---
title: It took the bear a long while to gather the berries, for she was slo… — The Brown Fairy Book · tree and pragmatics
description: It took the bear a long while to gather the berries, for she was slow about everything, and, besides, it made her back ache to stoop. Who acts: It, bear, sight. A sentence of «The Brown Fairy Book» by Andrew Lang, The Brown Fairy Book, part 17, with its dependency tree and the pragmatics of every cl
---

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# The Brown Fairy Book, The Brown Fairy Book, part 17, sentence 15

<!-- .ven lang=en -->
It took the bear a long while to gather the berries, for she was slow about everything, and, besides, it made her back ache to stoop.

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**Who acts:** It, bear, sight · **What happens:** take, gather, be, make, ache, stoop · **To what, where:** bear, berries

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This is a sentence of «The Brown Fairy Book» by Andrew Lang, The Brown Fairy Book, part 17. The page gives its syntax tree — a dependency tree in the style of Universal Dependencies — and its pragmatics clause by clause: who acts (It, bear, sight), 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:pg3282:17:15
# text = It took the bear a long while to gather the berries, for she was slow about everything, and, besides, it made her back ache to stoop.
1	It	it	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Gender=Neut|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	2	nsubj	_	_
2	took	take	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	0	root	_	_
3	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	4	det	_	_
4	bear	bear	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	2	obj	_	_
5	a	a	DET	DT	Definite=Ind|PronType=Art	7	det	_	_
6	long	long	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	7	amod	_	_
7	while	while	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	2	obj	_	_
8	to	to	PART	TO	_	9	mark	_	_
9	gather	gather	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	2	advcl	_	_
10	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	11	det	_	_
11	berries	berry	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	9	obj	_	SpaceAfter=No
12	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	16	punct	_	_
13	for	for	SCONJ	IN	_	16	mark	_	_
14	she	she	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Gender=Fem|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	16	nsubj	_	_
15	was	be	AUX	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	16	cop	_	_
16	slow	slow	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	2	conj	_	_
17	about	about	ADP	IN	_	18	case	_	_
18	everything	everything	PRON	NN	Number=Sing|PronType=Tot	16	obl	_	SpaceAfter=No
19	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	25	punct	_	_
20	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	25	cc	_	SpaceAfter=No
21	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	20	punct	_	_
22	besides	besides	INTJ	UH	_	25	discourse	_	SpaceAfter=No
23	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	22	punct	_	_
24	it	it	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Gender=Neut|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	25	nsubj	_	_
25	made	make	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	2	parataxis	_	_
26	her	she	PRON	PRP	Case=Acc|Gender=Fem|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	25	obj	_	_
27	back	back	ADV	RB	_	28	advmod	_	_
28	ache	ache	VERB	VBP	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=2|Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Fin	25	advcl	_	_
29	to	to	PART	TO	_	30	mark	_	_
30	stoop	stoop	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	28	xcomp	_	SpaceAfter=No
31	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	2	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

<!-- .fr -->
| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **take** | past | It | the bear |  |  | while |  | vn bring-11.3 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent bear=Theme |
| 2 | **gather** | to-infinitive |  | the berries |  |  |  |  | vn deduce-97.2 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent berry=Theme |
| 3 | **is** | past | bear |  |  |  |  | about everything; slow *property* | tree rules |
| 4 | **make** | past | sight | bear |  |  |  |  | vn build-26.1-1 «NP.material V NP»: agent=Material she=Product |
| 5 | **ache** | present | sight *not said here* |  |  |  |  |  | vn long-32.2 «NP V S\_INF»: agent=Pivot clause=Theme |
| 6 | **stoop** | to-infinitive | sight *not said here* |  |  |  |  |  | vn assuming\_position-50 «NP V»: 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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