---
title: He was just going to spring up and go to see what it meant, when he… — The Brown Fairy Book · tree and pragmatics
description: He was just going to spring up and go to see what it meant, when he luckily remembered his wife’s words and lay still. Who acts: husband, rest, wife. A sentence of «The Brown Fairy Book» by Andrew Lang, The Brown Fairy Book, part 20, with its dependency tree and the pragmatics of every clause.
---

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# The Brown Fairy Book, The Brown Fairy Book, part 20, sentence 54

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He was just going to spring up and go to see what it meant, when he luckily remembered his wife’s words and lay still.

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**Who acts:** husband, rest, wife · **What happens:** go, spring up, see, mean, remember, lay · **To what, where:** words

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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 (husband, rest, wife), 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:pg3282:20:54
# text = He was just going to spring up and go to see what it meant, when he luckily remembered his wife’s words and lay still.
1	He	he	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	4	nsubj	_	_
2	was	be	AUX	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	4	aux	_	_
3	just	just	ADV	RB	_	4	advmod	_	_
4	going	go	VERB	VBG	Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Part	0	root	_	_
5	to	to	PART	TO	_	6	mark	_	_
6	spring	spring	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	4	xcomp	_	_
7	up	up	ADP	RP	_	6	compound:prt	_	_
8	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	9	cc	_	_
9	go	go	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	6	conj	_	_
10	to	to	PART	TO	_	11	mark	_	_
11	see	see	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	9	xcomp	_	_
12	what	what	PRON	WP	PronType=Int	11	obj	_	_
13	it	it	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Gender=Neut|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	14	nsubj	_	_
14	meant	mean	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	12	acl:relcl	_	SpaceAfter=No
15	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	19	punct	_	_
16	when	when	ADV	WRB	PronType=Int	19	advmod	_	_
17	he	he	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	19	nsubj	_	_
18	luckily	luckily	ADV	RB	_	19	advmod	_	_
19	remembered	remember	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	4	parataxis	_	_
20	his	his	PRON	PRP$	Case=Gen|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|Poss=Yes|PronType=Prs	21	nmod:poss	_	_
21	wife	wife	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	23	nmod:poss	_	SpaceAfter=No
22	’s	's	PART	POS	_	21	case	_	_
23	words	word	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	19	obj	_	_
24	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	25	cc	_	_
25	lay	lay	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	19	conj	_	_
26	still	still	ADV	RB	_	25	advmod	_	SpaceAfter=No
27	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	4	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

<!-- .fr -->
| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **go** | past · progressive | husband |  |  |  |  |  | vn say-37.7 «NP V S-Quote»: agent=Agent clause=Topic |
| 2 | **spring up** | to-infinitive | husband *not said here* |  |  |  |  |  | vn appear-48.1.1 «NP V»: agent=Theme |
| 3 | **go** | infinitive | husband *not said here* |  |  |  |  |  | vn say-37.7 «NP V S-Quote»: agent=Agent clause=Topic |
| 4 | **see** | to-infinitive | husband *not said here* |  |  |  |  |  | vn comprehend-87.2-1-1 «NP V NP»: agent=Experiencer what=Stimulus |
| 5 | **mean** | past | rest |  |  |  |  |  | vn intend-61.2-1 «NP V S»: agent=Agent |
| 6 | **remember** | past | husband | husband's wife's words |  |  |  | luckily *property* | vn characterize-29.2-1-1 «NP V NP S\_ING»: agent=Agent word=Theme |
| 7 | **lay** | infinitive | husband *not said here* |  |  |  | still |  | vn create-26.4 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent |
| 8 | **word** |  | husband's wife |  |  |  |  |  | nom word «communication 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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