---
title: And so it always happened, and Covan's courage had well-nigh failed… — The Orange Fairy Book · tree and pragmatics
description: And so it always happened, and Covan's courage had well-nigh failed him, when the thought of the Dog of Maol-mor darted into his mind. Who acts: it, courage. A sentence of «The Orange Fairy Book» by Andrew Lang, Opening, part 31, with its dependency tree and the pragmatics of every clause.
---

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# The Orange Fairy Book, Opening, part 31, sentence 18

<!-- .ven lang=en -->
And so it always happened, and Covan's courage had well-nigh failed him, when the thought of the Dog of Maol-mor darted into his mind.

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**Who acts:** it, courage · **What happens:** happen, have, fail, dart, think, mind · **To what, where:** courage, thought, mind, Dog

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This is a sentence of «The Orange Fairy Book» by Andrew Lang, Opening, part 31. The page gives its syntax tree — a dependency tree in the style of Universal Dependencies — and its pragmatics clause by clause: who acts (it, courage), 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:pg3027:31:18
# text = And so it always happened, and Covan's courage had well-nigh failed him, when the thought of the Dog of Maol-mor darted into his mind.
1	And	and	CCONJ	CC	_	5	cc	_	_
2	so	so	ADV	RB	_	5	advmod	_	_
3	it	it	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Gender=Neut|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	5	nsubj	_	_
4	always	always	ADV	RB	PronType=Tot	5	advmod	_	_
5	happened	happen	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	0	root	_	SpaceAfter=No
6	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	11	punct	_	_
7	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	11	cc	_	_
8	Covan	Covan	PROPN	NNP	Number=Sing	10	nmod:poss	_	SpaceAfter=No
9	's	's	PART	POS	_	8	case	_	_
10	courage	courage	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	11	nsubj	_	_
11	had	have	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	5	conj	_	_
12	well	well	ADV	RB	Degree=Pos	15	advmod	_	SpaceAfter=No
13	-	-	PUNCT	HYPH	_	12	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
14	nigh	nigh	ADV	RB	_	15	advmod	_	_
15	failed	fail	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=1|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	11	advcl	_	_
16	him	he	PRON	PRP	Case=Acc|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	15	obj	_	SpaceAfter=No
17	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	28	punct	_	_
18	when	when	ADV	WRB	PronType=Int	28	advmod	_	_
19	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	20	det	_	_
20	thought	thought	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	28	nsubj:pass	_	_
21	of	of	ADP	IN	_	23	case	_	_
22	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	23	det	_	_
23	Dog	dog	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	20	nmod	_	_
24	of	of	ADP	IN	_	27	case	_	_
25	Maol	Maol	PROPN	NNP	Number=Sing	27	compound	_	SpaceAfter=No
26	-	-	PUNCT	HYPH	_	25	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
27	mor	mor	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	23	nmod	_	_
28	darted	dart	VERB	VBN	Tense=Past|VerbForm=Part|Voice=Pass	15	conj	_	_
29	into	into	ADP	IN	_	31	case	_	_
30	his	his	PRON	PRP$	Case=Gen|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|Poss=Yes|PronType=Prs	31	nmod:poss	_	_
31	mind	mind	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	28	obl	_	SpaceAfter=No
32	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	5	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

<!-- .fr -->
| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **happen** | past | it |  |  |  |  | always *property* | vn occur-48.3-1 «NP V»: agent=Theme |
| 2 | **have** | past | Covan's courage |  |  |  |  |  | vn birth-28.2-1 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent |
| 3 | **fail** | past | Covan's courage *not said here* | courage |  |  |  | nigh, well *property* | vn succeed-74-3-1-1 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent he=Eventuality |
| 4 | **dart** | participle · passive |  | the thought of the Dog of Maol mor |  | courage's mind |  |  | vn run-51.3.2-2 «NP V NP PP.trajectory»: subject=Theme into mind=Trajectory |
| 5 | **think** |  |  | the Dog of Maol mor |  |  |  |  | nom thought «cognition transitive»: of=patient |
| 6 | **mind** |  | courage |  |  |  |  |  | nom mind «cognition transitive»: poss=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 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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