---
title: “What an idea!” said Niels, who was growing impatient at the slow pr… — The Crimson Fairy Book · tree and pragmatics
description: “What an idea!” said Niels, who was growing impatient at the slow progress they were making. Who acts: idea, Niels. A sentence of «The Crimson Fairy Book» by Andrew Lang, The Crimson Fairy Book, part 29, with its dependency tree and the pragmatics of every clause.
---

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[Mova](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/) · [this page in HTML](https://mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg2435/29/119/)

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# The Crimson Fairy Book, The Crimson Fairy Book, part 29, sentence 119

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“What an idea!” said Niels, who was growing impatient at the slow progress they were making.

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**Who acts:** idea, Niels · **What happens:** idea, say, grow, make · **To what, where:** slow progress · **Speech:** someone speaks here

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This is a sentence of «The Crimson Fairy Book» by Andrew Lang, The Crimson Fairy Book, part 29. The page gives its syntax tree — a dependency tree in the style of Universal Dependencies — and its pragmatics clause by clause: who acts (idea, Niels), 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:pg2435:29:119
# text = “What an idea!” said Niels, who was growing impatient at the slow progress they were making.
1	“	"	PUNCT	``	_	4	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
2	What	what	PRON	WP	PronType=Int	4	nsubj	_	_
3	an	a	DET	DT	Definite=Ind|PronType=Art	4	det	_	_
4	idea	idea	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	7	nsubj	_	SpaceAfter=No
5	!	!	PUNCT	.	_	4	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
6	”	"	PUNCT	''	_	4	punct	_	_
7	said	say	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	0	root	_	_
8	Niels	Niels	PROPN	NNP	Number=Sing	7	nsubj	_	SpaceAfter=No
9	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	12	punct	_	_
10	who	who	PRON	WP	PronType=Rel	12	nsubj	_	_
11	was	be	AUX	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	12	aux	_	_
12	growing	grow	VERB	VBG	Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Part	8	acl	_	_
13	impatient	impatient	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	12	xcomp	_	_
14	at	at	ADP	IN	_	17	case	_	_
15	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	17	det	_	_
16	slow	slow	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	17	amod	_	_
17	progress	progress	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	13	obl	_	_
18	they	they	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Number=Plur|Person=3|PronType=Prs	20	nsubj	_	_
19	were	be	AUX	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Plur|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	20	aux	_	_
20	making	make	VERB	VBG	Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Part	17	acl:relcl	_	SpaceAfter=No
21	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	7	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

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| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **idea** *in a quote* |  |  |  |  |  |  |  | tree rules |
| 2 | **say** *speech: express* | past | a idea |  |  |  |  |  | vn say-37.7-1-1 «NP V that S»: agent=Agent |
| 3 | **grow** | past · progressive | Niels |  |  |  |  | impatient *property* | vn appear-48.1.1 «NP V»: agent=Theme |
| 4 | **make** | past · progressive | Niels | the slow progress *not said here* |  |  |  |  | vn build-26.1-1 «NP.asset V NP»: agent=Asset progress=Product |

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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 Crimson Fairy Book» by Andrew Lang, Project Gutenberg book 2435 (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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