---
title: “It was not so difficult after all, you see,” he said, turning to Ge… — The Brown Fairy Book · tree and pragmatics
description: “It was not so difficult after all, you see,” he said, turning to Geirald. Who acts: you, he. A sentence of «The Brown Fairy Book» by Andrew Lang, The Brown Fairy Book, part 13, with its dependency tree and the pragmatics of every clause.
---

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# The Brown Fairy Book, The Brown Fairy Book, part 13, sentence 1

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“It was not so difficult after all, you see,” he said, turning to Geirald.

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**Who acts:** you, he · **What happens:** not be, see, say, turn · **To what, where:** Geirald · **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 13. The page gives its syntax tree — a dependency tree in the style of Universal Dependencies — and its pragmatics clause by clause: who acts (you, he), 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:pg3282:13:1
# text = “It was not so difficult after all, you see,” he said, turning to Geirald.
1	“	"	PUNCT	``	_	6	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
2	It	it	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Gender=Neut|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	6	expl	_	_
3	was	be	AUX	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	6	cop	_	_
4	not	not	PART	RB	Polarity=Neg	6	advmod	_	_
5	so	so	ADV	RB	_	6	advmod	_	_
6	difficult	difficult	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	15	ccomp	_	_
7	after	after	ADP	IN	_	8	case	_	_
8	all	all	DET	DT	PronType=Tot	6	obl	_	SpaceAfter=No
9	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	11	punct	_	_
10	you	you	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Person=2|PronType=Prs	11	nsubj	_	_
11	see	see	VERB	VBP	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=2|Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Fin	6	parataxis	_	SpaceAfter=No
12	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	11	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
13	”	"	PUNCT	''	_	6	punct	_	_
14	he	he	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	15	nsubj	_	_
15	said	say	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	0	root	_	SpaceAfter=No
16	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	17	punct	_	_
17	turning	turn	VERB	VBG	Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Part	15	advcl	_	_
18	to	to	ADP	IN	_	19	case	_	_
19	Geirald	Geirald	PROPN	NNP	Number=Sing	17	obl	_	SpaceAfter=No
20	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	15	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

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| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **not** **is** *in a quote* | past |  |  |  |  | after all | difficult *property* | tree rules |
| 2 | **see** *in a quote* | present | you |  |  |  |  |  | vn comprehend-87.2-1-1 «NP V»: agent=Experiencer |
| 3 | **say** *speech: assert* | past | he |  |  |  |  |  | vn say-37.7-1-1 «NP V that S»: agent=Agent |
| 4 | **turn** | gerund | he *not said here* |  | Geirald |  |  |  | vn roll-51.3.1 «NP V PP.result»: agent=Theme to geirald=Result |

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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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