---
title: One day, when the little fellow was hungrier than usual, he asked hi… — The Brown Fairy Book · tree and pragmatics
description: One day, when the little fellow was hungrier than usual, he asked his grandmother if he might go down to the river and catch a fish for their breakfast, as the thaw had come and the water was flowing freely again. Who acts: little fellow, Hare, thaw, water. A sentence of «The Brown Fairy Book» by An
---

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[Mova](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/) · [this page in HTML](https://mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg3282/11/43/)

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# The Brown Fairy Book, The Brown Fairy Book, part 11, sentence 43

<!-- .ven lang=en -->
One day, when the little fellow was hungrier than usual, he asked his grandmother if he might go down to the river and catch a fish for their breakfast, as the thaw had come and the water was flowing freely again.

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**Who acts:** little fellow, Hare, thaw, water · **What happens:** be, ask, go down, catch, come, flow · **To what, where:** grandmother, fish

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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 (little fellow, Hare, thaw, 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:pg3282:11:43
# text = One day, when the little fellow was hungrier than usual, he asked his grandmother if he might go down to the river and catch a fish for their breakfast, as the thaw had come and the water was flowing freely again.
1	One	one	NUM	CD	NumForm=Word|NumType=Card	2	nummod	_	_
2	day	day	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	14	obl:unmarked	_	SpaceAfter=No
3	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	9	punct	_	_
4	when	when	ADV	WRB	PronType=Int	9	advmod	_	_
5	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	7	det	_	_
6	little	little	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	7	amod	_	_
7	fellow	fellow	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	9	nsubj	_	_
8	was	be	AUX	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	9	cop	_	_
9	hungrier	hungry	ADJ	JJR	Degree=Cmp	2	acl:relcl	_	_
10	than	than	ADP	IN	_	11	case	_	_
11	usual	usual	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	9	obl	_	SpaceAfter=No
12	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	2	punct	_	_
13	he	he	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	14	nsubj	_	_
14	asked	ask	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	0	root	_	_
15	his	his	PRON	PRP$	Case=Gen|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|Poss=Yes|PronType=Prs	16	nmod:poss	_	_
16	grandmother	grandmother	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	14	iobj	_	_
17	if	if	SCONJ	IN	_	20	mark	_	_
18	he	he	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	20	nsubj	_	_
19	might	might	AUX	MD	VerbForm=Fin	20	aux	_	_
20	go	go	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	14	ccomp	_	_
21	down	down	ADV	RB	_	20	advmod	_	_
22	to	to	ADP	IN	_	24	case	_	_
23	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	24	det	_	_
24	river	river	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	20	obl	_	_
25	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	26	cc	_	_
26	catch	catch	VERB	VBP	Mood=Ind|Number=Plur|Person=3|Tense=Pres|Typo=Yes|VerbForm=Fin	14	conj	_	_
27	a	a	DET	DT	Definite=Ind|PronType=Art	28	det	_	_
28	fish	fish	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	26	obj	_	_
29	for	for	ADP	IN	_	31	case	_	_
30	their	their	PRON	PRP$	Case=Gen|Number=Plur|Person=3|Poss=Yes|PronType=Prs	31	nmod:poss	_	_
31	breakfast	breakfast	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	26	obl	_	SpaceAfter=No
32	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	37	punct	_	_
33	as	as	SCONJ	IN	_	37	mark	_	_
34	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	35	det	_	_
35	thaw	thaw	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	37	nsubj	_	_
36	had	have	AUX	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	37	aux	_	_
37	come	come	VERB	VBN	Tense=Past|VerbForm=Part	14	parataxis	_	_
38	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	42	cc	_	_
39	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	40	det	_	_
40	water	water	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	42	nsubj	_	_
41	was	be	AUX	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	42	aux	_	_
42	flowing	flow	VERB	VBG	Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Part	37	conj	_	_
43	freely	freely	ADV	RB	_	42	advmod	_	_
44	again	again	ADV	RB	_	42	advmod	_	SpaceAfter=No
45	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	14	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

<!-- .fr -->
| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **is** | past | the little fellow |  |  |  |  | than usual; hungry *property* | tree rules |
| 2 | **ask** *speech: ask* | past | Hare |  | Hare's grandmother |  | day |  | vn inquire-37.1.2 «NP V NP whether S»: agent=Agent grandmother=Recipient clause=Topic |
| 3 | **go down** *a condition, not said to happen* | might | Hare |  |  |  |  | to the river; down *property* | vn calibratable\_cos-45.6.1-1 «NP.attribute V»: agent=Attribute |
| 4 | **catch** | present | Hare *not said here* | a fish |  |  |  | for ice's breakfast | vn get-13.5.1 «NP V NP PP.beneficiary»: agent=Agent fish=Theme for breakfast=Beneficiary |
| 5 | **come** | past · perfect | the thaw |  |  |  |  |  | vn escape-51.1-1 «NP V»: agent=Theme |
| 6 | **flow** | past · progressive | the water |  |  |  | again | freely *property* | vn appear-48.1.1 «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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