---
title: They could all speak quite well when they were in the street, but as… — The Pink Fairy Book · tree and pragmatics
description: They could all speak quite well when they were in the street, but as soon as they came inside the palace door, and saw the guards in silver, and upstairs the footmen in gold, and the great hall all lighted up, then their wits left them! Who acts: first, wits. A sentence of «The Pink Fairy Book» by A
---

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# The Pink Fairy Book, The Pink Fairy Book, part 9, sentence 76

<!-- .ven lang=en -->
They could all speak quite well when they were in the street, but as soon as they came inside the palace door, and saw the guards in silver, and upstairs the footmen in gold, and the great hall all lighted up, then their wits left them!

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**Who acts:** first, wits · **What happens:** speak, be, come, see, light up, leave · **To what, where:** street, palace door, guards, silver, great hall, first · **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 9. The page gives its syntax tree — a dependency tree in the style of Universal Dependencies — and its pragmatics clause by clause: who acts (first, wits), 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:pg5615:9:76
# text = They could all speak quite well when they were in the street, but as soon as they came inside the palace door, and saw the guards in silver, and upstairs the footmen in gold, and the great hall all lighted up, then their wits left them!
1	They	they	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Number=Plur|Person=3|PronType=Prs	4	nsubj	_	_
2	could	could	AUX	MD	VerbForm=Fin	4	aux	_	_
3	all	all	ADV	RB	_	4	advmod	_	_
4	speak	speak	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	0	root	_	_
5	quite	quite	ADV	RB	_	6	advmod	_	_
6	well	well	ADV	RB	Degree=Pos	4	advmod	_	_
7	when	when	ADV	WRB	PronType=Int	12	advmod	_	_
8	they	they	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Number=Plur|Person=3|PronType=Prs	12	nsubj	_	_
9	were	be	AUX	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Plur|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	12	cop	_	_
10	in	in	ADP	IN	_	12	case	_	_
11	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	12	det	_	_
12	street	street	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	4	obl	_	SpaceAfter=No
13	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	26	punct	_	_
14	but	but	CCONJ	CC	_	26	cc	_	_
15	as	as	ADV	RB	_	16	advmod	_	_
16	soon	soon	ADV	RB	Degree=Pos	26	advmod	_	_
17	as	as	SCONJ	IN	_	19	mark	_	_
18	they	they	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Number=Plur|Person=3|PronType=Prs	19	nsubj	_	_
19	came	come	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Plur|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	16	advcl	_	_
20	inside	inside	ADP	IN	_	23	case	_	_
21	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	23	det	_	_
22	palace	palace	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	23	compound	_	_
23	door	door	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	19	obl	_	SpaceAfter=No
24	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	26	punct	_	_
25	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	26	cc	_	_
26	saw	see	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Plur|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	4	conj	_	_
27	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	28	det	_	_
28	guards	guard	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	26	obj	_	_
29	in	in	ADP	IN	_	30	case	_	_
30	silver	silver	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	28	nmod	_	SpaceAfter=No
31	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	35	punct	_	_
32	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	35	cc	_	_
33	upstairs	upstairs	ADV	RB	_	35	advmod	_	_
34	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	35	det	_	_
35	footmen	footman	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	26	obj	_	_
36	in	in	ADP	IN	_	37	case	_	_
37	gold	gold	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	35	nmod	_	SpaceAfter=No
38	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	44	punct	_	_
39	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	44	cc	_	_
40	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	42	det	_	_
41	great	great	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	42	amod	_	_
42	hall	hall	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	44	nsubj:pass	_	_
43	all	all	ADV	RB	_	44	advmod	_	_
44	lighted	light	VERB	VBN	Tense=Past|VerbForm=Part|Voice=Pass	26	conj	_	_
45	up	up	ADP	RP	_	44	compound:prt	_	SpaceAfter=No
46	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	50	punct	_	_
47	then	then	ADV	RB	PronType=Dem	50	advmod	_	_
48	their	their	PRON	PRP$	Case=Gen|Number=Plur|Person=3|Poss=Yes|PronType=Prs	49	nmod:poss	_	_
49	wits	wit	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	50	nsubj	_	_
50	left	leave	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Plur|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	26	conj	_	_
51	them	they	PRON	PRP	Case=Acc|Number=Plur|Person=3|PronType=Prs	50	obj	_	SpaceAfter=No
52	!	!	PUNCT	.	_	4	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

<!-- .fr -->
| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **speak** *speech: other* | could | first |  |  |  |  | all, well *property* | vn talk-37.5 «NP V»: agent=Agent |
| 2 | **is** | past | first |  |  | the street |  |  | tree rules |
| 3 | **come** | past | first |  |  | the palace door |  |  | vn appear-48.1.1 «NP V PP.location»: agent=Theme inside door=Location |
| 4 | **see** | past | first *not said here* | the guards |  | silver |  | soon *property* | tree rules |
| 5 | **light up** | participle · passive |  | the great hall |  |  |  | all *property* | vn preparing-26.3-1 «NP V NP»: subject=Product |
| 6 | **leave** | past | first's wits | first |  |  | then |  | vn keep-15.2 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent they=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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