---
title: While he was eating, the damsel and her maids took their lutes, and… — The Pink Fairy Book · tree and pragmatics
description: While he was eating, the damsel and her maids took their lutes, and sang and danced to him, and altogether the hours passed so swiftly that the old man never saw that darkness had come, or remembered the scolding he would get from his wife for returning home so late. Who acts: maiden, damsel, hours,
---

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# The Pink Fairy Book, The Pink Fairy Book, part 36, sentence 73

<!-- .ven lang=en -->
While he was eating, the damsel and her maids took their lutes, and sang and danced to him, and altogether the hours passed so swiftly that the old man never saw that darkness had come, or remembered the scolding he would get from his wife for returning home so late.

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**Who acts:** maiden, damsel, hours, old man, darkness, man · **What happens:** eat, take, sing, dance, pass, not see · **To what, where:** lutes, maiden, scolding · **Speech:** someone speaks here

<!-- .vabout -->
This is a sentence of «The Pink Fairy Book» by Andrew Lang, The Pink Fairy Book, part 36. The page gives its syntax tree — a dependency tree in the style of Universal Dependencies — and its pragmatics clause by clause: who acts (maiden, damsel, hours, old man), 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:pg5615:36:73
# text = While he was eating, the damsel and her maids took their lutes, and sang and danced to him, and altogether the hours passed so swiftly that the old man never saw that darkness had come, or remembered the scolding he would get from his wife for returning home so late.
1	While	while	SCONJ	IN	_	4	mark	_	_
2	he	he	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	4	nsubj	_	_
3	was	be	AUX	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	4	aux	_	_
4	eating	eat	VERB	VBG	Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Part	11	advcl	_	SpaceAfter=No
5	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	4	punct	_	_
6	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	7	det	_	_
7	damsel	damsel	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	11	nsubj	_	_
8	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	10	cc	_	_
9	her	her	PRON	PRP$	Case=Gen|Gender=Fem|Number=Sing|Person=3|Poss=Yes|PronType=Prs	10	nmod:poss	_	_
10	maids	maid	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	7	conj	_	_
11	took	take	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	0	root	_	_
12	their	their	PRON	PRP$	Case=Gen|Number=Plur|Person=3|Poss=Yes|PronType=Prs	13	nmod:poss	_	_
13	lutes	lute	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	11	obj	_	SpaceAfter=No
14	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	16	punct	_	_
15	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	16	cc	_	_
16	sang	sing	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	11	conj	_	_
17	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	18	cc	_	_
18	danced	dance	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	16	conj	_	_
19	to	to	ADP	IN	_	20	case	_	_
20	him	he	PRON	PRP	Case=Acc|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	18	obl	_	SpaceAfter=No
21	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	26	punct	_	_
22	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	26	cc	_	_
23	altogether	altogether	ADV	RB	_	26	advmod	_	_
24	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	25	det	_	_
25	hours	hour	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	26	nsubj	_	_
26	passed	pass	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Plur|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	11	parataxis	_	_
27	so	so	ADV	RB	_	28	advmod	_	_
28	swiftly	swiftly	ADV	RB	_	26	advmod	_	_
29	that	that	SCONJ	IN	_	34	mark	_	_
30	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	32	det	_	_
31	old	old	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	32	amod	_	_
32	man	man	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	34	nsubj	_	_
33	never	never	ADV	RB	PronType=Neg	34	advmod	_	_
34	saw	see	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	26	advcl	_	_
35	that	that	SCONJ	IN	_	38	mark	_	_
36	darkness	darkness	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	38	nsubj	_	_
37	had	have	AUX	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	38	aux	_	_
38	come	come	VERB	VBN	Tense=Past|VerbForm=Part	34	ccomp	_	SpaceAfter=No
39	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	41	punct	_	_
40	or	or	CCONJ	CC	_	41	cc	_	_
41	remembered	remember	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Plur|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	26	conj	_	_
42	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	43	det	_	_
43	scolding	scolding	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	41	obj	_	_
44	he	he	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	46	nsubj	_	_
45	would	would	AUX	MD	VerbForm=Fin	46	aux	_	_
46	get	get	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	41	ccomp	_	_
47	from	from	ADP	IN	_	49	case	_	_
48	his	his	PRON	PRP$	Case=Gen|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|Poss=Yes|PronType=Prs	49	nmod:poss	_	_
49	wife	wife	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	46	obl	_	_
50	for	for	SCONJ	IN	_	51	mark	_	_
51	returning	return	VERB	VBG	Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Part	46	advcl	_	_
52	home	home	ADV	RB	_	51	advmod	_	_
53	so	so	ADV	RB	_	54	advmod	_	_
54	late	late	ADV	RB	Degree=Pos	51	advmod	_	SpaceAfter=No
55	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	11	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

<!-- .fr -->
| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **eat** | past · progressive | maiden |  |  |  |  |  | vn eat-39.1-1 «NP V»: agent=Agent |
| 2 | **take** | past | the damsel and life's maids | damsel's lutes |  |  |  |  | vn bring-11.3 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent lute=Theme |
| 3 | **sing** *speech: express* | past | the damsel and life's maids *not said here* |  |  |  |  |  | vn sound\_emission-43.2 «NP V»: agent=Theme |
| 4 | **dance** | past | the damsel and life's maids *not said here* |  | maiden |  |  |  | vn waltz-51.5 «NP.theme V»: agent=Theme |
| 5 | **pass** | past | the hours |  |  |  |  | altogether, swiftly *property* | vn occur-48.3-1 «NP V»: agent=Theme |
| 6 | **not** **see** | past | the old man |  |  |  |  |  | vn comprehend-87.2-1-1 «NP V S\_ING»: agent=Experiencer clause=Stimulus |
| 7 | **come** | past · perfect | darkness |  |  |  |  |  | vn escape-51.1-1 «NP V»: agent=Theme |
| 8 | **remember** | past | the hours *not said here* | the scolding |  |  |  |  | vn characterize-29.2-1-1 «NP V NP to be ADJ»: agent=Agent scolding=Theme clause=Attribute |
| 9 | **get** | would | man |  |  |  |  | from maiden's wife | vn escape-51.1 «NP V PP.destination»: agent=Theme from wife=Destination |
| 10 | **return** | gerund | man *not said here* |  |  |  |  | home, late *property* | vn escape-51.1-1 «NP V»: agent=Theme |

<!-- .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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