---
title: They looked at it with dismay, and the oldest among them put their h… — The Brown Fairy Book · tree and pragmatics
description: They looked at it with dismay, and the oldest among them put their heads together to see what was to be done. Who acts: miles, oldest. 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 5

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They looked at it with dismay, and the oldest among them put their heads together to see what was to be done.

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**Who acts:** miles, oldest · **What happens:** look, put, see, do · **To what, where:** heads · **Speech:** someone speaks here

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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 (miles, oldest), 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:pg3282:12:5
# text = They looked at it with dismay, and the oldest among them put their heads together to see what was to be done.
1	They	they	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Number=Plur|Person=3|PronType=Prs	2	nsubj	_	_
2	looked	look	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Plur|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	0	root	_	_
3	at	at	ADP	IN	_	4	case	_	_
4	it	it	PRON	PRP	Case=Acc|Gender=Neut|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	2	obl	_	_
5	with	with	ADP	IN	_	6	case	_	_
6	dismay	dismay	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	2	obl	_	SpaceAfter=No
7	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	13	punct	_	_
8	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	13	cc	_	_
9	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	10	det	_	_
10	oldest	old	ADJ	JJS	Degree=Sup	13	nsubj	_	_
11	among	among	ADP	IN	_	12	case	_	_
12	them	they	PRON	PRP	Case=Acc|Number=Plur|Person=3|PronType=Prs	10	nmod	_	_
13	put	put	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	2	conj	_	_
14	their	their	PRON	PRP$	Case=Gen|Number=Plur|Person=3|Poss=Yes|PronType=Prs	15	nmod:poss	_	_
15	heads	head	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	13	obj	_	_
16	together	together	ADV	RB	_	13	advmod	_	_
17	to	to	PART	TO	_	18	mark	_	_
18	see	see	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	13	advcl	_	_
19	what	what	PRON	WP	PronType=Int	23	obj	_	_
20	was	be	AUX	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	23	aux:pass	_	_
21	to	to	PART	TO	_	23	mark	_	_
22	be	be	AUX	VB	VerbForm=Inf	23	aux:pass	_	_
23	done	do	VERB	VBN	Tense=Past|VerbForm=Part|Voice=Pass	18	ccomp	_	SpaceAfter=No
24	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	2	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

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| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **look** | past | miles *= mile* |  |  |  |  | with dismay; at path | vn peer-30.3 «NP V PP.theme»: agent=Agent at it=Theme |
| 2 | **put** | past | the oldest among miles | miles's heads |  |  |  | together *property* | vn invest-13.5.4-1 «NP V PP»: agent=Agent head=Goal |
| 3 | **see** | to-infinitive | the oldest among miles *not said here* |  |  |  |  |  | vn comprehend-87.2-1-1 «NP V how S\_INF»: agent=Experiencer clause=Stimulus |
| 4 | **do** | past · passive |  |  |  |  |  |  | vn act-114-1 «NP V NP»: what=Eventuality |

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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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