---
title: They were allowed to take their own time, and meanwhile the four old… — The Green Fairy Book · tree and pragmatics
description: They were allowed to take their own time, and meanwhile the four oldest fairies were to attend to the affairs of the kingdom. Who acts: Surcantine, four oldest fairies. A sentence of «The Green Fairy Book» by Andrew Lang, The Enchanted Watch, with its dependency tree and the pragmatics of every clau
---

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# The Green Fairy Book, The Enchanted Watch, sentence 103

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They were allowed to take their own time, and meanwhile the four oldest fairies were to attend to the affairs of the kingdom.

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**Who acts:** Surcantine, four oldest fairies · **What happens:** allow, take, attend · **To what, where:** Surcantine

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This is a sentence of «The Green Fairy Book» by Andrew Lang, The Enchanted Watch. The page gives its syntax tree — a dependency tree in the style of Universal Dependencies — and its pragmatics clause by clause: who acts (Surcantine, four oldest fairies), 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:pg7277:8:103
# text = They were allowed to take their own time, and meanwhile the four oldest fairies were to attend to the affairs of the kingdom.
1	They	they	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Number=Plur|Person=3|PronType=Prs	3	nsubj:pass	_	_
2	were	be	AUX	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Plur|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	3	aux:pass	_	_
3	allowed	allow	VERB	VBN	Tense=Past|VerbForm=Part|Voice=Pass	0	root	_	_
4	to	to	PART	TO	_	5	mark	_	_
5	take	take	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	3	xcomp	_	_
6	their	their	PRON	PRP$	Case=Gen|Number=Plur|Person=3|Poss=Yes|PronType=Prs	8	nmod:poss	_	_
7	own	own	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	8	amod	_	_
8	time	time	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	5	obj	_	SpaceAfter=No
9	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	18	punct	_	_
10	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	18	cc	_	_
11	meanwhile	meanwhile	ADV	RB	_	18	advmod	_	_
12	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	15	det	_	_
13	four	four	NUM	CD	NumForm=Word|NumType=Card	15	nummod	_	_
14	oldest	old	ADJ	JJS	Degree=Sup	15	amod	_	_
15	fairies	fairy	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	18	nsubj	_	_
16	were	be	AUX	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Plur|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	18	aux	_	_
17	to	to	PART	TO	_	18	mark	_	_
18	attend	attend	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	3	parataxis	_	_
19	to	to	ADP	IN	_	21	case	_	_
20	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	21	det	_	_
21	affairs	affair	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	18	obl	_	_
22	of	of	ADP	IN	_	24	case	_	_
23	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	24	det	_	_
24	kingdom	kingdom	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	21	nmod	_	SpaceAfter=No
25	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	3	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

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| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **allow** | past · passive |  | Surcantine |  |  |  |  | vn allow-64.1-1 «NP V NP S»: subject=Beneficiary clause=Eventuality |
| 2 | **take** *not said to happen* | to-infinitive | Surcantine *not said here* |  |  |  | time |  | vn bring-11.3 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent |
| 3 | **attend** | past | the four oldest fairies |  |  |  |  | to the affairs of the kingdom; meanwhile *property* | vn caring-75.2-1-1 «NP V PP»: agent=Agent to affair=Theme |

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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 Green Fairy Book» by Andrew Lang, Project Gutenberg book 7277 (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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