---
title: They danced so long that it seemed as if they would never stop, till… — The Brown Fairy Book · tree and pragmatics
description: They danced so long that it seemed as if they would never stop, till the turtle who was leading the singing suddenly broke into a loud chant: Who acts: prisoners, it, turtle, singing. A sentence of «The Brown Fairy Book» by Andrew Lang, The Brown Fairy Book, part 12, with its dependency tree and the
---

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# The Brown Fairy Book, The Brown Fairy Book, part 12, sentence 24

<!-- .ven lang=en -->
They danced so long that it seemed as if they would never stop, till the turtle who was leading the singing suddenly broke into a loud chant:

<!-- .vintro -->
**Who acts:** prisoners, it, turtle, singing · **What happens:** dance, seem, not stop, lead, break · **To what, where:** turtle, singing, loud chant

<!-- .vabout -->
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 (prisoners, it, turtle, singing), 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:pg3282:12:24
# text = They danced so long that it seemed as if they would never stop, till the turtle who was leading the singing suddenly broke into a loud chant:
1	They	they	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Number=Plur|Person=3|PronType=Prs	2	nsubj	_	_
2	danced	dance	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Plur|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	0	root	_	_
3	so	so	ADV	RB	_	4	advmod	_	_
4	long	long	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	2	xcomp	_	_
5	that	that	SCONJ	IN	_	7	mark	_	_
6	it	it	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Gender=Neut|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	7	nsubj	_	_
7	seemed	seem	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	2	advcl	_	_
8	as	as	SCONJ	IN	_	13	mark	_	_
9	if	if	SCONJ	IN	_	13	mark	_	_
10	they	they	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Number=Plur|Person=3|PronType=Prs	13	nsubj	_	_
11	would	would	AUX	MD	VerbForm=Fin	13	aux	_	_
12	never	never	ADV	RB	PronType=Neg	13	advmod	_	_
13	stop	stop	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	7	xcomp	_	SpaceAfter=No
14	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	17	punct	_	_
15	till	till	ADP	IN	_	17	case	_	_
16	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	17	det	_	_
17	turtle	turtle	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	13	obj	_	_
18	who	who	PRON	WP	PronType=Rel	20	nsubj	_	_
19	was	be	AUX	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	20	aux	_	_
20	leading	lead	VERB	VBG	Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Part	17	acl:relcl	_	_
21	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	22	det	_	_
22	singing	singing	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	20	obj	_	_
23	suddenly	suddenly	ADV	RB	_	24	advmod	_	_
24	broke	break	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	22	acl:relcl	_	_
25	into	into	ADP	IN	_	28	case	_	_
26	a	a	DET	DT	Definite=Ind|PronType=Art	28	det	_	_
27	loud	loud	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	28	amod	_	_
28	chant	chant	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	24	obl	_	SpaceAfter=No
29	:	:	PUNCT	:	_	2	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

<!-- .fr -->
| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **dance** | past | prisoners *= prisoner* |  |  |  |  | long *property* | vn modes\_of\_being\_with\_motion-47.3 «NP V»: agent=Theme |
| 2 | **seem** | past | it |  |  |  |  |  | vn seem-109-1-1-1 «NP V S\_INF»: agent=Theme clause=Attribute |
| 3 | **not** **stop** *a condition, not said to happen* | would | prisoners *= prisoner* | the turtle |  |  |  |  | vn stop-55.4-1-1 «NP V NP.eventuality»: agent=Subeventuality turtle=Eventuality |
| 4 | **lead** | past · progressive | the turtle | the singing |  |  |  |  | vn accompany-51.7 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent singing=Theme |
| 5 | **break** | past | the singing *not said here* |  |  |  |  | into a loud chant *result*; suddenly *property* | vn break-45.1 «NP V PP.result»: agent=Patient into chant=Result |

<!-- .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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