---
title: The affairs of the islands took longer to settle than the king had e… — The Brown Fairy Book · tree and pragmatics
description: The affairs of the islands took longer to settle than the king had expected, and some months passed away before he returned to his palace. Who acts: affairs, months, king. A sentence of «The Brown Fairy Book» by Andrew Lang, The Brown Fairy Book, part 17, with its dependency tree and the pragmatics 
---

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# The Brown Fairy Book, The Brown Fairy Book, part 17, sentence 93

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The affairs of the islands took longer to settle than the king had expected, and some months passed away before he returned to his palace.

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**Who acts:** affairs, months, king · **What happens:** take, settle, expect, pass away, return · **To what, where:** king

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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 (affairs, months, king), 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:pg3282:17:93
# text = The affairs of the islands took longer to settle than the king had expected, and some months passed away before he returned to his palace.
1	The	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	2	det	_	_
2	affairs	affair	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	6	nsubj	_	_
3	of	of	ADP	IN	_	5	case	_	_
4	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	5	det	_	_
5	islands	island	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	2	nmod	_	_
6	took	take	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Plur|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	0	root	_	_
7	longer	long	ADV	RBR	Degree=Cmp	6	advmod	_	_
8	to	to	PART	TO	_	9	mark	_	_
9	settle	settle	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	6	advcl	_	_
10	than	than	SCONJ	IN	_	14	mark	_	_
11	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	12	det	_	_
12	king	king	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	14	nsubj:pass	_	_
13	had	have	AUX	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	14	aux	_	_
14	expected	expect	VERB	VBN	Tense=Past|VerbForm=Part|Voice=Pass	9	advcl	_	SpaceAfter=No
15	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	19	punct	_	_
16	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	19	cc	_	_
17	some	some	DET	DT	PronType=Ind	18	det	_	_
18	months	month	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	19	nsubj	_	_
19	passed	pass	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Plur|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	6	parataxis	_	_
20	away	away	ADV	RB	_	19	advmod	_	_
21	before	before	SCONJ	IN	_	23	mark	_	_
22	he	he	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	23	nsubj	_	_
23	returned	return	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	19	advcl	_	_
24	to	to	ADP	IN	_	26	case	_	_
25	his	his	PRON	PRP$	Case=Gen|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|Poss=Yes|PronType=Prs	26	nmod:poss	_	_
26	palace	palace	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	23	obl	_	SpaceAfter=No
27	.	.	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 affairs of the islands |  |  |  |  | long *property* | vn bring-11.3 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent |
| 2 | **settle** | to-infinitive | the affairs of the islands *not said here* |  |  |  |  |  | vn correspond-36.1 «NP V»: agent=Agent |
| 3 | **expect** | past · perfect · passive |  | the king |  |  |  |  | vn conjecture-29.5-1 «NP V NP»: subject=Theme |
| 4 | **pass away** | past | some months |  |  |  |  | away *property* | vn die-42.4-1 «NP V»: agent=Patient |
| 5 | **return** | past | king |  |  |  |  | to king's palace *result* | vn convert-26.6.2-1 «NP V S\_ING»: agent=Patient to palace=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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