---
title: The woman started back in horror; but what was her surprise when the… — The Brown Fairy Book · tree and pragmatics
description: The woman started back in horror; but what was her surprise when the head spoke, exactly as if it had a body joined on to it. Who acts: woman, head. A sentence of «The Brown Fairy Book» by Andrew Lang, The Brown Fairy Book, part 21, with its dependency tree and the pragmatics of every clause.
---

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# The Brown Fairy Book, The Brown Fairy Book, part 21, sentence 130

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The woman started back in horror; but what was her surprise when the head spoke, exactly as if it had a body joined on to it.

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**Who acts:** woman, head · **What happens:** start back, be, speak, have, join on · **To what, where:** horror, surprise, body, head · **Speech:** someone speaks here

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This is a sentence of «The Brown Fairy Book» by Andrew Lang, The Brown Fairy Book, part 21. The page gives its syntax tree — a dependency tree in the style of Universal Dependencies — and its pragmatics clause by clause: who acts (woman, head), 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:pg3282:21:130
# text = The woman started back in horror; but what was her surprise when the head spoke, exactly as if it had a body joined on to it.
1	The	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	2	det	_	_
2	woman	woman	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	3	nsubj	_	_
3	started	start	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	0	root	_	_
4	back	back	ADV	RB	_	3	advmod	_	_
5	in	in	ADP	IN	_	6	case	_	_
6	horror	horror	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	3	obl	_	SpaceAfter=No
7	;	;	PUNCT	:	_	12	punct	_	_
8	but	but	CCONJ	CC	_	12	cc	_	_
9	what	what	PRON	WP	PronType=Int	12	nsubj	_	_
10	was	be	AUX	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	12	cop	_	_
11	her	her	PRON	PRP$	Case=Gen|Gender=Fem|Number=Sing|Person=3|Poss=Yes|PronType=Prs	12	nmod:poss	_	_
12	surprise	surprise	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	3	parataxis	_	_
13	when	when	ADV	WRB	PronType=Int	16	advmod	_	_
14	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	15	det	_	_
15	head	head	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	16	nsubj	_	_
16	spoke	speak	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	12	advcl	_	SpaceAfter=No
17	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	22	punct	_	_
18	exactly	exactly	ADV	RB	_	22	advmod	_	_
19	as	as	SCONJ	IN	_	22	mark	_	_
20	if	if	SCONJ	IN	_	22	mark	_	_
21	it	it	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Gender=Neut|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	22	nsubj	_	_
22	had	have	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	16	conj	_	_
23	a	a	DET	DT	Definite=Ind|PronType=Art	24	det	_	_
24	body	body	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	22	obj	_	_
25	joined	join	VERB	VBN	Tense=Past|VerbForm=Part|Voice=Pass	24	acl	_	_
26	on	on	ADP	RP	_	25	compound:prt	_	_
27	to	to	ADP	IN	_	28	case	_	_
28	it	it	PRON	PRP	Case=Acc|Gender=Neut|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	25	obl	_	SpaceAfter=No
29	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	3	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

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| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **start back** | past | the woman |  |  | horror |  |  | vn begin-55.1-1-1 «NP.eventuality V»: agent=Eventuality |
| 2 | **is a** | past |  | woman's surprise |  |  |  |  | tree rules |
| 3 | **speak** *speech: other* | past | the head |  |  |  |  |  | vn talk-37.5 «NP V»: agent=Agent |
| 4 | **have** *a condition, not said to happen* | past | head | a body |  |  |  | exactly *property* | vn birth-28.2-1 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent body=Patient |
| 5 | **join on** | participle |  | a body *not said here* | head |  |  |  | vn mix-22.1-2-1 «NP V PP.patient»: agent=Patient to it=Co-Patient |

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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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