---
title: The girl’s heart sank a little, as she thought that the man who poss… — The Brown Fairy Book · tree and pragmatics
description: The girl’s heart sank a little, as she thought that the man who possessed such wonderful sheep, and cows, and horses, might have built himself a prettier place to live in; but she did not say so. Who acts: heart, man. A sentence of «The Brown Fairy Book» by Andrew Lang, The Brown Fairy Book, part 14
---

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# The Brown Fairy Book, The Brown Fairy Book, part 14, sentence 18

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The girl’s heart sank a little, as she thought that the man who possessed such wonderful sheep, and cows, and horses, might have built himself a prettier place to live in; but she did not say so.

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**Who acts:** heart, man · **What happens:** sink, think, possess, build, live in, not say · **To what, where:** little, such wonderful sheep, horses · **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 14. The page gives its syntax tree — a dependency tree in the style of Universal Dependencies — and its pragmatics clause by clause: who acts (heart, man), 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:pg3282:14:18
# text = The girl’s heart sank a little, as she thought that the man who possessed such wonderful sheep, and cows, and horses, might have built himself a prettier place to live in; but she did not say so.
1	The	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	2	det	_	_
2	girl	girl	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	4	nmod:poss	_	SpaceAfter=No
3	’s	's	PART	POS	_	2	case	_	_
4	heart	heart	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	5	nsubj	_	_
5	sank	sink	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	0	root	_	_
6	a	a	DET	DT	Definite=Ind|PronType=Art	7	det	_	_
7	little	little	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	5	obl:unmarked	_	SpaceAfter=No
8	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	11	punct	_	_
9	as	as	SCONJ	IN	_	11	mark	_	_
10	she	she	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Gender=Fem|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	11	nsubj	_	_
11	thought	think	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	5	conj	_	_
12	that	that	SCONJ	IN	_	14	mark	_	_
13	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	14	det	_	_
14	man	man	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	11	ccomp	_	_
15	who	who	PRON	WP	PronType=Rel	16	nsubj	_	_
16	possessed	possess	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	14	acl:relcl	_	_
17	such	such	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	19	amod	_	_
18	wonderful	wonderful	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	19	amod	_	_
19	sheep	sheep	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	16	obj	_	SpaceAfter=No
20	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	22	punct	_	_
21	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	22	cc	_	_
22	cows	cow	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	19	conj	_	SpaceAfter=No
23	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	29	punct	_	_
24	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	29	cc	_	_
25	horses	horse	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	29	nsubj:pass	_	SpaceAfter=No
26	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	25	punct	_	_
27	might	might	AUX	MD	VerbForm=Fin	29	aux	_	_
28	have	have	AUX	VB	VerbForm=Inf	29	aux	_	_
29	built	build	VERB	VBN	Tense=Past|VerbForm=Part|Voice=Pass	16	advcl	_	_
30	himself	himself	PRON	PRP	Case=Acc|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs|Reflex=Yes	29	obj	_	_
31	a	a	DET	DT	Definite=Ind|PronType=Art	33	det	_	_
32	prettier	pretty	ADJ	JJR	Degree=Cmp	33	amod	_	_
33	place	place	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	29	obj	_	_
34	to	to	PART	TO	_	35	mark	_	_
35	live	live	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	33	acl	_	_
36	in	in	ADP	IN	_	35	obl	_	SpaceAfter=No
37	;	;	PUNCT	,	_	42	punct	_	_
38	but	but	CCONJ	CC	_	42	cc	_	_
39	she	she	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Gender=Fem|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	42	nsubj	_	_
40	did	do	AUX	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	42	aux	_	_
41	not	not	PART	RB	Polarity=Neg	42	advmod	_	_
42	say	say	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	5	conj	_	_
43	so	so	ADV	RB	_	42	advmod	_	SpaceAfter=No
44	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	5	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

<!-- .fr -->
| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **sink** | past | the girl's heart | a little |  |  |  |  | vn other\_cos-45.4 «NP.patient V»: agent=Patient |
| 2 | **think** *speech: other* | past | heart |  |  |  |  |  | vn focus-87.1-1 «NP V»: agent=Agent |
| 3 | **possess** | past | the man | such wonderful sheep and cows |  |  |  |  | vn own-100.1 «NP V NP»: agent=Pivot sheep=Theme |
| 4 | **build** | might · perfect · passive |  | horses |  |  |  |  | tree rules |
| 5 | **live in** | to-infinitive |  |  |  |  |  |  | vn exist-47.1-1 «NP V»: agent=Theme |
| 6 | **not** **say** *speech: assert* | past · do-support | heart |  |  |  |  |  | vn say-37.7-1-1 «NP V that S»: agent=Agent |

<!-- .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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