--- title: “We spend our whole time climbing up the walls of the palace, trying… — The Brown Fairy Book · tree and pragmatics description: “We spend our whole time climbing up the walls of the palace, trying to reach the windows of the princess,” answered the young men; “but, as yet, no one has reached within ten feet of them.” Who acts: We, young men. A sentence of «The Brown Fairy Book» by Andrew Lang, The Brown Fairy Book, part 25, --- [Mova](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/) · [this page in HTML](https://mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg3282/25/37/) [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 25](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg3282/25/) / 37 # The Brown Fairy Book, The Brown Fairy Book, part 25, sentence 37 “We spend our whole time climbing up the walls of the palace, trying to reach the windows of the princess,” answered the young men; “but, as yet, no one has reached within ten feet of them.” **Who acts:** We, young men · **What happens:** spend, climb up, try, reach, answer · **To what, where:** walls, windows, one · **Speech:** someone speaks here This is a sentence of «The Brown Fairy Book» by Andrew Lang, The Brown Fairy Book, part 25. The page gives its syntax tree — a dependency tree in the style of Universal Dependencies — and its pragmatics clause by clause: who acts (We, young men), what happens, when and where, as Mova's frames read it from the tree. **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:pg3282:25:37 # text = “We spend our whole time climbing up the walls of the palace, trying to reach the windows of the princess,” answered the young men; “but, as yet, no one has reached within ten feet of them.” 1 “ " PUNCT `` _ 25 punct _ SpaceAfter=No 2 We we PRON PRP Case=Nom|Number=Plur|Person=1|PronType=Prs 3 nsubj _ _ 3 spend spend VERB VBP Mood=Ind|Number=Plur|Person=1|Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Fin 25 parataxis _ _ 4 our our PRON PRP$ Case=Gen|Number=Plur|Person=1|Poss=Yes|PronType=Prs 6 nmod:poss _ _ 5 whole whole ADJ JJ Degree=Pos 6 amod _ _ 6 time time NOUN NN Number=Sing 3 obj _ _ 7 climbing climb VERB VBG Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Part 3 advcl _ _ 8 up up ADP RP _ 7 compound:prt _ _ 9 the the DET DT Definite=Def|PronType=Art 10 det _ _ 10 walls wall NOUN NNS Number=Plur 7 obj _ _ 11 of of ADP IN _ 13 case _ _ 12 the the DET DT Definite=Def|PronType=Art 13 det _ _ 13 palace palace NOUN NN Number=Sing 10 nmod _ SpaceAfter=No 14 , , PUNCT , _ 15 punct _ _ 15 trying try VERB VBG Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Part 7 conj _ _ 16 to to PART TO _ 17 mark _ _ 17 reach reach VERB VB VerbForm=Inf 15 xcomp _ _ 18 the the DET DT Definite=Def|PronType=Art 19 det _ _ 19 windows window NOUN NNS Number=Plur 17 obj _ _ 20 of of ADP IN _ 22 case _ _ 21 the the DET DT Definite=Def|PronType=Art 22 det _ _ 22 princess princess NOUN NN Number=Sing 19 nmod _ SpaceAfter=No 23 , , PUNCT , _ 3 punct _ SpaceAfter=No 24 ” " PUNCT '' _ 3 punct _ _ 25 answered answer VERB VBD Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=1|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin 0 root _ _ 26 the the DET DT Definite=Def|PronType=Art 28 det _ _ 27 young young ADJ JJ Degree=Pos 28 amod _ _ 28 men man NOUN NNS Number=Plur 25 obj _ SpaceAfter=No 29 ; ; PUNCT : _ 25 punct _ _ 30 “ " PUNCT `` _ 39 punct _ SpaceAfter=No 31 but but CCONJ CC _ 39 cc _ SpaceAfter=No 32 , , PUNCT , _ 31 punct _ _ 33 as as ADP IN _ 34 case _ _ 34 yet yet ADV RB _ 39 obl _ SpaceAfter=No 35 , , PUNCT , _ 39 punct _ _ 36 no no DET DT PronType=Neg 37 det _ _ 37 one one NOUN NN Number=Sing 39 nsubj:pass _ _ 38 has have AUX VBZ Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Fin 39 aux _ _ 39 reached reach VERB VBN Tense=Past|VerbForm=Part|Voice=Pass 25 parataxis _ _ 40 within within ADP IN _ 42 case _ _ 41 ten ten NUM CD NumForm=Word|NumType=Card 42 nummod _ _ 42 feet foot NOUN NNS Number=Plur 39 obl _ _ 43 of of ADP IN _ 44 case _ _ 44 them they PRON PRP Case=Acc|Number=Plur|Person=3|PronType=Prs 42 nmod _ SpaceAfter=No 45 . . PUNCT . _ 39 punct _ SpaceAfter=No 46 ” " PUNCT '' _ 25 punct _ _ ``` ## Pragmatics {#pragmatics} | # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by | | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | | 1 | **spend** *in a quote* | present | We | | | | time | | vn consume-66-1 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent | | 2 | **climb up** *in a quote* | gerund | We *not said here* | the walls of the palace | | | | | vn run-51.3.2 «PP.location V NP»: agent=Initial\_Location wall=Theme | | 3 | **try** *in a quote* | gerund | We *not said here* | | | | | | vn try-61.1 «NP V S\_INF»: agent=Agent clause=Eventuality | | 4 | **reach** *not said to happen, in a quote* | to-infinitive | We *not said here* | the windows of the princess | | | | | vn body\_motion-49.2-1-1 «NP V NP ADV»: agent=Agent window=Theme | | 5 | **answer** *speech: assert* | past | the young men | | | | | | tree rules | | 6 | **reach** *in a quote* | present · perfect · passive | | no one | | | | within ten feet of men | vn body\_motion-49.2-1-1 «NP V NP ADV»: subject=Theme | 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. **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. - ← previous: [sentence 36](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg3282/25/36/) - next →: [sentence 38](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg3282/25/38/) - ↑ back to [The Brown Fairy Book, part 25](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg3282/25/)