---
title: They halted before the gate and took counsel as to which of them sho… — The Brown Fairy Book · tree and pragmatics
description: They halted before the gate and took counsel as to which of them should go in and see the lady herself. Who acts: bushes. A sentence of «The Brown Fairy Book» by Andrew Lang, The Brown Fairy Book, part 23, with its dependency tree and the pragmatics of every clause.
---

<!-- md -->
[Mova](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/) · [this page in HTML](https://mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg3282/23/13/)

<!-- 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 23](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg3282/23/) / 13

# The Brown Fairy Book, The Brown Fairy Book, part 23, sentence 13

<!-- .ven lang=en -->
They halted before the gate and took counsel as to which of them should go in and see the lady herself.

<!-- .vintro -->
**Who acts:** bushes · **What happens:** halt, take, go in, see · **To what, where:** counsel, lady

<!-- .vabout -->
This is a sentence of «The Brown Fairy Book» by Andrew Lang, The Brown Fairy Book, part 23. The page gives its syntax tree — a dependency tree in the style of Universal Dependencies — and its pragmatics clause by clause: who acts (bushes), 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:pg3282:23:13
# text = They halted before the gate and took counsel as to which of them should go in and see the lady herself.
1	They	they	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Number=Plur|Person=3|PronType=Prs	2	nsubj	_	_
2	halted	halt	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Plur|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	0	root	_	_
3	before	before	ADP	IN	_	5	case	_	_
4	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	5	det	_	_
5	gate	gate	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	2	obl	_	_
6	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	7	cc	_	_
7	took	take	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Plur|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	2	conj	_	_
8	counsel	counsel	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	7	obj	_	_
9	as	as	ADP	IN	ExtPos=ADP	11	case	_	_
10	to	to	ADP	IN	_	9	fixed	_	_
11	which	which	PRON	WDT	PronType=Rel	15	obl	_	_
12	of	of	ADP	IN	_	13	case	_	_
13	them	they	PRON	PRP	Case=Acc|Number=Plur|Person=3|PronType=Prs	15	obl	_	_
14	should	should	AUX	MD	VerbForm=Fin	15	aux	_	_
15	go	go	VERB	VB	Mood=Imp|VerbForm=Fin	7	parataxis	_	_
16	in	in	ADV	RB	_	15	advmod	_	_
17	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	18	cc	_	_
18	see	see	VERB	VB	Mood=Imp|VerbForm=Fin	15	conj	_	_
19	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	20	det	_	_
20	lady	lady	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	18	obj	_	_
21	herself	herself	PRON	PRP	Case=Acc|Gender=Fem|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs|Reflex=Yes	18	obl	_	SpaceAfter=No
22	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	2	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

<!-- .fr -->
| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **halt** | past | bushes *= bush* |  |  |  | before the gate |  | vn stop-55.4-1 «NP.eventuality V»: agent=Eventuality |
| 2 | **take** | past | bushes *= bush* *not said here* | counsel |  |  |  |  | vn bring-11.3 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent counsel=Theme |
| 3 | **go in** | should |  |  |  |  |  | of bushes *= bush* | vn escape-51.1-1 «NP V PP.initial\_location»: agent=Theme of they=Initial\_Location |
| 4 | **see** | infinitive |  | the lady |  |  |  | sun *obl* | vn comprehend-87.2-1-1 «NP V NP»: agent=Experiencer lady=Stimulus |

<!-- .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 12](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg3282/23/12/)
- next →: [sentence 14](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg3282/23/14/)
- ↑ back to [The Brown Fairy Book, part 23](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg3282/23/)