---
title: And this they did, but the trunk was very thick, and would not burn… — The Brown Fairy Book · tree and pragmatics
description: And this they did, but the trunk was very thick, and would not burn through. Who acts: this, trunk. A sentence of «The Brown Fairy Book» by Andrew Lang, The Brown Fairy Book, part 12, with its dependency tree and the pragmatics of every clause.
---

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# The Brown Fairy Book, The Brown Fairy Book, part 12, sentence 13

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And this they did, but the trunk was very thick, and would not burn through.

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**Who acts:** this, trunk · **What happens:** do, be, not burn through

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This is a sentence of «The Brown Fairy Book» by Andrew Lang, The Brown Fairy Book, part 12. The page gives its syntax tree — a dependency tree in the style of Universal Dependencies — and its pragmatics clause by clause: who acts (this, trunk), 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:pg3282:12:13
# text = And this they did, but the trunk was very thick, and would not burn through.
1	And	and	CCONJ	CC	_	4	cc	_	_
2	this	this	PRON	DT	Number=Sing|PronType=Dem	4	nsubj	_	_
3	they	they	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Number=Plur|Person=3|PronType=Prs	4	nsubj	_	_
4	did	do	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	0	root	_	SpaceAfter=No
5	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	11	punct	_	_
6	but	but	CCONJ	CC	_	11	cc	_	_
7	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	8	det	_	_
8	trunk	trunk	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	11	nsubj	_	_
9	was	be	AUX	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	11	cop	_	_
10	very	very	ADV	RB	_	11	advmod	_	_
11	thick	thick	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	4	conj	_	SpaceAfter=No
12	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	16	punct	_	_
13	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	16	cc	_	_
14	would	would	AUX	MD	VerbForm=Fin	16	aux	_	_
15	not	not	PART	RB	Polarity=Neg	16	advmod	_	_
16	burn	burn	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	11	conj	_	_
17	through	through	ADV	RB	_	16	advmod	_	SpaceAfter=No
18	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	4	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

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| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **do** | past | this |  |  |  |  |  | vn act-114-1 «NP V»: agent=Agent |
| 2 | **is** | past | the trunk |  |  |  |  | thick *property* | tree rules |
| 3 | **not** **burn through** | would | the trunk *not said here* |  |  |  |  | through *property* | vn light\_emission-43.1 «NP V»: agent=Theme |

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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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