---
title: Surely eggs take longer hatching than they did,' she said to herself… — The Orange Fairy Book · tree and pragmatics
description: Surely eggs take longer hatching than they did,' she said to herself; and she pined for a little amusement also. Who acts: eggs, duck. A sentence of «The Orange Fairy Book» by Andrew Lang, Opening, part 8, with its dependency tree and the pragmatics of every clause.
---

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# The Orange Fairy Book, Opening, part 8, sentence 69

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Surely eggs take longer hatching than they did,' she said to herself; and she pined for a little amusement also.

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**Who acts:** eggs, duck · **What happens:** take, hatch, do, say, pine · **To what, where:** duck · **Speech:** someone speaks here

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This is a sentence of «The Orange Fairy Book» by Andrew Lang, Opening, part 8. The page gives its syntax tree — a dependency tree in the style of Universal Dependencies — and its pragmatics clause by clause: who acts (eggs, duck), 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:pg3027:8:69
# text = Surely eggs take longer hatching than they did,' she said to herself; and she pined for a little amusement also.
1	Surely	surely	ADV	RB	_	3	advmod	_	_
2	eggs	egg	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	3	nsubj	_	_
3	take	take	VERB	VBP	Mood=Ind|Number=Plur|Person=3|Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Fin	0	root	_	_
4	longer	long	ADV	RBR	Degree=Cmp	3	advmod	_	_
5	hatching	hatch	VERB	VBG	Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Part	3	advcl	_	_
6	than	than	SCONJ	IN	_	8	mark	_	_
7	they	they	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Number=Plur|Person=3|PronType=Prs	8	nsubj	_	_
8	did	do	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	5	advcl	_	SpaceAfter=No
9	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	8	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
10	'	'	PUNCT	''	_	8	punct	_	_
11	she	she	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Gender=Fem|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	12	nsubj	_	_
12	said	say	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	8	parataxis	_	_
13	to	to	ADP	IN	_	14	case	_	_
14	herself	herself	PRON	PRP	Case=Acc|Gender=Fem|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs|Reflex=Yes	12	obl	_	SpaceAfter=No
15	;	;	PUNCT	,	_	18	punct	_	_
16	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	18	cc	_	_
17	she	she	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Gender=Fem|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	18	nsubj	_	_
18	pined	pine	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	3	parataxis	_	_
19	for	for	ADP	IN	_	22	case	_	_
20	a	a	DET	DT	Definite=Ind|PronType=Art	22	det	_	_
21	little	little	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	22	amod	_	_
22	amusement	amusement	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	18	obl	_	_
23	also	also	ADV	RB	_	18	advmod	_	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 | **take** | present | eggs |  |  |  |  | long, surely *property* | vn bring-11.3 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent |
| 2 | **hatch** | gerund | eggs *not said here* |  |  |  |  |  | vn grow-26.2.1 «NP.patient V PP.product»: agent=Patient |
| 3 | **do** | past | eggs *= egg* |  |  |  |  |  | vn act-114-1 «NP V»: agent=Agent |
| 4 | **say** *speech: assert* | past | duck |  | duck |  |  |  | vn say-37.7-1-1 «NP V PP.recipient S-Quote»: agent=Agent to herself=Recipient |
| 5 | **pine** | past | duck |  |  |  |  | for a little amusement | vn long-32.2 «NP V PP.theme»: agent=Pivot for amusement=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 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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