---
title: Then he kissed the handkerchief twice or thrice, and burst into tear… — The Orange Fairy Book · tree and pragmatics
description: Then he kissed the handkerchief twice or thrice, and burst into tears, and it was some minutes before he could speak. Who acts: king, handkerchief. A sentence of «The Orange Fairy Book» by Andrew Lang, Opening, part 28, 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/pg3027/28/80/)

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# The Orange Fairy Book, Opening, part 28, sentence 80

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Then he kissed the handkerchief twice or thrice, and burst into tears, and it was some minutes before he could speak.

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**Who acts:** king, handkerchief · **What happens:** kiss, burst, be, speak · **To what, where:** handkerchief, tears, minutes · **Speech:** someone speaks here

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This is a sentence of «The Orange Fairy Book» by Andrew Lang, Opening, part 28. The page gives its syntax tree — a dependency tree in the style of Universal Dependencies — and its pragmatics clause by clause: who acts (king, handkerchief), 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:pg3027:28:80
# text = Then he kissed the handkerchief twice or thrice, and burst into tears, and it was some minutes before he could speak.
1	Then	then	ADV	RB	PronType=Dem	3	advmod	_	_
2	he	he	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	3	nsubj	_	_
3	kissed	kiss	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	0	root	_	_
4	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	5	det	_	_
5	handkerchief	handkerchief	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	3	obj	_	_
6	twice	twice	ADV	RB	NumForm=Word|NumType=Mult	3	advmod	_	_
7	or	or	CCONJ	CC	_	8	cc	_	_
8	thrice	thrice	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	6	conj	_	SpaceAfter=No
9	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	11	punct	_	_
10	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	11	cc	_	_
11	burst	burst	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	3	conj	_	_
12	into	into	ADP	IN	_	13	case	_	_
13	tears	tear	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	11	obl	_	SpaceAfter=No
14	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	19	punct	_	_
15	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	19	cc	_	_
16	it	it	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Gender=Neut|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	19	nsubj	_	_
17	was	be	AUX	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	19	cop	_	_
18	some	some	DET	DT	PronType=Ind	19	det	_	_
19	minutes	minute	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	11	obl	_	_
20	before	before	SCONJ	IN	_	23	mark	_	_
21	he	he	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	23	nsubj	_	_
22	could	could	AUX	MD	VerbForm=Fin	23	aux	_	_
23	speak	speak	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	19	acl	_	SpaceAfter=No
24	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	3	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

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| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **kiss** | past | king | the handkerchief |  |  | then | twice *property* | vn marry-36.2 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent handkerchief=Co-Agent |
| 2 | **burst** | past | king *not said here* |  |  | tears |  |  | vn appear-48.1.1 «NP V»: agent=Theme |
| 3 | **is a** | past | handkerchief | some minutes |  |  |  |  | tree rules |
| 4 | **speak** *speech: other* | could | king | some minutes *not said here* |  |  |  |  | tree rules |

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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 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.

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