---
title: How long he remained in this condition he could not have told, but s… — The Brown Fairy Book · tree and pragmatics
description: How long he remained in this condition he could not have told, but suddenly he awoke with a start, on hearing his name uttered softly. Who acts: manner, name. A sentence of «The Brown Fairy Book» by Andrew Lang, The Brown Fairy Book, part 11, with its dependency tree and the pragmatics of every clau
---

<!-- md -->
[Mova](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/) · [this page in HTML](https://mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg3282/11/14/)

<!-- crumbs -->
[home](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/) / [corpora](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/) / [tales](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/) / [The Brown Fairy Book](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg3282/) / [The Brown Fairy Book, part 11](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg3282/11/) / 14

# The Brown Fairy Book, The Brown Fairy Book, part 11, sentence 14

<!-- .ven lang=en -->
How long he remained in this condition he could not have told, but suddenly he awoke with a start, on hearing his name uttered softly.

<!-- .vintro -->
**Who acts:** manner, name · **What happens:** remain, not tell, awake, hear, utter, name · **To what, where:** condition · **Speech:** someone speaks here

<!-- .vabout -->
This is a sentence of «The Brown Fairy Book» by Andrew Lang, The Brown Fairy Book, part 11. The page gives its syntax tree — a dependency tree in the style of Universal Dependencies — and its pragmatics clause by clause: who acts (manner, name), 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:pg3282:11:14
# text = How long he remained in this condition he could not have told, but suddenly he awoke with a start, on hearing his name uttered softly.
1	How	how	ADV	WRB	PronType=Int	2	advmod	_	_
2	long	long	ADV	RB	Degree=Pos	4	advmod	_	_
3	he	he	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	4	nsubj	_	_
4	remained	remain	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	0	root	_	_
5	in	in	ADP	IN	_	7	case	_	_
6	this	this	DET	DT	Number=Sing|PronType=Dem	7	det	_	_
7	condition	condition	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	4	obl	_	_
8	he	he	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	12	nsubj	_	_
9	could	could	AUX	MD	VerbForm=Fin	12	aux	_	_
10	not	not	PART	RB	Polarity=Neg	12	advmod	_	_
11	have	have	AUX	VB	VerbForm=Inf	12	aux	_	_
12	told	tell	VERB	VBN	Tense=Past|VerbForm=Part	7	acl:relcl	_	SpaceAfter=No
13	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	17	punct	_	_
14	but	but	CCONJ	CC	_	17	cc	_	_
15	suddenly	suddenly	ADV	RB	_	17	advmod	_	_
16	he	he	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	17	nsubj	_	_
17	awoke	awake	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	4	conj	_	_
18	with	with	ADP	IN	_	20	case	_	_
19	a	a	DET	DT	Definite=Ind|PronType=Art	20	det	_	_
20	start	start	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	17	obl	_	SpaceAfter=No
21	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	23	punct	_	_
22	on	on	SCONJ	IN	_	23	mark	_	_
23	hearing	hear	VERB	VBG	Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Part	17	advcl	_	_
24	his	his	PRON	PRP$	Case=Gen|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|Poss=Yes|PronType=Prs	25	nmod:poss	_	_
25	name	name	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	26	nsubj	_	_
26	uttered	utter	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	23	ccomp	_	_
27	softly	softly	ADV	RB	_	26	advmod	_	SpaceAfter=No
28	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	4	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

<!-- .fr -->
| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **remain** | past | manner |  |  | this condition |  | long *property* | vn exist-47.1 «NP V PP.location»: agent=Theme in condition=Location |
| 2 | **not** **tell** *speech: assert* | could · perfect | manner | this condition *not said here* |  |  |  |  | vn transfer\_mesg-37.1.1-1-1 «NP V NP.recipient»: agent=Agent condition=Recipient |
| 3 | **awake** | past | manner |  |  |  |  | with a start; suddenly *property* | vn other\_cos-45.4-1 «NP V NP PP.instrument»: agent=Agent with start=Instrument |
| 4 | **hear** | gerund | manner *not said here* |  |  |  |  |  | vn see-30.1-1-1 «NP V S\_ING»: agent=Experiencer clause=Stimulus |
| 5 | **utter** *speech: other* | past | manner's name |  |  |  |  | softly *property* | vn say-37.7-1 «NP V how S»: agent=Agent |
| 6 | **name** |  | manner |  |  |  |  |  | nom name «communication 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.

<!-- div src -->

**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.

<!-- /div -->

<!-- pn -->
- ← previous: [sentence 13](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg3282/11/13/)
- next →: [sentence 15](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg3282/11/15/)
- ↑ back to [The Brown Fairy Book, part 11](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg3282/11/)