---
title: The old people next door were naturally very much put out when they… — The Violet Fairy Book · tree and pragmatics
description: The old people next door were naturally very much put out when they learned the fate of their mortar, and were not at all comforted by the explanations and excuses made by their neighbour. Who acts: old people, people. A sentence of «The Violet Fairy Book» by Andrew Lang, The Envious Neighbour, with
---

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# The Violet Fairy Book, The Envious Neighbour, sentence 37

<!-- .ven lang=en -->
The old people next door were naturally very much put out when they learned the fate of their mortar, and were not at all comforted by the explanations and excuses made by their neighbour.

<!-- .vintro -->
**Who acts:** old people, people · **What happens:** be, put out, learn, comfort, make, fate · **To what, where:** all, fate, excuses, mortar

<!-- .vabout -->
This is a sentence of «The Violet Fairy Book» by Andrew Lang, The Envious Neighbour. The page gives its syntax tree — a dependency tree in the style of Universal Dependencies — and its pragmatics clause by clause: who acts (old people, people), 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:pg641:18:37
# text = The old people next door were naturally very much put out when they learned the fate of their mortar, and were not at all comforted by the explanations and excuses made by their neighbour.
1	The	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	3	det	_	_
2	old	old	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	3	amod	_	_
3	people	people	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	10	nsubj	_	_
4	next	next	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	5	amod	_	_
5	door	door	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	3	nmod	_	_
6	were	be	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=1|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	10	advcl	_	_
7	naturally	naturally	ADV	RB	_	6	advmod	_	_
8	very	very	ADV	RB	_	9	advmod	_	_
9	much	much	ADV	RB	_	10	advmod	_	_
10	put	put	VERB	VB	Mood=Imp|VerbForm=Fin	0	root	_	_
11	out	out	ADP	RP	_	10	compound:prt	_	_
12	when	when	ADV	WRB	PronType=Int	14	advmod	_	_
13	they	they	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Number=Plur|Person=3|PronType=Prs	14	nsubj	_	_
14	learned	learn	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Plur|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	10	advcl	_	_
15	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	16	det	_	_
16	fate	fate	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	14	obj	_	_
17	of	of	ADP	IN	_	19	case	_	_
18	their	their	PRON	PRP$	Case=Gen|Number=Plur|Person=3|Poss=Yes|PronType=Prs	19	nmod:poss	_	_
19	mortar	mortar	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	16	nmod	_	SpaceAfter=No
20	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	25	punct	_	_
21	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	25	cc	_	_
22	were	be	AUX	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	25	cop	_	_
23	not	not	PART	RB	Polarity=Neg	25	advmod	_	_
24	at	at	ADP	IN	_	25	case	_	_
25	all	all	DET	DT	PronType=Tot	10	obj	_	_
26	comforted	comfort	VERB	VBN	Tense=Past|VerbForm=Part|Voice=Pass	25	acl	_	_
27	by	by	ADP	IN	_	29	case	_	_
28	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	29	det	_	_
29	explanations	explanation	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	26	obl	_	_
30	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	31	cc	_	_
31	excuses	excuse	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	29	conj	_	_
32	made	make	VERB	VBN	Tense=Past|VerbForm=Part|Voice=Pass	31	acl	_	_
33	by	by	ADP	IN	_	35	case	_	_
34	their	their	PRON	PRP$	Case=Gen|Number=Plur|Person=3|Poss=Yes|PronType=Prs	35	nmod:poss	_	_
35	neighbour	neighbour	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	32	obl	_	SpaceAfter=No
36	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	10	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

<!-- .fr -->
| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **be** | past | the old people  next door *not said here* |  |  |  |  | naturally *property* | vn exist-47.1 «NP V»: agent=Theme |
| 2 | **put out** | infinitive | the old people  next door | all |  |  |  |  | vn invest-13.5.4-1 «NP V PP»: agent=Agent all=Goal |
| 3 | **learn** | past | people | the fate of people's mortar |  |  |  |  | vn learn-14-2-1 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent fate=Topic |
| 4 | **comfort** | participle |  |  |  |  |  | by the explanations and excuses | vn amuse-31.1 «NP V ADV-Middle»: agent=Experiencer |
| 5 | **make** | participle |  | excuses *not said here* |  |  |  | by people's neighbour | vn build-26.1-1 «NP.asset V NP»: agent=Asset |
| 6 | **fate** |  |  | people's mortar |  |  |  |  | nom fate «event transitive»: of=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.

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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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