---
title: But only one thing at a time could use it, and that was a good thing… — The Pink Fairy Book · tree and pragmatics
description: But only one thing at a time could use it, and that was a good thing, or they would have all spoken together. Who acts: one thing, that, Goblin, all. A sentence of «The Pink Fairy Book» by Andrew Lang, The Pink Fairy Book, part 2, 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/pg5615/2/49/)

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# The Pink Fairy Book, The Pink Fairy Book, part 2, sentence 49

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But only one thing at a time could use it, and that was a good thing, or they would have all spoken together.

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**Who acts:** one thing, that, Goblin, all · **What happens:** use, be, have, speak · **To what, where:** butter, good thing, all · **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 2. The page gives its syntax tree — a dependency tree in the style of Universal Dependencies — and its pragmatics clause by clause: who acts (one thing, that, Goblin, all), 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:pg5615:2:49
# text = But only one thing at a time could use it, and that was a good thing, or they would have all spoken together.
1	But	but	CCONJ	CC	_	9	cc	_	_
2	only	only	ADV	RB	_	3	advmod	_	_
3	one	one	NUM	CD	NumForm=Word|NumType=Card	4	nummod	_	_
4	thing	thing	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	9	nsubj	_	_
5	at	at	ADP	IN	_	7	case	_	_
6	a	a	DET	DT	Definite=Ind|PronType=Art	7	det	_	_
7	time	time	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	4	nmod	_	_
8	could	could	AUX	MD	VerbForm=Fin	9	aux	_	_
9	use	use	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	0	root	_	_
10	it	it	PRON	PRP	Case=Acc|Gender=Neut|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	9	obj	_	SpaceAfter=No
11	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	17	punct	_	_
12	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	17	cc	_	_
13	that	that	PRON	DT	Number=Sing|PronType=Dem	17	nsubj	_	_
14	was	be	AUX	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	17	cop	_	_
15	a	a	DET	DT	Definite=Ind|PronType=Art	17	det	_	_
16	good	good	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	17	amod	_	_
17	thing	thing	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	9	parataxis	_	SpaceAfter=No
18	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	22	punct	_	_
19	or	or	CCONJ	CC	_	22	cc	_	_
20	they	they	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Number=Plur|Person=3|PronType=Prs	22	nsubj	_	_
21	would	would	AUX	MD	VerbForm=Fin	22	aux	_	_
22	have	have	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	17	parataxis	_	_
23	all	all	DET	DT	PronType=Tot	22	obj	_	_
24	spoken	speak	VERB	VBN	Tense=Past|VerbForm=Part|Voice=Pass	22	xcomp	_	_
25	together	together	ADV	RB	_	24	advmod	_	SpaceAfter=No
26	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	9	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

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| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **use** | could | one thing at a time | butter |  |  |  |  | vn eat-39.1 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent it=Patient |
| 2 | **is a** | past | that | a good thing |  |  |  |  | tree rules |
| 3 | **have** | would | Goblin | all |  |  |  |  | tree rules |
| 4 | **speak** *speech: other* | participle | all *not said here* |  |  |  |  | together *property* | vn talk-37.5 «NP V»: agent=Agent |

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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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