---
title: The girl had been born in the town, and had scarcely ever left it; b… — The Brown Fairy Book · tree and pragmatics
description: The girl had been born in the town, and had scarcely ever left it; but the young man was a native of another country, and had only come to the city near the great river because he could find no work to do where he was. Who acts: young man, man. A sentence of «The Brown Fairy Book» by Andrew Lang, Th
---

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# The Brown Fairy Book, The Brown Fairy Book, part 10, sentence 42

<!-- .ven lang=en -->
The girl had been born in the town, and had scarcely ever left it; but the young man was a native of another country, and had only come to the city near the great river because he could find no work to do where he was.

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**Who acts:** young man, man · **What happens:** bear, have, leave, be, come, find · **To what, where:** girl, town, native, great river, work

<!-- .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 (young man, man), 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:pg3282:10:42
# text = The girl had been born in the town, and had scarcely ever left it; but the young man was a native of another country, and had only come to the city near the great river because he could find no work to do where he was.
1	The	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	2	det	_	_
2	girl	girl	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	5	nsubj:pass	_	_
3	had	have	AUX	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	5	aux	_	_
4	been	be	AUX	VBN	Tense=Past|VerbForm=Part	5	aux:pass	_	_
5	born	bear	VERB	VBN	Tense=Past|VerbForm=Part|Voice=Pass	0	root	_	_
6	in	in	ADP	IN	_	8	case	_	_
7	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	8	det	_	_
8	town	town	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	5	obl	_	SpaceAfter=No
9	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	11	punct	_	_
10	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	11	cc	_	_
11	had	have	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	5	conj	_	_
12	scarcely	scarcely	ADV	RB	_	14	advmod	_	_
13	ever	ever	ADV	RB	PronType=Ind	14	advmod	_	_
14	left	leave	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	11	ccomp	_	_
15	it	it	PRON	PRP	Case=Acc|Gender=Neut|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	14	obj	_	SpaceAfter=No
16	;	;	PUNCT	:	_	23	punct	_	_
17	but	but	CCONJ	CC	_	23	cc	_	_
18	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	20	det	_	_
19	young	young	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	20	amod	_	_
20	man	man	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	23	nsubj	_	_
21	was	be	AUX	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	23	cop	_	_
22	a	a	DET	DT	Definite=Ind|PronType=Art	23	det	_	_
23	native	native	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	5	parataxis	_	_
24	of	of	ADP	IN	_	26	case	_	_
25	another	another	DET	DT	PronType=Ind	26	det	_	_
26	country	country	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	23	nmod	_	SpaceAfter=No
27	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	31	punct	_	_
28	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	31	cc	_	_
29	had	have	AUX	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	31	aux	_	_
30	only	only	ADV	RB	_	31	advmod	_	_
31	come	come	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	5	conj	_	_
32	to	to	ADP	IN	_	34	case	_	_
33	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	34	det	_	_
34	city	city	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	31	obl	_	_
35	near	near	ADP	IN	_	38	case	_	_
36	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	38	det	_	_
37	great	great	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	38	amod	_	_
38	river	river	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	31	obl	_	_
39	because	because	SCONJ	IN	_	42	mark	_	_
40	he	he	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	42	nsubj	_	_
41	could	could	AUX	MD	VerbForm=Fin	42	aux	_	_
42	find	find	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	31	advcl	_	_
43	no	no	DET	DT	PronType=Neg	44	det	_	_
44	work	work	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	42	obj	_	_
45	to	to	PART	TO	_	46	mark	_	_
46	do	do	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	44	acl	_	_
47	where	where	ADV	WRB	PronType=Rel	49	advmod	_	_
48	he	he	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	49	nsubj	_	_
49	was	be	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	46	advcl	_	SpaceAfter=No
50	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	5	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

<!-- .fr -->
| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **bear** | past · perfect · passive |  | the girl |  | the town |  |  | vn birth-28.2-1-1 «NP V NP»: subject=Patient |
| 2 | **have** | past |  |  |  |  |  |  | tree rules |
| 3 | **leave** | past |  | town |  |  | ever | scarcely *property* | vn keep-15.2 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent it=Theme |
| 4 | **is a** | past | the young man | a native |  |  |  | of another country | tree rules |
| 5 | **come** | past |  |  |  | the great river |  | to the city | vn escape-51.1-1 «NP V PP.initial\_location»: agent=Theme to city=Initial\_Location |
| 6 | **find** | could | man | no work |  |  |  |  | vn discover-84 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent work=Topic |
| 7 | **do** | to-infinitive | man *not said here* | no work *not said here* |  |  |  |  | vn act-114-1 «NP V»: agent=Agent |
| 8 | **be** | past | man |  |  |  |  |  | vn exist-47.1 «NP V»: agent=Theme |

<!-- .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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