---
title: But when they reached the town they found that the market was overst… — The Pink Fairy Book · tree and pragmatics
description: But when they reached the town they found that the market was overstocked with firewood, and they did not sell enough to buy themselves a dinner, far less to get any food to carry home. Who acts: brothers, food. A sentence of «The Pink Fairy Book» by Andrew Lang, The Pink Fairy Book, part 37, with i
---

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[Mova](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/) · [this page in HTML](https://mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg5615/37/54/)

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# The Pink Fairy Book, The Pink Fairy Book, part 37, sentence 54

<!-- .ven lang=en -->
But when they reached the town they found that the market was overstocked with firewood, and they did not sell enough to buy themselves a dinner, far less to get any food to carry home.

<!-- .vintro -->
**Who acts:** brothers, food · **What happens:** reach, find, overstock, not sell, buy, get · **To what, where:** town, market, brothers, food · **Speech:** someone speaks here

<!-- .vabout -->
This is a sentence of «The Pink Fairy Book» by Andrew Lang, The Pink Fairy Book, part 37. The page gives its syntax tree — a dependency tree in the style of Universal Dependencies — and its pragmatics clause by clause: who acts (brothers, food), 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:pg5615:37:54
# text = But when they reached the town they found that the market was overstocked with firewood, and they did not sell enough to buy themselves a dinner, far less to get any food to carry home.
1	But	but	CCONJ	CC	_	8	cc	_	_
2	when	when	SCONJ	WRB	_	4	mark	_	_
3	they	they	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Number=Plur|Person=3|PronType=Prs	4	nsubj	_	_
4	reached	reach	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Plur|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	8	advcl	_	_
5	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	6	det	_	_
6	town	town	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	4	obj	_	_
7	they	they	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Number=Plur|Person=3|PronType=Prs	8	nsubj	_	_
8	found	find	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Plur|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	0	root	_	_
9	that	that	SCONJ	IN	_	13	mark	_	_
10	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	11	det	_	_
11	market	market	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	13	nsubj:pass	_	_
12	was	be	AUX	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	13	aux:pass	_	_
13	overstocked	overstock	VERB	VBN	Tense=Past|VerbForm=Part|Voice=Pass	8	ccomp	_	_
14	with	with	ADP	IN	_	15	case	_	_
15	firewood	firewood	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	13	obl	_	SpaceAfter=No
16	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	21	punct	_	_
17	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	21	cc	_	_
18	they	they	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Number=Plur|Person=3|PronType=Prs	21	nsubj	_	_
19	did	do	AUX	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Plur|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	21	aux	_	_
20	not	not	PART	RB	Polarity=Neg	21	advmod	_	_
21	sell	sell	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	8	ccomp	_	_
22	enough	enough	ADV	RB	_	21	advmod	_	_
23	to	to	PART	TO	_	24	mark	_	_
24	buy	buy	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	21	advcl	_	_
25	themselves	themselves	PRON	PRP	Case=Acc|Number=Plur|Person=3|PronType=Prs|Reflex=Yes	24	obj	_	_
26	a	a	DET	DT	Definite=Ind|PronType=Art	27	det	_	_
27	dinner	dinner	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	24	obj	_	SpaceAfter=No
28	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	30	punct	_	_
29	far	far	ADV	RB	Degree=Pos	30	advmod	_	_
30	less	less	ADJ	JJR	Degree=Cmp	21	parataxis	_	_
31	to	to	PART	TO	_	32	mark	_	_
32	get	get	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	30	advcl	_	_
33	any	any	DET	DT	PronType=Ind	34	det	_	_
34	food	food	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	32	obj	_	_
35	to	to	PART	TO	_	36	mark	_	_
36	carry	carry	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	32	xcomp	_	_
37	home	home	ADV	RB	_	36	advmod	_	SpaceAfter=No
38	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	8	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

<!-- .fr -->
| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **reach** | past | brothers *= brother* | the town |  |  |  |  | vn body\_motion-49.2-1-1 «NP V NP ADV»: agent=Agent town=Theme |
| 2 | **find** | past | brothers *= brother* |  |  |  |  |  | vn declare-29.4-1-1 «NP V what S\_INF»: agent=Agent clause=Theme |
| 3 | **overstock** | past · passive |  | the market |  |  |  | with firewood | tree rules |
| 4 | **not** **sell** | past · do-support | brothers *= brother* |  |  |  |  | enough *property* | vn give-13.1-1 «NP V PP.recipient»: agent=Agent |
| 5 | **buy** | to-infinitive | brothers *= brother* *not said here* | brothers *= brother* |  |  |  |  | vn get-13.5.1 «NP V NP.beneficiary NP»: agent=Agent themselves=Beneficiary dinner=Theme |
| 6 | **get** | to-infinitive | brothers *= brother* *not said here* | any food |  |  |  |  | tree rules |
| 7 | **carry** | to-infinitive | any food *not said here* |  |  |  |  | home *property* | vn carry-11.4 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent |

<!-- .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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