---
title: In his excitement he had forgotten the river, and it was not till th… — The Brown Fairy Book · tree and pragmatics
description: In his excitement he had forgotten the river, and it was not till the cold water touched his feet that he stood still by instinct. Who acts: club, river, cold water. A sentence of «The Brown Fairy Book» by Andrew Lang, The Brown Fairy Book, part 11, with its dependency tree and the pragmatics of eve
---

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# The Brown Fairy Book, The Brown Fairy Book, part 11, sentence 29

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In his excitement he had forgotten the river, and it was not till the cold water touched his feet that he stood still by instinct.

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**Who acts:** club, river, cold water · **What happens:** forget, not be, touch, stand, excite · **To what, where:** river, excitement, feet

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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 (club, river, cold water), 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:pg3282:11:29
# text = In his excitement he had forgotten the river, and it was not till the cold water touched his feet that he stood still by instinct.
1	In	in	ADP	IN	_	3	case	_	_
2	his	his	PRON	PRP$	Case=Gen|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|Poss=Yes|PronType=Prs	3	nmod:poss	_	_
3	excitement	excitement	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	6	obl	_	_
4	he	he	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	6	nsubj	_	_
5	had	have	AUX	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	6	aux	_	_
6	forgotten	forget	VERB	VBN	Tense=Past|VerbForm=Part	0	root	_	_
7	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	8	det	_	_
8	river	river	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	6	obj	_	SpaceAfter=No
9	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	18	punct	_	_
10	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	17	cc	_	_
11	it	it	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Gender=Neut|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	17	nsubj	_	_
12	was	be	AUX	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	17	cop	_	_
13	not	not	PART	RB	Polarity=Neg	17	advmod	_	_
14	till	till	ADP	IN	_	17	case	_	_
15	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	17	det	_	_
16	cold	cold	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	17	amod	_	_
17	water	water	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	18	nsubj	_	_
18	touched	touch	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	6	conj	_	_
19	his	his	PRON	PRP$	Case=Gen|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|Poss=Yes|PronType=Prs	20	nmod:poss	_	_
20	feet	foot	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	18	obj	_	_
21	that	that	SCONJ	IN	_	23	mark	_	_
22	he	he	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	23	nsubj	_	_
23	stood	stand	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	18	advcl	_	_
24	still	still	ADV	RB	_	23	advmod	_	_
25	by	by	ADP	IN	_	26	case	_	_
26	instinct	instinct	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	23	obl	_	SpaceAfter=No
27	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	6	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

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| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **forget** | past · perfect | club | the river |  | club's excitement |  |  | tree rules |
| 2 | **not** **is** | past | river |  |  |  | till the cold water |  | tree rules |
| 3 | **touch** | past | the cold water | club's feet |  |  |  |  | vn contiguous\_location-47.8-1 «NP V NP»: agent=Theme foot=Co-Theme |
| 4 | **stand** | past | club |  |  |  | still | by instinct | vn assuming\_position-50 «NP V PP.location»: agent=Agent by instinct=Location |
| 5 | **excite** |  | club |  |  |  |  |  | nom excitement «feeling 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 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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