---
title: In an instant the transformation took place, and two creatures, neit… — The Brown Fairy Book · tree and pragmatics
description: In an instant the transformation took place, and two creatures, neither beast nor human stood before the chief. Who acts: transformation, two creatures. A sentence of «The Brown Fairy Book» by Andrew Lang, The Brown Fairy Book, part 14, with its dependency tree and the pragmatics of every clause.
---

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# The Brown Fairy Book, The Brown Fairy Book, part 14, sentence 87

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In an instant the transformation took place, and two creatures, neither beast nor human stood before the chief.

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**Who acts:** transformation, two creatures · **What happens:** take, stand · **To what, where:** place, instant, chief

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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 (transformation, two creatures), 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:pg3282:14:87
# text = In an instant the transformation took place, and two creatures, neither beast nor human stood before the chief.
1	In	in	ADP	IN	_	3	case	_	_
2	an	a	DET	DT	Definite=Ind|PronType=Art	3	det	_	_
3	instant	instant	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	6	obl	_	_
4	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	5	det	_	_
5	transformation	transformation	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	6	nsubj	_	_
6	took	take	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	0	root	_	_
7	place	place	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	6	obj	_	SpaceAfter=No
8	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	17	punct	_	_
9	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	17	cc	_	_
10	two	two	NUM	CD	NumForm=Word|NumType=Card	11	nummod	_	_
11	creatures	creature	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	17	nsubj	_	SpaceAfter=No
12	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	14	punct	_	_
13	neither	neither	CCONJ	CC	Polarity=Neg	14	cc:preconj	_	_
14	beast	beast	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	11	appos	_	_
15	nor	nor	CCONJ	CC	Polarity=Neg	16	cc	_	_
16	human	human	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	14	conj	_	_
17	stood	stand	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Plur|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	6	conj	_	_
18	before	before	ADP	IN	_	20	case	_	_
19	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	20	det	_	_
20	chief	chief	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	17	obl	_	SpaceAfter=No
21	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	6	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

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| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **take** | past | the transformation | place |  | a instant |  |  | vn fit-54.3 «NP V NP PP.location»: agent=Agent place=Value in instant=Location |
| 2 | **stand** | past | two creatures |  |  | the chief |  |  | vn assuming\_position-50 «NP V PP.location»: agent=Agent before chief=Location |

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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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