---
title: ‘Why those are the ladies-in-waiting playing their games; I must go… — The Yellow Fairy Book · tree and pragmatics
description: ‘Why those are the ladies-in-waiting playing their games; I must go down to them.’ Who acts: ladies. A sentence of «The Yellow Fairy Book» by Andrew Lang, The Swineherd, with its dependency tree and the pragmatics of every clause.
---

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# The Yellow Fairy Book, The Swineherd, sentence 94

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‘Why those are the ladies-in-waiting playing their games; I must go down to them.’

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**Who acts:** ladies · **What happens:** be, wait, play, go down · **To what, where:** ladies, games

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This is a sentence of «The Yellow Fairy Book» by Andrew Lang, The Swineherd. The page gives its syntax tree — a dependency tree in the style of Universal Dependencies — and its pragmatics clause by clause: who acts (ladies), 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:pg640:43:94
# text = ‘Why those are the ladies-in-waiting playing their games; I must go down to them.’
1	‘	'	PUNCT	``	_	17	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
2	Why	why	ADV	WRB	PronType=Int	17	advmod	_	_
3	those	that	DET	DT	Number=Plur|PronType=Dem	6	det	_	_
4	are	be	AUX	VBP	Mood=Ind|Number=Plur|Person=3|Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Fin	6	cop	_	_
5	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	6	det	_	_
6	ladies	lady	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	17	nsubj	_	SpaceAfter=No
7	-	-	PUNCT	HYPH	_	10	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
8	in	in	SCONJ	IN	_	10	mark	_	SpaceAfter=No
9	-	-	PUNCT	HYPH	_	8	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
10	waiting	wait	VERB	VBG	Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Part	6	conj	_	_
11	playing	play	VERB	VBG	Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Part	10	advcl	_	_
12	their	their	PRON	PRP$	Case=Gen|Number=Plur|Person=3|Poss=Yes|PronType=Prs	13	nmod:poss	_	_
13	games	game	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	11	obj	_	SpaceAfter=No
14	;	;	PUNCT	,	_	17	punct	_	_
15	I	I	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Number=Sing|Person=1|PronType=Prs	17	nsubj	_	_
16	must	must	AUX	MD	VerbForm=Fin	17	aux	_	_
17	go	go	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	0	root	_	_
18	down	down	ADV	RB	_	17	advmod	_	_
19	to	to	ADP	IN	_	20	case	_	_
20	them	they	PRON	PRP	Case=Acc|Number=Plur|Person=3|PronType=Prs	17	obl	_	SpaceAfter=No
21	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	17	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
22	’	'	PUNCT	''	_	17	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

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| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **is a** | present |  | that ladies |  |  |  |  | tree rules |
| 2 | **wait** | gerund |  |  |  |  |  |  | vn exist-47.1 «NP V»: agent=Theme |
| 3 | **play** | gerund |  | ladies's games |  |  |  |  | vn use-105.1 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent game=Theme |
| 4 | **go down** | must | that ladies |  | games *= game* |  |  | down *property* | vn calibratable\_cos-45.6.1-1 «NP.attribute V»: agent=Attribute |

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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 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.

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