---
title: For a long time he kept silence about it; but one day, when he had b… — The Brown Fairy Book · tree and pragmatics
description: For a long time he kept silence about it; but one day, when he had been complaining of her absence, she said to him: “Dear husband, I am bound to go, even against my will, and there is only one way to stop me. Who acts: husband, girl, Dear husband, one way. A sentence of «The Brown Fairy Book» by An
---

<!-- md -->
[Mova](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/) · [this page in HTML](https://mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg3282/20/72/)

<!-- crumbs -->
[home](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/) / [corpora](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/) / [tales](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/) / [The Brown Fairy Book](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg3282/) / [The Brown Fairy Book, part 20](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg3282/20/) / 72

# The Brown Fairy Book, The Brown Fairy Book, part 20, sentence 72

<!-- .ven lang=en -->
For a long time he kept silence about it; but one day, when he had been complaining of her absence, she said to him: “Dear husband, I am bound to go, even against my will, and there is only one way to stop me.

<!-- .vintro -->
**Who acts:** husband, girl, Dear husband, one way · **What happens:** keep, complain, say, be, go, stop · **To what, where:** silence, husband, girl · **Speech:** someone speaks here

<!-- .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 (husband, girl, Dear husband, one way), 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:pg3282:20:72
# text = For a long time he kept silence about it; but one day, when he had been complaining of her absence, she said to him: “Dear husband, I am bound to go, even against my will, and there is only one way to stop me.
1	For	for	ADP	IN	_	4	case	_	_
2	a	a	DET	DT	Definite=Ind|PronType=Art	4	det	_	_
3	long	long	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	4	amod	_	_
4	time	time	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	6	obl	_	_
5	he	he	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	6	nsubj	_	_
6	kept	keep	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	0	root	_	_
7	silence	silence	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	6	obj	_	_
8	about	about	ADP	IN	_	9	case	_	_
9	it	it	PRON	PRP	Case=Acc|Gender=Neut|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	7	nmod	_	SpaceAfter=No
10	;	;	PUNCT	:	_	13	punct	_	_
11	but	but	CCONJ	CC	_	13	cc	_	_
12	one	one	NUM	CD	NumForm=Word|NumType=Card	13	nummod	_	_
13	day	day	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	6	obl:unmarked	_	SpaceAfter=No
14	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	19	punct	_	_
15	when	when	ADV	WRB	PronType=Int	19	advmod	_	_
16	he	he	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	19	nsubj	_	_
17	had	have	AUX	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	19	aux	_	_
18	been	be	AUX	VBN	Tense=Past|VerbForm=Part	19	aux	_	_
19	complaining	complain	VERB	VBG	Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Part	13	acl	_	_
20	of	of	ADP	IN	_	22	case	_	_
21	her	her	PRON	PRP$	Case=Gen|Gender=Fem|Number=Sing|Person=3|Poss=Yes|PronType=Prs	22	nmod:poss	_	_
22	absence	absence	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	19	obl	_	SpaceAfter=No
23	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	25	punct	_	_
24	she	she	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Gender=Fem|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	25	nsubj	_	_
25	said	say	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	6	conj	_	_
26	to	to	ADP	IN	_	27	case	_	_
27	him	he	PRON	PRP	Case=Acc|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	25	obl	_	SpaceAfter=No
28	:	:	PUNCT	:	_	35	punct	_	_
29	“	"	PUNCT	``	_	35	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
30	Dear	dear	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	31	amod	_	_
31	husband	husband	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	35	nsubj	_	SpaceAfter=No
32	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	31	punct	_	_
33	I	I	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Number=Sing|Person=1|PronType=Prs	35	nsubj	_	_
34	am	be	AUX	VBP	Mood=Ind|Number=Plur|Person=3|Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Fin	35	cop	_	_
35	bound	bound	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	25	ccomp	_	_
36	to	to	PART	TO	_	37	mark	_	_
37	go	go	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	35	xcomp	_	SpaceAfter=No
38	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	42	punct	_	_
39	even	even	ADV	RB	_	42	advmod	_	_
40	against	against	ADP	IN	_	42	case	_	_
41	my	my	PRON	PRP$	Case=Gen|Number=Sing|Person=1|Poss=Yes|PronType=Prs	42	nmod:poss	_	_
42	will	will	AUX	MD	VerbForm=Fin	37	advcl	_	SpaceAfter=No
43	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	46	punct	_	_
44	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	46	cc	_	_
45	there	there	PRON	EX	PronType=Dem	46	expl	_	_
46	is	be	VERB	VBZ	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Fin	6	conj	_	_
47	only	only	ADV	RB	_	48	advmod	_	_
48	one	one	NUM	CD	NumForm=Word|NumType=Card	49	nummod	_	_
49	way	way	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	46	nsubj	_	_
50	to	to	PART	TO	_	51	mark	_	_
51	stop	stop	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	49	acl	_	_
52	me	I	PRON	PRP	Case=Acc|Number=Sing|Person=1|PronType=Prs	51	obj	_	SpaceAfter=No
53	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	6	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

<!-- .fr -->
| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **keep** | past | husband | silence |  |  | day; time | about silence | vn keep-15.2 «NP V NP PP.location»: agent=Agent silence=Theme about it=Location |
| 2 | **complain** *speech: other* | past · perfect · progressive | husband |  |  |  |  | of girl's absence | vn complain-37.8 «NP V»: agent=Agent |
| 3 | **say** *speech: assert* | past | girl |  | husband |  |  |  | vn say-37.7-1-1 «NP V PP.recipient S-Quote»: agent=Agent to he=Recipient |
| 4 | **is** *in a quote* | present | Dear husband |  |  |  |  | bound *property* | tree rules |
| 5 | **go** *in a quote* | to-infinitive | Dear husband *not said here* |  |  |  |  |  | vn disappearance-48.2-1 «NP V»: agent=Theme |
| 6 | **be** *in a quote* | present | one way |  |  | there |  |  | vn exist-47.1 «NP V»: agent=Theme |
| 7 | **stop** *in a quote* | to-infinitive | one way *not said here* | girl |  |  |  |  | vn stop-55.4-1-1 «NP V NP.eventuality»: agent=Subeventuality i=Eventuality |
| 8 | **absent** |  | girl |  |  |  |  |  | nom absence «state 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.

<!-- div src -->

**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.

<!-- /div -->

<!-- pn -->
- ← previous: [sentence 71](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg3282/20/71/)
- next →: [sentence 73](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg3282/20/73/)
- ↑ back to [The Brown Fairy Book, part 20](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg3282/20/)