---
title: “It was quite dry inside the shell, and I worked away at the fish wi… — The Brown Fairy Book · tree and pragmatics
description: “It was quite dry inside the shell, and I worked away at the fish with my spear, till he saw reason to open his shell, and out I came.” Who acts: spear, Pivi, shell. A sentence of «The Brown Fairy Book» by Andrew Lang, The Brown Fairy Book, part 19, with its dependency tree and the pragmatics of eve
---

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# The Brown Fairy Book, The Brown Fairy Book, part 19, sentence 155

<!-- .ven lang=en -->
“It was quite dry inside the shell, and I worked away at the fish with my spear, till he saw reason to open his shell, and out I came.”

<!-- .vintro -->
**Who acts:** spear, Pivi, shell · **What happens:** be, work away, see, open, come · **To what, where:** shell, reason

<!-- .vabout -->
This is a sentence of «The Brown Fairy Book» by Andrew Lang, The Brown Fairy Book, part 19. The page gives its syntax tree — a dependency tree in the style of Universal Dependencies — and its pragmatics clause by clause: who acts (spear, Pivi, shell), 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:pg3282:19:155
# text = “It was quite dry inside the shell, and I worked away at the fish with my spear, till he saw reason to open his shell, and out I came.”
1	“	"	PUNCT	``	_	5	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
2	It	it	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Gender=Neut|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	5	nsubj	_	_
3	was	be	AUX	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	5	cop	_	_
4	quite	quite	ADV	RB	_	5	advmod	_	_
5	dry	dry	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	0	root	_	_
6	inside	inside	ADP	IN	_	8	case	_	_
7	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	8	det	_	_
8	shell	shell	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	5	obl	_	SpaceAfter=No
9	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	12	punct	_	_
10	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	12	cc	_	_
11	I	I	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Number=Sing|Person=1|PronType=Prs	12	nsubj	_	_
12	worked	work	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=1|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	5	conj	_	_
13	away	away	ADV	RB	_	12	advmod	_	_
14	at	at	ADP	IN	_	16	case	_	_
15	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	16	det	_	_
16	fish	fish	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	12	obl	_	_
17	with	with	ADP	IN	_	19	case	_	_
18	my	my	PRON	PRP$	Case=Gen|Number=Sing|Person=1|Poss=Yes|PronType=Prs	19	nmod:poss	_	_
19	spear	spear	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	16	nmod	_	SpaceAfter=No
20	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	23	punct	_	_
21	till	till	SCONJ	IN	_	23	mark	_	_
22	he	he	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	23	nsubj	_	_
23	saw	see	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	12	parataxis	_	_
24	reason	reason	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	23	obj	_	_
25	to	to	PART	TO	_	26	mark	_	_
26	open	open	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	24	acl	_	_
27	his	his	PRON	PRP$	Case=Gen|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|Poss=Yes|PronType=Prs	28	nmod:poss	_	_
28	shell	shell	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	26	obj	_	SpaceAfter=No
29	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	33	punct	_	_
30	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	33	cc	_	_
31	out	out	ADV	RB	_	33	advmod	_	_
32	I	I	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Number=Sing|Person=1|PronType=Prs	33	nsubj	_	_
33	came	come	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=1|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	23	conj	_	SpaceAfter=No
34	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	5	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
35	”	"	PUNCT	''	_	5	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

<!-- .fr -->
| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **is** *in a quote* | past | spear |  |  | the shell |  | dry *property* | tree rules |
| 2 | **work away** *in a quote* | past | Pivi |  |  |  |  | at the fish with my spear; away *property* | vn employment-95.3 «NP V PP.theme»: agent=Agent at fish=Theme |
| 3 | **see** *in a quote* | past | shell | reason |  |  |  |  | vn comprehend-87.2-1-1 «NP V NP»: agent=Experiencer reason=Stimulus |
| 4 | **open** *in a quote* | to-infinitive | shell *not said here* | shell's shell |  |  |  |  | vn spatial\_configuration-47.6-1 «PP.location V NP»: agent=Location shell=Theme |
| 5 | **come** *in a quote* | past | Pivi |  |  |  |  | out *property* | vn escape-51.1-1 «NP V»: agent=Theme |

<!-- .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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