---
title: Meanwhile the sultan was in his palace waiting till the fortieth day… — The Brown Fairy Book · tree and pragmatics
description: Meanwhile the sultan was in his palace waiting till the fortieth day should dawn, and wondering that not one spadeful of earth should have been dug out of the hill. Who acts: sultan, palace. A sentence of «The Brown Fairy Book» by Andrew Lang, The Brown Fairy Book, part 22, with its dependency tree 
---

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# The Brown Fairy Book, The Brown Fairy Book, part 22, sentence 63

<!-- .ven lang=en -->
Meanwhile the sultan was in his palace waiting till the fortieth day should dawn, and wondering that not one spadeful of earth should have been dug out of the hill.

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**Who acts:** sultan, palace · **What happens:** be, wait, wonder, dig out · **To what, where:** palace, one spadeful, hill

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This is a sentence of «The Brown Fairy Book» by Andrew Lang, The Brown Fairy Book, part 22. The page gives its syntax tree — a dependency tree in the style of Universal Dependencies — and its pragmatics clause by clause: who acts (sultan, palace), 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:pg3282:22:63
# text = Meanwhile the sultan was in his palace waiting till the fortieth day should dawn, and wondering that not one spadeful of earth should have been dug out of the hill.
1	Meanwhile	meanwhile	ADV	RB	_	7	advmod	_	_
2	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	3	det	_	_
3	sultan	sultan	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	7	nsubj	_	_
4	was	be	AUX	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	7	cop	_	_
5	in	in	ADP	IN	_	7	case	_	_
6	his	his	PRON	PRP$	Case=Gen|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|Poss=Yes|PronType=Prs	7	nmod:poss	_	_
7	palace	palace	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	0	root	_	_
8	waiting	wait	VERB	VBG	VerbForm=Ger	7	acl	_	_
9	till	till	ADP	IN	_	14	case	_	_
10	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	12	det	_	_
11	fortieth	fortieth	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	12	amod	_	_
12	day	day	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	14	compound	_	_
13	should	should	AUX	MD	VerbForm=Fin	14	aux	_	_
14	dawn	dawn	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	8	obl	_	SpaceAfter=No
15	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	17	punct	_	_
16	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	17	cc	_	_
17	wondering	wonder	VERB	VBG	VerbForm=Ger	8	conj	_	_
18	that	that	SCONJ	IN	_	27	mark	_	_
19	not	not	PART	RB	Polarity=Neg	20	advmod	_	_
20	one	one	NUM	CD	NumForm=Word|NumType=Card	21	nummod	_	_
21	spadeful	spadeful	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	27	nsubj:pass	_	_
22	of	of	ADP	IN	_	23	case	_	_
23	earth	earth	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	21	nmod	_	_
24	should	should	AUX	MD	VerbForm=Fin	27	aux	_	_
25	have	have	AUX	VB	VerbForm=Inf	27	aux	_	_
26	been	be	AUX	VBN	Tense=Past|VerbForm=Part	27	aux:pass	_	_
27	dug	dig	VERB	VBN	Tense=Past|VerbForm=Part|Voice=Pass	17	advcl	_	_
28	out	out	ADP	IN	_	31	case	_	_
29	of	of	ADP	IN	_	31	case	_	_
30	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	31	det	_	_
31	hill	hill	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	27	obl	_	SpaceAfter=No
32	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	7	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

<!-- .fr -->
| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **is** | past | the sultan |  |  | sultan's palace |  | meanwhile *property* | tree rules |
| 2 | **wait** | gerund | sultan's palace *not said here* |  |  |  | dawn |  | vn exist-47.1 «NP V»: agent=Theme |
| 3 | **wonder** *speech: ask* | gerund | sultan's palace *not said here* |  |  |  |  |  | vn care-88.1-1 «NP V»: agent=Experiencer |
| 4 | **dig out** | should · perfect · passive |  | one spadeful of earth |  | the hill |  |  | vn create-26.4-1-1 «NP V NP.beneficiary NP»: subject=Beneficiary hill=Result |

<!-- .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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