_
7	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	10	cc	_	_
8	great	great	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	9	amod	_	_
9	preparations	preparation	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	10	nsubj:pass	_	_
10	made	make	VERB	VBN	Tense=Past|VerbForm=Part|Voice=Pass	4	conj	_	SpaceAfter=No
11	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	18	punct	_	_
12	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	18	cc	_	_
13	in	in	ADP	IN	_	16	case	_	_
14	a	a	DET	DT	Definite=Ind|PronType=Art	16	det	_	_
15	few	few	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	16	amod	_	_
16	days	day	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	18	obl	_	_
17	everybody	everybody	PRON	NN	Number=Sing|PronType=Tot	18	nsubj	_	_
18	knew	know	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	10	conj	_	_
19	what	what	PRON	WP	PronType=Int	18	obj	_	_
20	it	it	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Gender=Neut|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	23	nsubj	_	_
21	was	be	AUX	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	23	cop	_	_
22	all	all	ADV	RB	_	23	advmod	_	_
23	for	for	ADP	IN	_	19	acl:relcl	_	SpaceAfter=No
24	;	;	PUNCT	,	_	27	punct	_	_
25	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	27	cc	_	_
26	there	there	PRON	EX	PronType=Dem	27	expl	_	_
27	was	be	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	4	parataxis	_	_
28	a	a	DET	DT	Definite=Ind|PronType=Art	29	det	_	_
29	crowd	crowd	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	27	nsubj	_	_
30	of	of	ADP	IN	_	32	case	_	_
31	old	old	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	32	amod	_	_
32	people	people	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	29	nmod	_	_
33	pressing	press	VERB	VBG	VerbForm=Ger	32	acl	_	_
34	round	round	ADP	IN	_	36	case	_	_
35	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	36	det	_	_
36	gates	gate	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	33	obl	_	_
37	of	of	ADP	IN	_	39	case	_	_
38	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	39	det	_	_
39	yard	yard	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	36	nmod	_	SpaceAfter=No
40	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	45	punct	_	_
41	where	where	ADV	WRB	PronType=Rel	45	advmod	_	_
42	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	44	det	_	_
43	young	young	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	44	amod	_	_
44	man	man	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	45	nsubj	_	_
45	spent	spend	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	39	acl:relcl	_	_
46	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	47	det	_	_
47	most	most	ADJ	JJS	Degree=Sup	45	obj	_	_
48	of	of	ADP	IN	_	50	case	_	_
49	his	his	PRON	PRP$	Case=Gen|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|Poss=Yes|PronType=Prs	50	nmod:poss	_	_
50	day	day	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	47	nmod	_	SpaceAfter=No
51	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	4	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

<!-- .fr -->
| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **cut down** | past · passive |  | trees |  |  |  |  | vn build-26.1-1 «NP.asset V NP»: subject=Product |
| 2 | **make** | participle · passive |  | great preparations |  |  |  |  | vn build-26.1-1 «NP.asset V NP»: subject=Product |
| 3 | **know** | past | everybody |  |  |  | day |  | vn comprehend-87.2-1-1-1 «NP V NP PP.attribute»: agent=Experiencer what=Stimulus |
| 4 | **be** | past | a crowd of old people |  |  | there |  |  | vn exist-47.1 «NP V»: agent=Theme |
| 5 | **press** | gerund | old people *not said here* |  |  | the gates of the yard |  |  | vn push-12-1-1 «NP V PP.trajectory»: agent=Agent round gate=Trajectory |
| 6 | **spend** | past | the young man | the most of man's day |  |  |  |  | vn consume-66-1 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent most=Asset |

<!-- .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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