---
title: This was the reason why he delayed his journey so long, and narrowly… — The Brown Fairy Book · tree and pragmatics
description: This was the reason why he delayed his journey so long, and narrowly escaped being eaten by the crocodile. Who acts: This, bade, crocodile. A sentence of «The Brown Fairy Book» by Andrew Lang, The Brown Fairy Book, part 25, 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/pg3282/25/72/)

<!-- 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 25](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg3282/25/) / 72

# The Brown Fairy Book, The Brown Fairy Book, part 25, sentence 72

<!-- .ven lang=en -->
This was the reason why he delayed his journey so long, and narrowly escaped being eaten by the crocodile.

<!-- .vintro -->
**Who acts:** This, bade, crocodile · **What happens:** be, delay, escape, eat, journey · **To what, where:** reason, journey

<!-- .vabout -->
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 (This, bade, crocodile), 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:pg3282:25:72
# text = This was the reason why he delayed his journey so long, and narrowly escaped being eaten by the crocodile.
1	This	this	PRON	DT	Number=Sing|PronType=Dem	4	nsubj	_	_
2	was	be	AUX	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	4	cop	_	_
3	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	4	det	_	_
4	reason	reason	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	0	root	_	_
5	why	why	ADV	WRB	PronType=Int	7	advmod	_	_
6	he	he	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	7	nsubj	_	_
7	delayed	delay	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	4	acl:relcl	_	_
8	his	his	PRON	PRP$	Case=Gen|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|Poss=Yes|PronType=Prs	9	nmod:poss	_	_
9	journey	journey	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	7	obj	_	_
10	so	so	ADV	RB	_	11	advmod	_	_
11	long	long	ADV	RB	Degree=Pos	7	advmod	_	SpaceAfter=No
12	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	15	punct	_	_
13	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	15	cc	_	_
14	narrowly	narrowly	ADV	RB	_	15	advmod	_	_
15	escaped	escape	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	4	parataxis	_	_
16	being	be	AUX	VBG	Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Part	17	aux:pass	_	_
17	eaten	eat	VERB	VBN	Tense=Past|VerbForm=Part|Voice=Pass	15	ccomp	_	_
18	by	by	ADP	IN	_	20	case	_	_
19	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	20	det	_	_
20	crocodile	crocodile	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	17	obl	_	SpaceAfter=No
21	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	4	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

<!-- .fr -->
| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **is a** | past | This | the reason |  |  |  |  | tree rules |
| 2 | **delay** | past | bade | bade's journey |  |  |  | long *property* | vn delay-53.3-1-1 «NP V»: agent=Agent journey=Source |
| 3 | **escape** | past |  |  |  |  |  | narrowly *property* | tree rules |
| 4 | **eat** | gerund · passive | the crocodile |  |  |  |  |  | vn eat-39.1-1 «NP V»: agent=Agent |
| 5 | **journey** |  | bade |  |  |  |  |  | nom journey «act transitive»: poss=agent |

<!-- .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 71](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg3282/25/71/)
- next →: [sentence 73](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg3282/25/73/)
- ↑ back to [The Brown Fairy Book, part 25](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg3282/25/)