---
title: There was silence between them for a moment, then, turning away his… — The Orange Fairy Book · tree and pragmatics
description: There was silence between them for a moment, then, turning away his head, the prince answered gently: Who acts: silence, moment, head. A sentence of «The Orange Fairy Book» by Andrew Lang, Opening, part 26, with its dependency tree and the pragmatics of every clause.
---

<!-- md -->
[Mova](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/) · [this page in HTML](https://mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg3027/26/54/)

<!-- crumbs -->
[home](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/) / [corpora](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/) / [tales](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/) / [The Orange Fairy Book](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg3027/) / [Opening, part 26](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg3027/26/) / 54

# The Orange Fairy Book, Opening, part 26, sentence 54

<!-- .ven lang=en -->
There was silence between them for a moment, then, turning away his head, the prince answered gently:

<!-- .vintro -->
**Who acts:** silence, moment, head · **What happens:** be, turn away, answer

<!-- .vabout -->
This is a sentence of «The Orange Fairy Book» by Andrew Lang, Opening, part 26. The page gives its syntax tree — a dependency tree in the style of Universal Dependencies — and its pragmatics clause by clause: who acts (silence, moment, head), 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:pg3027:26:54
# text = There was silence between them for a moment, then, turning away his head, the prince answered gently:
1	There	there	PRON	EX	PronType=Dem	2	expl	_	_
2	was	be	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	0	root	_	_
3	silence	silence	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	2	nsubj	_	_
4	between	between	ADP	IN	_	5	case	_	_
5	them	they	PRON	PRP	Case=Acc|Number=Plur|Person=3|PronType=Prs	3	nmod	_	_
6	for	for	ADP	IN	_	8	case	_	_
7	a	a	DET	DT	Definite=Ind|PronType=Art	8	det	_	_
8	moment	moment	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	2	obl	_	SpaceAfter=No
9	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	12	punct	_	_
10	then	then	ADV	RB	PronType=Dem	12	advmod	_	SpaceAfter=No
11	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	12	punct	_	_
12	turning	turn	VERB	VBG	Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Part	8	acl:relcl	_	_
13	away	away	ADV	RB	_	12	advmod	_	_
14	his	his	PRON	PRP$	Case=Gen|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|Poss=Yes|PronType=Prs	15	nmod:poss	_	_
15	head	head	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	19	nsubj	_	SpaceAfter=No
16	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	18	punct	_	_
17	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	18	det	_	_
18	prince	prince	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	15	conj	_	_
19	answered	answer	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	12	parataxis	_	_
20	gently	gently	ADV	RB	_	19	advmod	_	SpaceAfter=No
21	:	:	PUNCT	:	_	2	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

<!-- .fr -->
| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **be** | past | silence between queen |  |  | there | moment |  | vn exist-47.1 «NP V»: agent=Theme |
| 2 | **turn away** | gerund | a moment *not said here* |  |  |  | then | away *property* | vn banish-10.2 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent |
| 3 | **answer** *speech: assert* | past | silence's head and the prince |  |  |  |  | gently *property* | vn reciprocate-112-1 «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.

<!-- div src -->

**Text:** «The Orange Fairy Book» by Andrew Lang, Project Gutenberg book 3027 (public domain in the USA). **Tree:** Mova's own parse, Elamur Cosmic License. **Frames:** Mova's frames reader (`prag`), the chapter read in order.

<!-- /div -->

<!-- pn -->
- ← previous: [sentence 53](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg3027/26/53/)
- next →: [sentence 55](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg3027/26/55/)
- ↑ back to [Opening, part 26](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg3027/26/)