---
title: Very often they spent the day in hunting together, but after a while… — The Yellow Fairy Book · tree and pragmatics
description: Very often they spent the day in hunting together, but after a while the wife found that she had so many things to do that she was obliged to stay at home; so he went alone, though he found that when his wife was not with him he never had any luck. Who acts: man, wife, he. A sentence of «The Yellow 
---

<!-- md -->
[Mova](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/) · [this page in HTML](https://mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg640/27/3/)

<!-- crumbs -->
[home](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/) / [corpora](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/) / [tales](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/) / [The Yellow Fairy Book](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg640/) / [The Dead Wife(20)](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg640/27/) / 3

# The Yellow Fairy Book, The Dead Wife(20), sentence 3

<!-- .ven lang=en -->
Very often they spent the day in hunting together, but after a while the wife found that she had so many things to do that she was obliged to stay at home; so he went alone, though he found that when his wife was not with him he never had any luck.

<!-- .vintro -->
**Who acts:** man, wife, he · **What happens:** spend, hunt, find, have, do, oblige · **To what, where:** many things, wife, home, luck · **Speech:** someone speaks here

<!-- .vabout -->
This is a sentence of «The Yellow Fairy Book» by Andrew Lang, The Dead Wife(20). The page gives its syntax tree — a dependency tree in the style of Universal Dependencies — and its pragmatics clause by clause: who acts (man, wife, he), 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:pg640:27:3
# text = Very often they spent the day in hunting together, but after a while the wife found that she had so many things to do that she was obliged to stay at home; so he went alone, though he found that when his wife was not with him he never had any luck.
1	Very	very	ADV	RB	_	2	advmod	_	_
2	often	often	ADV	RB	_	4	advmod	_	_
3	they	they	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Number=Plur|Person=3|PronType=Prs	4	nsubj	_	_
4	spent	spend	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Plur|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	0	root	_	_
5	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	6	det	_	_
6	day	day	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	4	obj	_	_
7	in	in	SCONJ	IN	_	8	mark	_	_
8	hunting	hunt	VERB	VBG	Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Part	4	advcl	_	_
9	together	together	ADV	RB	_	8	advmod	_	SpaceAfter=No
10	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	17	punct	_	_
11	but	but	CCONJ	CC	_	17	cc	_	_
12	after	after	ADP	IN	_	14	case	_	_
13	a	a	DET	DT	Definite=Ind|PronType=Art	14	det	_	_
14	while	while	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	17	obl	_	_
15	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	16	det	_	_
16	wife	wife	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	17	nsubj	_	_
17	found	find	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	4	conj	_	_
18	that	that	SCONJ	IN	_	20	mark	_	_
19	she	she	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Gender=Fem|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	20	nsubj	_	_
20	had	have	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	17	ccomp	_	_
21	so	so	ADV	RB	_	22	advmod	_	_
22	many	many	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	23	amod	_	_
23	things	thing	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	20	obj	_	_
24	to	to	PART	TO	_	25	mark	_	_
25	do	do	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	23	acl	_	_
26	that	that	SCONJ	IN	_	29	mark	_	_
27	she	she	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Gender=Fem|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	29	nsubj	_	_
28	was	be	AUX	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	29	aux:pass	_	_
29	obliged	oblige	VERB	VBN	Tense=Past|VerbForm=Part|Voice=Pass	25	advcl	_	_
30	to	to	PART	TO	_	31	mark	_	_
31	stay	stay	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	29	xcomp	_	_
32	at	at	ADP	IN	_	33	case	_	_
33	home	home	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	31	obl	_	SpaceAfter=No
34	;	;	PUNCT	,	_	37	punct	_	_
35	so	so	ADV	RB	_	37	advmod	_	_
36	he	he	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	37	nsubj	_	_
37	went	go	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	4	parataxis	_	_
38	alone	alone	ADV	RB	_	37	advmod	_	SpaceAfter=No
39	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	42	punct	_	_
40	though	though	SCONJ	IN	_	42	mark	_	_
41	he	he	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	42	nsubj	_	_
42	found	find	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	37	conj	_	_
43	that	that	SCONJ	IN	_	50	mark	_	_
44	when	when	ADV	WRB	PronType=Int	50	advmod	_	_
45	his	his	PRON	PRP$	Case=Gen|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|Poss=Yes|PronType=Prs	46	nmod:poss	_	_
46	wife	wife	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	50	nsubj	_	_
47	was	be	AUX	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	50	cop	_	_
48	not	not	PART	RB	Polarity=Neg	50	advmod	_	_
49	with	with	ADP	IN	_	50	case	_	_
50	him	he	PRON	PRP	Case=Acc|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	42	ccomp	_	_
51	he	he	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	53	nsubj	_	_
52	never	never	ADV	RB	PronType=Neg	53	advmod	_	_
53	had	have	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	42	ccomp	_	_
54	any	any	DET	DT	PronType=Ind	55	det	_	_
55	luck	luck	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	53	obj	_	SpaceAfter=No
56	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	4	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

<!-- .fr -->
| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **spend** | past | man |  |  |  | day | often *property* | vn consume-66-1 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent |
| 2 | **hunt** | gerund | man *not said here* |  |  |  |  | together *property* | vn hunt-35.1 «NP V»: agent=Agent |
| 3 | **find** | past | the wife |  |  |  | while |  | vn declare-29.4-1-1 «NP V what S\_INF»: agent=Agent clause=Theme |
| 4 | **have** | past | wife | many things |  |  |  |  | vn birth-28.2-1 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent thing=Patient |
| 5 | **do** | to-infinitive | wife *not said here* | many things *not said here* |  |  |  |  | vn act-114-1 «NP V»: agent=Agent |
| 6 | **oblige** | past · passive |  | wife |  |  |  |  | vn compel-59.1-1 «NP V NP S\_INF»: subject=Patient clause=Result |
| 7 | **stay** | to-infinitive |  |  |  | home |  |  | vn exist-47.1 «NP V PP.location»: agent=Theme at home=Location |
| 8 | **go** | past | he |  |  |  |  | alone *property* | vn disappearance-48.2-1 «NP V»: agent=Theme |
| 9 | **find** | past | he |  |  |  |  |  | vn declare-29.4-1-1 «NP V what S\_INF»: agent=Agent clause=Theme |
| 10 | **not** **is** | past | his wife |  |  |  |  | with him *= he* | tree rules |
| 11 | **not** **have** | past | he | any luck |  |  |  |  | vn birth-28.2-1 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent luck=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.

<!-- div src -->

**Text:** «The Yellow Fairy Book» by Andrew Lang, Project Gutenberg book 640 (public domain in the USA). **Tree:** Mova's own parse, Elamur Cosmic License. **Frames:** Mova's frames reader (`prag`), the chapter read in order.

<!-- /div -->

<!-- pn -->
- ← previous: [sentence 2](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg640/27/2/)
- next →: [sentence 4](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg640/27/4/)
- ↑ back to [The Dead Wife(20)](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg640/27/)