---
title: As soon as his task was done, he paused and looked out towards the m… — The Brown Fairy Book · tree and pragmatics
description: As soon as his task was done, he paused and looked out towards the mainland, thinking of Christmas Eve last year, and the merry dance they had had. Who acts: task, merry dance, gale. A sentence of «The Brown Fairy Book» by Andrew Lang, The Brown Fairy Book, part 20, with its dependency tree and the 
---

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# The Brown Fairy Book, The Brown Fairy Book, part 20, sentence 23

<!-- .ven lang=en -->
As soon as his task was done, he paused and looked out towards the mainland, thinking of Christmas Eve last year, and the merry dance they had had.

<!-- .vintro -->
**Who acts:** task, merry dance, gale · **What happens:** do, pause, look out, think, have, task · **To what, where:** task

<!-- .vabout -->
This is a sentence of «The Brown Fairy Book» by Andrew Lang, The Brown Fairy Book, part 20. The page gives its syntax tree — a dependency tree in the style of Universal Dependencies — and its pragmatics clause by clause: who acts (task, merry dance, gale), 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:pg3282:20:23
# text = As soon as his task was done, he paused and looked out towards the mainland, thinking of Christmas Eve last year, and the merry dance they had had.
1	As	as	ADV	RB	_	2	advmod	_	_
2	soon	soon	ADV	RB	Degree=Pos	10	advmod	_	_
3	as	as	SCONJ	IN	_	7	mark	_	_
4	his	his	PRON	PRP$	Case=Gen|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|Poss=Yes|PronType=Prs	5	nmod:poss	_	_
5	task	task	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	7	nsubj	_	_
6	was	be	AUX	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	7	aux:pass	_	_
7	done	do	VERB	VBN	Tense=Past|VerbForm=Part|Voice=Pass	10	advcl	_	SpaceAfter=No
8	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	7	punct	_	_
9	he	he	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	10	nsubj	_	_
10	paused	pause	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	0	root	_	_
11	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	12	cc	_	_
12	looked	look	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	10	conj	_	_
13	out	out	ADP	RP	_	12	compound:prt	_	_
14	towards	towards	ADP	IN	_	16	case	_	_
15	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	16	det	_	_
16	mainland	mainland	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	12	obl	_	SpaceAfter=No
17	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	18	punct	_	_
18	thinking	think	VERB	VBG	Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Part	12	advcl	_	_
19	of	of	ADP	IN	_	20	case	_	_
20	Christmas	Christmas	PROPN	NNP	Number=Sing	18	obl	_	_
21	Eve	Eve	PROPN	NNP	Number=Sing	20	flat	_	_
22	last	last	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	23	amod	_	_
23	year	year	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	18	obl:unmarked	_	SpaceAfter=No
24	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	31	punct	_	_
25	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	31	cc	_	_
26	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	28	det	_	_
27	merry	merry	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	28	amod	_	_
28	dance	dance	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	31	nsubj	_	_
29	they	they	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Number=Plur|Person=3|PronType=Prs	31	nsubj	_	_
30	had	have	AUX	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	31	aux	_	_
31	had	have	VERB	VBN	Tense=Past|VerbForm=Part	10	conj	_	SpaceAfter=No
32	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	10	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

<!-- .fr -->
| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **do** | past · passive |  | gale's task |  |  |  |  | vn act-114-1 «NP V NP»: subject=Eventuality |
| 2 | **pause** | past | task |  |  |  |  | soon *property* | vn linger-53.1 «NP V PP.location»: agent=Agent |
| 3 | **look out** | past | task *not said here* |  |  |  |  | towards the mainland | vn caring-75.2-2 «NP V PP»: agent=Agent |
| 4 | **think** *speech: other* | gerund | task *not said here* |  |  |  | year | of Christmas | vn focus-87.1-1 «NP V»: agent=Agent |
| 5 | **have** | past · perfect | the merry dance |  |  |  |  |  | vn birth-28.2-1 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent |
| 6 | **task** |  | gale |  |  |  |  |  | nom task «act 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.

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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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