---
title: But, just at present, the turtles were too strong, so the prisoners… — The Brown Fairy Book · tree and pragmatics
description: But, just at present, the turtles were too strong, so the prisoners had to put on their smartest slippers and their brightest clothes, and dance a war dance while the turtles sang. Who acts: present, prisoners, turtles. A sentence of «The Brown Fairy Book» by Andrew Lang, The Brown Fairy Book, part 
---

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# The Brown Fairy Book, The Brown Fairy Book, part 12, sentence 23

<!-- .ven lang=en -->
But, just at present, the turtles were too strong, so the prisoners had to put on their smartest slippers and their brightest clothes, and dance a war dance while the turtles sang.

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**Who acts:** present, prisoners, turtles · **What happens:** be, have, put, dance, sing · **To what, where:** smartest slippers, war dance

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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 (present, prisoners, turtles), 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:pg3282:12:23
# text = But, just at present, the turtles were too strong, so the prisoners had to put on their smartest slippers and their brightest clothes, and dance a war dance while the turtles sang.
1	But	but	CCONJ	CC	_	11	cc	_	SpaceAfter=No
2	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	5	punct	_	_
3	just	just	ADV	RB	_	5	advmod	_	_
4	at	at	ADP	IN	_	5	case	_	_
5	present	present	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	11	nsubj	_	SpaceAfter=No
6	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	5	punct	_	_
7	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	8	det	_	_
8	turtles	turtle	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	11	nsubj	_	_
9	were	be	AUX	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Plur|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	11	cop	_	_
10	too	too	ADV	RB	_	11	advmod	_	_
11	strong	strong	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	0	root	_	SpaceAfter=No
12	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	16	punct	_	_
13	so	so	ADV	RB	_	16	advmod	_	_
14	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	15	det	_	_
15	prisoners	prisoner	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	16	nsubj	_	_
16	had	have	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Plur|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	11	parataxis	_	_
17	to	to	PART	TO	_	18	mark	_	_
18	put	put	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	16	xcomp	_	_
19	on	on	ADP	IN	_	22	case	_	_
20	their	their	PRON	PRP$	Case=Gen|Number=Plur|Person=3|Poss=Yes|PronType=Prs	22	nmod:poss	_	_
21	smartest	smart	ADJ	JJS	Degree=Sup	22	amod	_	_
22	slippers	slipper	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	18	obl	_	_
23	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	26	cc	_	_
24	their	their	PRON	PRP$	Case=Gen|Number=Plur|Person=3|Poss=Yes|PronType=Prs	26	nmod:poss	_	_
25	brightest	bright	ADJ	JJS	Degree=Sup	26	amod	_	_
26	clothes	clothes	NOUN	NNS	Number=Ptan	22	conj	_	SpaceAfter=No
27	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	29	punct	_	_
28	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	29	cc	_	_
29	dance	dance	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	18	conj	_	_
30	a	a	DET	DT	Definite=Ind|PronType=Art	32	det	_	_
31	war	war	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	32	compound	_	_
32	dance	dance	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	29	obj	_	_
33	while	while	SCONJ	IN	_	36	mark	_	_
34	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	35	det	_	_
35	turtles	turtle	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	36	nsubj	_	_
36	sang	sing	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Plur|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	29	advcl	_	SpaceAfter=No
37	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	11	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

<!-- .fr -->
| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **is** | past | present |  |  |  |  | strong *property* | tree rules |
| 2 | **have** | past | the prisoners |  |  |  |  |  | tree rules |
| 3 | **put** | to-infinitive | the prisoners *not said here* |  |  | prisoners's smartest slippers and prisoners's brightest clothes |  |  | vn put-9.1-2 «NP V PP.destination NP»: agent=Agent on slipper=Destination |
| 4 | **dance** | infinitive | the prisoners *not said here* | a war dance |  |  |  |  | vn modes\_of\_being\_with\_motion-47.3 «PP.location V NP»: agent=Location dance=Theme |
| 5 | **sing** *speech: express* | past | the turtles |  |  |  |  |  | vn sound\_emission-43.2 «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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