---
title: He threw off his clothes, and was just about to dive in headlong, wh… — The Brown Fairy Book · tree and pragmatics
description: He threw off his clothes, and was just about to dive in headlong, when something—he did not know what—suddenly caused him to look round. Who acts: moon. A sentence of «The Brown Fairy Book» by Andrew Lang, The Brown Fairy Book, part 10, with its dependency tree and the pragmatics of every clause.
---

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# The Brown Fairy Book, The Brown Fairy Book, part 10, sentence 127

<!-- .ven lang=en -->
He threw off his clothes, and was just about to dive in headlong, when something—he did not know what—suddenly caused him to look round.

<!-- .vintro -->
**Who acts:** moon · **What happens:** throw off, be, not know, cause, look round · **To what, where:** clothes, headlong, moon

<!-- .vabout -->
This is a sentence of «The Brown Fairy Book» by Andrew Lang, The Brown Fairy Book, part 10. The page gives its syntax tree — a dependency tree in the style of Universal Dependencies — and its pragmatics clause by clause: who acts (moon), 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:pg3282:10:127
# text = He threw off his clothes, and was just about to dive in headlong, when something—he did not know what—suddenly caused him to look round.
1	He	he	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	2	nsubj	_	_
2	threw	throw	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	0	root	_	_
3	off	off	ADP	RP	_	2	compound:prt	_	_
4	his	his	PRON	PRP$	Case=Gen|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|Poss=Yes|PronType=Prs	5	nmod:poss	_	_
5	clothes	clothes	NOUN	NNS	Number=Ptan	2	obj	_	SpaceAfter=No
6	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	12	punct	_	_
7	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	12	cc	_	_
8	was	be	AUX	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	12	cop	_	_
9	just	just	ADV	RB	_	10	advmod	_	_
10	about	about	ADV	RB	_	12	advmod	_	_
11	to	to	PART	TO	_	12	mark	_	_
12	dive	dive	VERB	VB	Mood=Imp|VerbForm=Fin	2	parataxis	_	_
13	in	in	ADP	IN	_	14	case	_	_
14	headlong	headlong	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	12	obl	_	SpaceAfter=No
15	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	17	punct	_	_
16	when	when	ADV	WRB	PronType=Int	17	advmod	_	_
17	something	something	PRON	NN	Number=Sing|PronType=Ind	12	conj	_	SpaceAfter=No
18	—	-	PUNCT	:	_	22	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
19	he	he	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	22	nsubj	_	_
20	did	do	AUX	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	22	aux	_	_
21	not	not	PART	RB	Polarity=Neg	22	advmod	_	_
22	know	know	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	17	parataxis	_	_
23	what	what	PRON	WP	PronType=Int	22	obj	_	SpaceAfter=No
24	—	-	PUNCT	:	_	26	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
25	suddenly	suddenly	ADV	RB	_	26	advmod	_	_
26	caused	cause	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	22	conj	_	_
27	him	he	PRON	PRP	Case=Acc|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	26	obj	_	_
28	to	to	PART	TO	_	29	mark	_	_
29	look	look	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	26	xcomp	_	_
30	round	round	ADV	RB	_	29	advmod	_	SpaceAfter=No
31	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	2	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

<!-- .fr -->
| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **throw off** | past | moon | moon's clothes |  |  |  |  | vn throw-17.1-1-1 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent clothes=Theme |
| 2 | **is** | past |  |  |  | headlong |  | about, dive *property* | tree rules |
| 3 | **not** **know** | past · do-support | moon |  |  |  |  |  | vn comprehend-87.2-1-1-1 «NP V NP PP.attribute»: agent=Experiencer what=Stimulus |
| 4 | **cause** | past | moon *not said here* | moon |  |  |  | suddenly *property* | tree rules |
| 5 | **look round** | to-infinitive | moon *not said here* |  |  |  |  | round *property* | vn stimulus\_subject-30.4 «NP V PP.attribute»: agent=Stimulus |

<!-- .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 Brown Fairy Book» by Andrew Lang, Project Gutenberg book 3282 (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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