---
title: His comrades seized hold of her, as they had been bidden, and the fo… — The Brown Fairy Book · tree and pragmatics
description: His comrades seized hold of her, as they had been bidden, and the fox was back again in the hall before anyone had missed him. Who acts: comrades, fox, anyone. 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 cla
---

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# The Brown Fairy Book, The Brown Fairy Book, part 23, sentence 56

<!-- .ven lang=en -->
His comrades seized hold of her, as they had been bidden, and the fox was back again in the hall before anyone had missed him.

<!-- .vintro -->
**Who acts:** comrades, fox, anyone · **What happens:** seize, bid, be, miss, hold · **To what, where:** hold, comrades, hall, best, princess

<!-- .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 (comrades, fox, anyone), 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:pg3282:23:56
# text = His comrades seized hold of her, as they had been bidden, and the fox was back again in the hall before anyone had missed him.
1	His	his	PRON	PRP$	Case=Gen|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|Poss=Yes|PronType=Prs	2	nmod:poss	_	_
2	comrades	comrade	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	3	nsubj	_	_
3	seized	seize	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Plur|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	0	root	_	_
4	hold	hold	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	3	obj	_	_
5	of	of	ADP	IN	_	6	case	_	_
6	her	she	PRON	PRP	Case=Acc|Gender=Fem|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	4	nmod	_	SpaceAfter=No
7	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	12	punct	_	_
8	as	as	SCONJ	IN	_	12	mark	_	_
9	they	they	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Number=Plur|Person=3|PronType=Prs	12	nsubj	_	_
10	had	have	AUX	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Plur|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	12	aux	_	_
11	been	be	AUX	VBN	Tense=Past|VerbForm=Part	12	aux:pass	_	_
12	bidden	bid	VERB	VBN	Tense=Past|VerbForm=Part|Voice=Pass	3	conj	_	SpaceAfter=No
13	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	18	punct	_	_
14	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	18	cc	_	_
15	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	16	det	_	_
16	fox	fox	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	18	nsubj	_	_
17	was	be	AUX	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	18	cop	_	_
18	back	back	ADV	RB	_	12	advmod	_	_
19	again	again	ADV	RB	_	18	advmod	_	_
20	in	in	ADP	IN	_	22	case	_	_
21	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	22	det	_	_
22	hall	hall	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	18	obl	_	_
23	before	before	SCONJ	IN	_	26	mark	_	_
24	anyone	anyone	PRON	NN	Number=Sing|PronType=Ind	26	nsubj	_	_
25	had	have	AUX	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	26	aux	_	_
26	missed	miss	VERB	VBN	Tense=Past|VerbForm=Part	12	advcl	_	_
27	him	he	PRON	PRP	Case=Acc|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	26	obj	_	SpaceAfter=No
28	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	3	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

<!-- .fr -->
| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **seize** | past | best's comrades | hold of princess |  |  |  |  | vn obtain-13.5.2 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent hold=Theme |
| 2 | **bid** | past · perfect · passive |  | comrades *= comrade* |  |  |  |  | tree rules |
| 3 | **is** | past | the fox |  |  | the hall | again | back *property* | tree rules |
| 4 | **miss** | past · perfect | anyone | best *= good* |  |  |  |  | vn admire-31.2 «NP V NP»: agent=Experiencer he=Stimulus |
| 5 | **hold** |  |  | princess |  |  |  |  | nom hold «act transitive»: of=patient |

<!-- .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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