---
title: For weeks all the mothers and all the daughters in the land were bus… — The Violet Fairy Book · tree and pragmatics
description: For weeks all the mothers and all the daughters in the land were busy preparing beautiful dresses and trying new ways of putting up their hair, and the three lovely daughters of Dotterine’s mistress were as much excited as the rest. Who acts: new ways, three lovely daughters. A sentence of «The Viol
---

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# The Violet Fairy Book, The Child Who Came From an Egg, sentence 109

<!-- .ven lang=en -->
For weeks all the mothers and all the daughters in the land were busy preparing beautiful dresses and trying new ways of putting up their hair, and the three lovely daughters of Dotterine’s mistress were as much excited as the rest.

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**Who acts:** new ways, three lovely daughters · **What happens:** be, prepare, try, put up · **To what, where:** beautiful dresses, new ways, hair

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This is a sentence of «The Violet Fairy Book» by Andrew Lang, The Child Who Came From an Egg. The page gives its syntax tree — a dependency tree in the style of Universal Dependencies — and its pragmatics clause by clause: who acts (new ways, three lovely daughters), 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:pg641:12:109
# text = For weeks all the mothers and all the daughters in the land were busy preparing beautiful dresses and trying new ways of putting up their hair, and the three lovely daughters of Dotterine’s mistress were as much excited as the rest.
1	For	for	ADP	IN	_	2	case	_	_
2	weeks	week	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	14	obl	_	_
3	all	all	DET	PDT	PronType=Tot	5	det:predet	_	_
4	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	5	det	_	_
5	mothers	mother	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	2	nmod	_	_
6	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	9	cc	_	_
7	all	all	DET	PDT	PronType=Tot	9	det:predet	_	_
8	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	9	det	_	_
9	daughters	daughter	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	5	conj	_	_
10	in	in	ADP	IN	_	12	case	_	_
11	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	12	det	_	_
12	land	land	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	9	nmod	_	_
13	were	be	AUX	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	14	cop	_	_
14	busy	busy	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	0	root	_	_
15	preparing	prepare	VERB	VBG	VerbForm=Ger	14	advcl	_	_
16	beautiful	beautiful	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	17	amod	_	_
17	dresses	dress	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	15	obj	_	_
18	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	19	cc	_	_
19	trying	try	VERB	VBG	VerbForm=Ger	15	conj	_	_
20	new	new	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	21	amod	_	_
21	ways	way	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	19	obj	_	_
22	of	of	SCONJ	IN	_	23	mark	_	_
23	putting	put	VERB	VBG	VerbForm=Ger	21	acl	_	_
24	up	up	ADP	RP	_	23	compound:prt	_	_
25	their	their	PRON	PRP$	Case=Gen|Number=Plur|Person=3|Poss=Yes|PronType=Prs	26	nmod:poss	_	_
26	hair	hair	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	23	obj	_	SpaceAfter=No
27	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	40	punct	_	_
28	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	40	cc	_	_
29	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	32	det	_	_
30	three	three	NUM	CD	NumForm=Word|NumType=Card	32	nummod	_	_
31	lovely	lovely	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	32	amod	_	_
32	daughters	daughter	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	40	nsubj	_	_
33	of	of	ADP	IN	_	36	case	_	_
34	Dotterine	Dotterine	PROPN	NNP	Number=Sing	36	nmod:poss	_	SpaceAfter=No
35	’s	's	PART	POS	_	34	case	_	_
36	mistress	mistress	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	32	nmod	_	_
37	were	be	AUX	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Plur|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	40	cop	_	_
38	as	as	ADV	RB	_	39	advmod	_	_
39	much	much	ADV	RB	_	40	advmod	_	_
40	excited	excited	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	14	conj	_	_
41	as	as	ADP	IN	_	43	case	_	_
42	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	43	det	_	_
43	rest	rest	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	40	obl	_	SpaceAfter=No
44	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	14	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

<!-- .fr -->
| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **is** | past |  |  |  |  | week | busy *property* | tree rules |
| 2 | **prepare** | gerund |  | beautiful dresses |  |  |  |  | vn establish-55.5-1 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent dress=Patient |
| 3 | **try** | gerund |  | new ways |  |  |  |  | vn try-61.1 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent way=Eventuality |
| 4 | **put up** | gerund | new ways *not said here* | maidens's hair |  |  |  |  | vn invest-13.5.4-1 «NP V PP»: agent=Agent hair=Goal |
| 5 | **is** | past | the three lovely daughters of Dotterine's mistress |  |  |  |  | as the rest; excited *property* | tree rules |

<!-- .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 Violet Fairy Book» by Andrew Lang, Project Gutenberg book 641 (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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