--- title: While they were absent the little girl kept house alone, for her bro… — The Brown Fairy Book · tree and pragmatics description: While they were absent the little girl kept house alone, for her brother always got up before the dawn, when the air was fresh and cool, and drove out the cattle to the sweetest patches of grass he could find. Who acts: fields, little girl, brother, air. A sentence of «The Brown Fairy Book» by Andre --- [Mova](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/) · [this page in HTML](https://mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg3282/15/37/) [home](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/) / [corpora](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/) / [tales](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/) / [The Brown Fairy Book](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg3282/) / [The Brown Fairy Book, part 15](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg3282/15/) / 37 # The Brown Fairy Book, The Brown Fairy Book, part 15, sentence 37 While they were absent the little girl kept house alone, for her brother always got up before the dawn, when the air was fresh and cool, and drove out the cattle to the sweetest patches of grass he could find. **Who acts:** fields, little girl, brother, air, cattle · **What happens:** be, keep, get up, drive out, find · **To what, where:** house, cattle, sweetest patches, grass This is a sentence of «The Brown Fairy Book» by Andrew Lang, The Brown Fairy Book, part 15. The page gives its syntax tree — a dependency tree in the style of Universal Dependencies — and its pragmatics clause by clause: who acts (fields, little girl, brother, air), what happens, when and where, as Mova's frames read it from the tree. **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:pg3282:15:37 # text = While they were absent the little girl kept house alone, for her brother always got up before the dawn, when the air was fresh and cool, and drove out the cattle to the sweetest patches of grass he could find. 1 While while SCONJ IN _ 4 mark _ _ 2 they they PRON PRP Case=Nom|Number=Plur|Person=3|PronType=Prs 4 nsubj _ _ 3 were be AUX VBD Mood=Ind|Number=Plur|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin 4 cop _ _ 4 absent absent ADJ JJ Degree=Pos 0 root _ _ 5 the the DET DT Definite=Def|PronType=Art 7 det _ _ 6 little little ADJ JJ Degree=Pos 7 amod _ _ 7 girl girl NOUN NN Number=Sing 4 nsubj _ _ 8 kept keep VERB VBN Tense=Past|VerbForm=Part|Voice=Pass 7 acl _ _ 9 house house NOUN NN Number=Sing 8 obj _ _ 10 alone alone ADV RB _ 8 advmod _ SpaceAfter=No 11 , , PUNCT , _ 16 punct _ _ 12 for for SCONJ IN _ 16 mark _ _ 13 her her PRON PRP$ Case=Gen|Gender=Fem|Number=Sing|Person=3|Poss=Yes|PronType=Prs 14 nmod:poss _ _ 14 brother brother NOUN NN Number=Sing 16 nsubj _ _ 15 always always ADV RB PronType=Tot 16 advmod _ _ 16 got get VERB VBD Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin 4 parataxis _ _ 17 up up ADP RP _ 16 compound:prt _ _ 18 before before ADP IN _ 20 case _ _ 19 the the DET DT Definite=Def|PronType=Art 20 det _ _ 20 dawn dawn NOUN NN Number=Sing 16 obl _ SpaceAfter=No 21 , , PUNCT , _ 26 punct _ _ 22 when when ADV WRB PronType=Int 26 advmod _ _ 23 the the DET DT Definite=Def|PronType=Art 24 det _ _ 24 air air NOUN NN Number=Sing 26 nsubj _ _ 25 was be AUX VBD Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin 26 cop _ _ 26 fresh fresh ADJ JJ Degree=Pos 16 conj _ _ 27 and and CCONJ CC _ 28 cc _ _ 28 cool cool ADJ JJ Degree=Pos 26 conj _ SpaceAfter=No 29 , , PUNCT , _ 31 punct _ _ 30 and and CCONJ CC _ 31 cc _ _ 31 drove drive VERB VBD Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=1|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin 16 conj _ _ 32 out out ADP RP _ 31 compound:prt _ _ 33 the the DET DT Definite=Def|PronType=Art 34 det _ _ 34 cattle cattle NOUN NN Number=Sing 31 obj _ _ 35 to to ADP IN _ 38 case _ _ 36 the the DET DT Definite=Def|PronType=Art 38 det _ _ 37 sweetest sweet ADJ JJS Degree=Sup 38 amod _ _ 38 patches patch NOUN NNS Number=Plur 31 obl _ _ 39 of of ADP IN _ 40 case _ _ 40 grass grass NOUN NN Number=Sing 38 nmod _ _ 41 he he PRON PRP Case=Nom|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs 43 nsubj _ _ 42 could could AUX MD VerbForm=Fin 43 aux _ _ 43 find find VERB VB VerbForm=Inf 40 acl:relcl _ SpaceAfter=No 44 . . PUNCT . _ 4 punct _ _ ``` ## Pragmatics {#pragmatics} | # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by | | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | | 1 | **is** | past | fields *= field* | | | | | absent *property* | tree rules | | 2 | **keep** | participle | the little girl *not said here* | house | | | | alone *property* | vn keep-15.2 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent house=Theme | | 3 | **get up** | past | girl's brother | | | | dawn | always *property* | vn comprehend-87.2-1 «NP V S\_ING»: agent=Experiencer | | 4 | **is** | past | the air | | | | | fresh *property* | tree rules | | 5 | **be** | | the air *not said here* | | | | | | tree rules | | 6 | **drive out** | past | girl's brother *not said here* | the cattle | | the sweetest patches of grass | | | vn nonvehicle-51.4.2-1 «NP V NP PP.location»: agent=Agent cattle=Theme to patch=Trajectory | | 7 | **find** | could | cattle | grass *not said here* | | | | | vn discover-84 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent grass=Topic | 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. **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. - ← previous: [sentence 36](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg3282/15/36/) - next →: [sentence 38](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg3282/15/38/) - ↑ back to [The Brown Fairy Book, part 15](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg3282/15/)