---
title: Then he took a handful of earth and cast it on his collar, and said:… — The Brown Fairy Book · tree and pragmatics
description: Then he took a handful of earth and cast it on his collar, and said: “O earth! be thou my grave; and O vest! tee thou my winding-sheet!” Who acts: thousand, earth, vest tee. A sentence of «The Brown Fairy Book» by Andrew Lang, The Brown Fairy Book, part 2, with its dependency tree and the pragmatics
---

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# The Brown Fairy Book, The Brown Fairy Book, part 2, sentence 123

<!-- .ven lang=en -->
Then he took a handful of earth and cast it on his collar, and said: “O earth! be thou my grave; and O vest! tee thou my winding-sheet!”

<!-- .vintro -->
**Who acts:** thousand, earth, vest tee · **What happens:** take, cast, say, be, sheet · **To what, where:** handful, collar, thou · **Speech:** someone speaks here

<!-- .vabout -->
This is a sentence of «The Brown Fairy Book» by Andrew Lang, The Brown Fairy Book, part 2. The page gives its syntax tree — a dependency tree in the style of Universal Dependencies — and its pragmatics clause by clause: who acts (thousand, earth, vest tee), 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:pg3282:2:123
# text = Then he took a handful of earth and cast it on his collar, and said: “O earth! be thou my grave; and O vest! tee thou my winding-sheet!”
1	Then	then	ADV	RB	PronType=Dem	3	advmod	_	_
2	he	he	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	3	nsubj	_	_
3	took	take	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	0	root	_	_
4	a	a	DET	DT	Definite=Ind|PronType=Art	5	det	_	_
5	handful	handful	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	3	obj	_	_
6	of	of	ADP	IN	_	7	case	_	_
7	earth	earth	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	5	nmod	_	_
8	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	9	cc	_	_
9	cast	cast	VERB	VBP	Mood=Ind|Number=Plur|Person=3|Tense=Pres|Typo=Yes|VerbForm=Fin	3	conj	_	_
10	it	it	PRON	PRP	Case=Acc|Gender=Neut|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	9	obj	_	_
11	on	on	ADP	IN	_	13	case	_	_
12	his	his	PRON	PRP$	Case=Gen|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|Poss=Yes|PronType=Prs	13	nmod:poss	_	_
13	collar	collar	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	9	obl	_	SpaceAfter=No
14	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	16	punct	_	_
15	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	16	cc	_	_
16	said	say	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	3	conj	_	SpaceAfter=No
17	:	:	PUNCT	:	_	16	punct	_	_
18	“	"	PUNCT	``	_	20	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
19	O	o	INTJ	UH	_	20	discourse	_	_
20	earth	earth	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	23	nsubj	_	SpaceAfter=No
21	!	!	PUNCT	.	_	20	punct	_	_
22	be	be	AUX	VB	VerbForm=Inf	23	cop	_	_
23	thou	thou	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Number=Sing|Person=2|PronType=Prs|Style=Arch	16	ccomp	_	_
24	my	my	PRON	PRP$	Case=Gen|Number=Sing|Person=1|Poss=Yes|PronType=Prs	25	nmod:poss	_	_
25	grave	grave	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	23	obj	_	SpaceAfter=No
26	;	;	PUNCT	:	_	36	punct	_	_
27	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	36	cc	_	_
28	O	o	PUNCT	``	_	29	punct	_	_
29	vest	vest	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	31	compound	_	SpaceAfter=No
30	!	!	PUNCT	.	_	29	punct	_	_
31	tee	tee	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	36	nsubj	_	_
32	thou	thou	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Number=Sing|Person=2|PronType=Prs|Style=Arch	36	nsubj	_	_
33	my	my	PRON	PRP$	Case=Gen|Number=Sing|Person=1|Poss=Yes|PronType=Prs	36	nmod:poss	_	_
34	winding	winding	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	36	compound	_	SpaceAfter=No
35	-	-	PUNCT	HYPH	_	34	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
36	sheet	sheet	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	3	parataxis	_	SpaceAfter=No
37	!	!	PUNCT	.	_	36	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
38	”	"	PUNCT	''	_	36	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

<!-- .fr -->
| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **take** | past | thousand | a handful of earth |  |  | then |  | vn characterize-29.2 «NP V NP to be ADJ»: agent=Agent handful=Theme clause=Attribute |
| 2 | **cast** | present | thousand *not said here* | handful |  | thousand's collar |  |  | vn throw-17.1 «NP V NP PP.destinations»: agent=Agent it=Theme on collar=Destination |
| 3 | **say** *speech: express* | past | thousand *not said here* |  |  |  |  |  | vn say-37.7-1-1 «NP V that S»: agent=Agent |
| 4 | **is a** *in a quote* | infinitive | earth | thou |  |  |  |  | tree rules |
| 5 | **sheet** *in a quote* |  | vest tee |  |  |  |  |  | tree rules |

<!-- .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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