---
title: This was the very day that they were all going to leave the islands,… — The Brown Fairy Book · tree and pragmatics
description: This was the very day that they were all going to leave the islands, and sail back to the mainland for the winter. Who acts: This, men. 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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[Mova](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/) · [this page in HTML](https://mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg3282/20/8/)

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# The Brown Fairy Book, The Brown Fairy Book, part 20, sentence 8

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This was the very day that they were all going to leave the islands, and sail back to the mainland for the winter.

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**Who acts:** This, men · **What happens:** be, go, leave, sail back · **To what, where:** day, islands, mainland

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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 (This, men), 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:pg3282:20:8
# text = This was the very day that they were all going to leave the islands, and sail back to the mainland for the winter.
1	This	this	PRON	DT	Number=Sing|PronType=Dem	5	nsubj	_	_
2	was	be	AUX	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	5	cop	_	_
3	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	5	det	_	_
4	very	very	ADV	RB	_	5	advmod	_	_
5	day	day	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	0	root	_	_
6	that	that	SCONJ	IN	_	10	mark	_	_
7	they	they	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Number=Plur|Person=3|PronType=Prs	10	nsubj	_	_
8	were	be	AUX	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Plur|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	10	aux	_	_
9	all	all	ADV	RB	_	10	advmod	_	_
10	going	go	VERB	VBG	Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Part	5	acl	_	_
11	to	to	PART	TO	_	12	mark	_	_
12	leave	leave	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	10	xcomp	_	_
13	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	14	det	_	_
14	islands	island	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	12	obj	_	SpaceAfter=No
15	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	17	punct	_	_
16	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	17	cc	_	_
17	sail	sail	VERB	VB	Mood=Imp|VerbForm=Fin	5	parataxis	_	_
18	back	back	ADV	RB	_	17	advmod	_	_
19	to	to	ADP	IN	_	21	case	_	_
20	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	21	det	_	_
21	mainland	mainland	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	17	obl	_	_
22	for	for	ADP	IN	_	24	case	_	_
23	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	24	det	_	_
24	winter	winter	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	17	obl	_	SpaceAfter=No
25	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	5	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

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| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **is a** | past | This | the day |  |  |  |  | tree rules |
| 2 | **go** | past · progressive | men *= man* | the day *not said here* |  |  |  | all *property* | tree rules |
| 3 | **leave** | to-infinitive | men *= man* *not said here* | the islands |  |  |  |  | vn keep-15.2 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent island=Theme |
| 4 | **sail back** | infinitive |  |  |  | the mainland | winter |  | vn nonvehicle-51.4.2-1 «NP V PP.location»: agent=Agent to mainland=Trajectory |

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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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