---
title: But now matters were less easy, for he could not get inside the yard… — The Pink Fairy Book · tree and pragmatics
description: But now matters were less easy, for he could not get inside the yard, as it was evening and the gate was locked. Who acts: king, yard. A sentence of «The Pink Fairy Book» by Andrew Lang, The Pink Fairy Book, part 28, 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/pg5615/28/127/)

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# The Pink Fairy Book, The Pink Fairy Book, part 28, sentence 127

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But now matters were less easy, for he could not get inside the yard, as it was evening and the gate was locked.

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**Who acts:** king, yard · **What happens:** matter, be, not get, lock · **To what, where:** gate

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This is a sentence of «The Pink Fairy Book» by Andrew Lang, The Pink Fairy Book, part 28. The page gives its syntax tree — a dependency tree in the style of Universal Dependencies — and its pragmatics clause by clause: who acts (king, yard), 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:pg5615:28:127
# text = But now matters were less easy, for he could not get inside the yard, as it was evening and the gate was locked.
1	But	but	CCONJ	CC	_	3	cc	_	_
2	now	now	ADV	RB	PronType=Dem	3	advmod	_	_
3	matters	matter	VERB	VBZ	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Fin	0	root	_	_
4	were	be	AUX	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	6	cop	_	_
5	less	less	ADV	RBR	Degree=Cmp	6	advmod	_	_
6	easy	easy	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	3	xcomp	_	SpaceAfter=No
7	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	12	punct	_	_
8	for	for	SCONJ	IN	_	12	mark	_	_
9	he	he	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	12	nsubj	_	_
10	could	could	AUX	MD	VerbForm=Fin	12	aux	_	_
11	not	not	PART	RB	Polarity=Neg	12	advmod	_	_
12	get	get	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	6	parataxis	_	_
13	inside	inside	ADP	IN	_	15	case	_	_
14	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	15	det	_	_
15	yard	yard	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	12	obl	_	SpaceAfter=No
16	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	20	punct	_	_
17	as	as	ADP	IN	_	20	case	_	_
18	it	it	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Gender=Neut|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	20	nsubj	_	_
19	was	be	AUX	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	20	cop	_	_
20	evening	evening	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	12	obl:unmarked	_	_
21	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	25	cc	_	_
22	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	23	det	_	_
23	gate	gate	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	25	nsubj:pass	_	_
24	was	be	AUX	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	25	aux:pass	_	_
25	locked	lock	VERB	VBN	Tense=Past|VerbForm=Part|Voice=Pass	20	conj	_	SpaceAfter=No
26	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	3	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

<!-- .fr -->
| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **matter** | present |  |  |  |  | now |  | vn matter-91 «NP V»: agent=Stimulus |
| 2 | **is** | past |  |  |  |  |  | easy, less *property* | tree rules |
| 3 | **not** **get** | could | king |  |  |  |  | inside the yard | vn comprehend-87.2-1 «NP V S\_ING»: agent=Experiencer |
| 4 | **is** | past | yard |  |  |  | as evening |  | tree rules |
| 5 | **lock** | past · passive |  | the gate |  |  |  |  | vn tape-22.4 «NP V NP»: subject=Patient |

<!-- .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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