---
title: But they liked it all the better for this; they could even sing with… — The Yellow Fairy Book · tree and pragmatics
description: But they liked it all the better for this; they could even sing with it, and they did. Who acts: hearts. A sentence of «The Yellow Fairy Book» by Andrew Lang, The Nightingale, with its dependency tree and the pragmatics of every clause.
---

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# The Yellow Fairy Book, The Nightingale, sentence 132

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But they liked it all the better for this; they could even sing with it, and they did.

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**Who acts:** hearts · **What happens:** like, sing, do · **To what, where:** note

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This is a sentence of «The Yellow Fairy Book» by Andrew Lang, The Nightingale. The page gives its syntax tree — a dependency tree in the style of Universal Dependencies — and its pragmatics clause by clause: who acts (hearts), 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:pg640:48:132
# text = But they liked it all the better for this; they could even sing with it, and they did.
1	But	but	CCONJ	CC	_	3	cc	_	_
2	they	they	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Number=Plur|Person=3|PronType=Prs	3	nsubj	_	_
3	liked	like	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Plur|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	0	root	_	_
4	it	it	PRON	PRP	Case=Acc|Gender=Neut|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	3	obj	_	_
5	all	all	DET	PDT	PronType=Tot	7	det:predet	_	_
6	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	7	det	_	_
7	better	good	ADJ	JJR	Degree=Cmp	3	conj	_	_
8	for	for	ADP	IN	_	9	case	_	_
9	this	this	PRON	DT	Number=Sing|PronType=Dem	7	obl	_	SpaceAfter=No
10	;	;	PUNCT	:	_	14	punct	_	_
11	they	they	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Number=Plur|Person=3|PronType=Prs	14	nsubj	_	_
12	could	could	AUX	MD	VerbForm=Fin	14	aux	_	_
13	even	even	ADV	RB	_	14	advmod	_	_
14	sing	sing	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	3	conj	_	_
15	with	with	ADP	IN	_	16	case	_	_
16	it	it	PRON	PRP	Case=Acc|Gender=Neut|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	14	obl	_	SpaceAfter=No
17	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	20	punct	_	_
18	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	20	cc	_	_
19	they	they	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Number=Plur|Person=3|PronType=Prs	20	nsubj	_	_
20	did	do	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Plur|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	3	conj	_	SpaceAfter=No
21	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	3	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

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| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **like** | past | hearts *= heart* | note |  |  |  |  | vn want-32.1-1-1 «NP V NP ADV»: agent=Pivot it=Theme |
| 2 | **sing** *speech: express* | could | hearts *= heart* |  |  |  |  | with note | vn sound\_emission-43.2 «NP.location V PP.theme»: agent=Location with it=Theme |
| 3 | **do** | past | hearts *= heart* |  |  |  |  |  | vn act-114-1 «NP V»: agent=Agent |

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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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