---
title: But when dinner-time came, and the boy did not return, his father an… — The Violet Fairy Book · tree and pragmatics
description: But when dinner-time came, and the boy did not return, his father and mother knew that he would never come back, and they sat down and wept all day. Who acts: dinner time, boy, father, boys. A sentence of «The Violet Fairy Book» by Andrew Lang, The Story of Halfman, with its dependency tree and the 
---

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# The Violet Fairy Book, The Story of Halfman, sentence 191

<!-- .ven lang=en -->
But when dinner-time came, and the boy did not return, his father and mother knew that he would never come back, and they sat down and wept all day.

<!-- .vintro -->
**Who acts:** dinner time, boy, father, boys · **What happens:** come, not return, know, not come back, sit down, weep · **Speech:** someone speaks here

<!-- .vabout -->
This is a sentence of «The Violet Fairy Book» by Andrew Lang, The Story of Halfman. The page gives its syntax tree — a dependency tree in the style of Universal Dependencies — and its pragmatics clause by clause: who acts (dinner time, boy, father, boys), 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:pg641:41:191
# text = But when dinner-time came, and the boy did not return, his father and mother knew that he would never come back, and they sat down and wept all day.
1	But	but	CCONJ	CC	_	19	cc	_	_
2	when	when	SCONJ	WRB	_	6	mark	_	_
3	dinner	dinner	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	5	compound	_	SpaceAfter=No
4	-	-	PUNCT	HYPH	_	3	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
5	time	time	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	6	nsubj	_	_
6	came	come	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	19	advcl	_	SpaceAfter=No
7	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	13	punct	_	_
8	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	13	cc	_	_
9	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	10	det	_	_
10	boy	boy	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	13	nsubj	_	_
11	did	do	AUX	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	13	aux	_	_
12	not	not	PART	RB	Polarity=Neg	13	advmod	_	_
13	return	return	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	6	conj	_	SpaceAfter=No
14	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	6	punct	_	_
15	his	his	PRON	PRP$	Case=Gen|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|Poss=Yes|PronType=Prs	16	nmod:poss	_	_
16	father	father	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	19	nsubj	_	_
17	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	18	cc	_	_
18	mother	mother	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	16	conj	_	_
19	knew	know	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	0	root	_	_
20	that	that	SCONJ	IN	_	24	mark	_	_
21	he	he	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	24	nsubj	_	_
22	would	would	AUX	MD	VerbForm=Fin	24	aux	_	_
23	never	never	ADV	RB	PronType=Neg	24	advmod	_	_
24	come	come	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	19	ccomp	_	_
25	back	back	ADV	RB	_	24	advmod	_	SpaceAfter=No
26	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	29	punct	_	_
27	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	29	cc	_	_
28	they	they	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Number=Plur|Person=3|PronType=Prs	29	nsubj	_	_
29	sat	sit	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Plur|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	19	parataxis	_	_
30	down	down	ADP	RP	_	29	compound:prt	_	_
31	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	32	cc	_	_
32	wept	weep	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Plur|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	29	conj	_	_
33	all	all	DET	DT	PronType=Tot	34	det	_	_
34	day	day	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	32	obl:unmarked	_	SpaceAfter=No
35	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	19	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

<!-- .fr -->
| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **come** | past | dinner time |  |  |  |  |  | vn escape-51.1-1 «NP V»: agent=Theme |
| 2 | **not** **return** | past · do-support | the boy |  |  |  |  |  | vn escape-51.1-1 «NP V»: agent=Theme |
| 3 | **know** | past | delay's father and mother |  |  |  |  |  | vn comprehend-87.2-1-1-1 «NP V S\_ING»: agent=Experiencer clause=Stimulus |
| 4 | **not** **come back** | would | father |  |  |  |  |  | vn escape-51.1-1 «NP V»: agent=Theme |
| 5 | **sit down** | past | boys *= boy* |  |  |  |  |  | vn assuming\_position-50 «NP V»: agent=Agent |
| 6 | **weep** | past | boys *= boy* *not said here* |  |  |  | day |  | vn breathe-40.1.2 «NP V»: agent=Agent |

<!-- .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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