---
title: He turned over in his mind without ceasing how he was to find out th… — The Brown Fairy Book · tree and pragmatics
description: He turned over in his mind without ceasing how he was to find out the meaning of the riddle, and to give them a right answer, and who could help him, and how to avenge his brothers. Who acts: prince. A sentence of «The Brown Fairy Book» by Andrew Lang, The Brown Fairy Book, part 2, with its dependen
---

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# The Brown Fairy Book, The Brown Fairy Book, part 2, sentence 27

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He turned over in his mind without ceasing how he was to find out the meaning of the riddle, and to give them a right answer, and who could help him, and how to avenge his brothers.

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**Who acts:** prince · **What happens:** turn over, cease, be, give, help, avenge · **To what, where:** mind, right answer, secrets, prince, brothers, riddle

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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 (prince), 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:pg3282:2:27
# text = He turned over in his mind without ceasing how he was to find out the meaning of the riddle, and to give them a right answer, and who could help him, and how to avenge his brothers.
1	He	he	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	2	nsubj	_	_
2	turned	turn	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	0	root	_	_
3	over	over	ADP	RP	_	2	compound:prt	_	_
4	in	in	ADP	IN	_	6	case	_	_
5	his	his	PRON	PRP$	Case=Gen|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|Poss=Yes|PronType=Prs	6	nmod:poss	_	_
6	mind	mind	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	2	obl	_	_
7	without	without	SCONJ	IN	_	8	mark	_	_
8	ceasing	cease	VERB	VBG	Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Part	2	advcl	_	_
9	how	how	ADV	WRB	PronType=Int	13	advmod	_	_
10	he	he	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	13	nsubj	_	_
11	was	be	AUX	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	13	cop	_	_
12	to	to	PART	TO	_	13	mark	_	_
13	find	find	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	8	advcl	_	_
14	out	out	ADP	RP	_	13	compound:prt	_	_
15	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	16	det	_	_
16	meaning	meaning	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	13	obj	_	_
17	of	of	ADP	IN	_	19	case	_	_
18	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	19	det	_	_
19	riddle	riddle	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	16	nmod	_	SpaceAfter=No
20	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	23	punct	_	_
21	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	23	cc	_	_
22	to	to	PART	TO	_	23	mark	_	_
23	give	give	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	2	parataxis	_	_
24	them	they	PRON	PRP	Case=Acc|Number=Plur|Person=3|PronType=Prs	23	iobj	_	_
25	a	a	DET	DT	Definite=Ind|PronType=Art	27	det	_	_
26	right	right	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	27	amod	_	_
27	answer	answer	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	23	obj	_	SpaceAfter=No
28	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	32	punct	_	_
29	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	32	cc	_	_
30	who	who	PRON	WP	PronType=Rel	32	nsubj	_	_
31	could	could	AUX	MD	VerbForm=Fin	32	aux	_	_
32	help	help	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	23	conj	_	_
33	him	he	PRON	PRP	Case=Acc|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	32	obj	_	SpaceAfter=No
34	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	38	punct	_	_
35	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	38	cc	_	_
36	how	how	ADV	WRB	PronType=Int	38	advmod	_	_
37	to	to	PART	TO	_	38	mark	_	_
38	avenge	avenge	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	23	conj	_	_
39	his	his	PRON	PRP$	Case=Gen|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|Poss=Yes|PronType=Prs	40	nmod:poss	_	_
40	brothers	brother	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	38	obj	_	SpaceAfter=No
41	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	2	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

<!-- .fr -->
| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **turn over** | past | prince |  |  | prince's mind |  |  | vn contribute-13.2 «NP V NP.theme (PP)»: agent=Agent |
| 2 | **cease** | gerund | prince *not said here* |  |  |  |  |  | vn stop-55.4-1-1 «NP.eventuality V»: agent=Eventuality |
| 3 | **is** | past | prince |  |  |  |  | find *property* | tree rules |
| 4 | **give** | to-infinitive |  | a right answer | secrets *= secret* |  |  |  | vn give-13.1-1 «NP V NP-Dative NP»: agent=Agent they=Recipient answer=Theme |
| 5 | **help** | could |  |  | prince |  |  |  | vn help-72.1-1-1 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent he=Beneficiary |
| 6 | **avenge** | to-infinitive |  | prince's brothers |  |  |  |  | tree rules |
| 7 | **mind** |  | prince |  |  |  |  |  | nom mind «cognition transitive»: poss=agent |
| 8 | **mean** |  |  | the riddle |  |  |  |  | nom meaning «communication transitive»: of=patient |

<!-- .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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