---
title: As before, his hands were changed into paws, but when he tried to sw… — The Brown Fairy Book · tree and pragmatics
description: As before, his hands were changed into paws, but when he tried to switch his tail he found to his disgust that it would not go any distance. Who acts: bear, tail. A sentence of «The Brown Fairy Book» by Andrew Lang, The Brown Fairy Book, part 18, with its dependency tree and the pragmatics of every 
---

<!-- md -->
[Mova](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/) · [this page in HTML](https://mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg3282/18/25/)

<!-- crumbs -->
[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 18](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg3282/18/) / 25

# The Brown Fairy Book, The Brown Fairy Book, part 18, sentence 25

<!-- .ven lang=en -->
As before, his hands were changed into paws, but when he tried to switch his tail he found to his disgust that it would not go any distance.

<!-- .vintro -->
**Who acts:** bear, tail · **What happens:** change, try, switch, find, not go, disgust · **To what, where:** hands, paws, tail, distance · **Speech:** someone speaks here

<!-- .vabout -->
This is a sentence of «The Brown Fairy Book» by Andrew Lang, The Brown Fairy Book, part 18. The page gives its syntax tree — a dependency tree in the style of Universal Dependencies — and its pragmatics clause by clause: who acts (bear, tail), 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:pg3282:18:25
# text = As before, his hands were changed into paws, but when he tried to switch his tail he found to his disgust that it would not go any distance.
1	As	as	ADP	IN	_	2	case	_	_
2	before	before	ADV	RB	_	7	obl	_	SpaceAfter=No
3	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	2	punct	_	_
4	his	his	PRON	PRP$	Case=Gen|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|Poss=Yes|PronType=Prs	5	nmod:poss	_	_
5	hands	hand	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	7	nsubj	_	_
6	were	be	AUX	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Plur|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	7	aux:pass	_	_
7	changed	change	VERB	VBN	Tense=Past|VerbForm=Part|Voice=Pass	0	root	_	_
8	into	into	ADP	IN	_	9	case	_	_
9	paws	paw	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	7	obl	_	SpaceAfter=No
10	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	20	punct	_	_
11	but	but	CCONJ	CC	_	20	cc	_	_
12	when	when	ADV	WRB	PronType=Int	14	advmod	_	_
13	he	he	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	14	nsubj	_	_
14	tried	try	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	20	advcl	_	_
15	to	to	PART	TO	_	16	mark	_	_
16	switch	switch	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	14	xcomp	_	_
17	his	his	PRON	PRP$	Case=Gen|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|Poss=Yes|PronType=Prs	18	nmod:poss	_	_
18	tail	tail	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	16	obj	_	_
19	he	he	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	20	nsubj	_	_
20	found	find	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	7	parataxis	_	_
21	to	to	ADP	IN	_	23	case	_	_
22	his	his	PRON	PRP$	Case=Gen|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|Poss=Yes|PronType=Prs	23	nmod:poss	_	_
23	disgust	disgust	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	20	obl	_	_
24	that	that	SCONJ	IN	_	28	mark	_	_
25	it	it	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Gender=Neut|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	28	nsubj	_	_
26	would	would	AUX	MD	VerbForm=Fin	28	aux	_	_
27	not	not	PART	RB	Polarity=Neg	28	advmod	_	_
28	go	go	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	20	ccomp	_	_
29	any	any	DET	DT	PronType=Ind	30	det	_	_
30	distance	distance	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	28	obl	_	SpaceAfter=No
31	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	7	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

<!-- .fr -->
| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **change** | past · passive |  | bear's hands |  |  |  | into paws *result* | vn turn-26.6.1-1 «NP V NP.patient PP.result»: subject=Patient into paw=Result |
| 2 | **try** | past | bear |  |  |  |  |  | vn try-61.1 «NP V S\_INF»: agent=Agent clause=Eventuality |
| 3 | **switch** *not said to happen* | to-infinitive | bear *not said here* | bear's tail |  |  |  |  | vn convert-26.6.2-1-1 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent tail=Patient |
| 4 | **find** | past | bear |  |  |  |  | to bear's disgust | vn declare-29.4-1-1 «NP V what S\_INF»: agent=Agent clause=Theme |
| 5 | **not** **go** | would | tail | any distance |  |  |  |  | vn disappearance-48.2-1 «NP V»: agent=Theme |
| 6 | **disgust** |  | bear |  |  |  |  |  | nom disgust «feeling transitive»: poss=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.

<!-- div src -->

**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.

<!-- /div -->

<!-- pn -->
- ← previous: [sentence 24](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg3282/18/24/)
- next →: [sentence 26](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg3282/18/26/)
- ↑ back to [The Brown Fairy Book, part 18](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg3282/18/)