---
title: This was what the princess had been waiting for, and catching up her… — The Brown Fairy Book · tree and pragmatics
description: This was what the princess had been waiting for, and catching up her husband’s sword, she severed the snake’s head from its body. Who acts: This, princess. 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.
---

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# The Brown Fairy Book, The Brown Fairy Book, part 25, sentence 82

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This was what the princess had been waiting for, and catching up her husband’s sword, she severed the snake’s head from its body.

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**Who acts:** This, princess · **What happens:** be, wait, catch up, sever · **To what, where:** sword, head, body

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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, princess), 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:pg3282:25:82
# text = This was what the princess had been waiting for, and catching up her husband’s sword, she severed the snake’s head from its body.
1	This	this	PRON	DT	Number=Sing|PronType=Dem	3	nsubj	_	_
2	was	be	AUX	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	3	cop	_	_
3	what	what	PRON	WP	PronType=Int	0	root	_	_
4	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	5	det	_	_
5	princess	princess	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	8	nsubj	_	_
6	had	have	AUX	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	8	aux	_	_
7	been	be	AUX	VBN	Tense=Past|VerbForm=Part	8	aux	_	_
8	waiting	wait	VERB	VBG	Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Part	3	acl:relcl	_	_
9	for	for	ADP	IN	_	8	obl	_	SpaceAfter=No
10	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	12	punct	_	_
11	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	12	cc	_	_
12	catching	catch	VERB	VBG	Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Part	8	conj	_	_
13	up	up	ADP	RP	_	12	compound:prt	_	_
14	her	her	PRON	PRP$	Case=Gen|Gender=Fem|Number=Sing|Person=3|Poss=Yes|PronType=Prs	15	nmod:poss	_	_
15	husband	husband	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	17	nmod:poss	_	SpaceAfter=No
16	’s	's	PART	POS	_	15	case	_	_
17	sword	sword	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	12	obj	_	SpaceAfter=No
18	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	20	punct	_	_
19	she	she	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Gender=Fem|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	20	nsubj	_	_
20	severed	sever	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	3	acl:relcl	_	_
21	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	22	det	_	_
22	snake	snake	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	24	nmod:poss	_	SpaceAfter=No
23	’s	's	PART	POS	_	22	case	_	_
24	head	head	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	20	obj	_	_
25	from	from	ADP	IN	_	27	case	_	_
26	its	its	PRON	PRP$	Case=Gen|Gender=Neut|Number=Sing|Person=3|Poss=Yes|PronType=Prs	27	nmod:poss	_	_
27	body	body	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	20	obl	_	SpaceAfter=No
28	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	3	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

<!-- .fr -->
| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **is a** | past | This |  |  |  |  |  | tree rules |
| 2 | **wait** | past · perfect · progressive | the princess |  |  |  |  |  | vn exist-47.1 «NP V»: agent=Theme |
| 3 | **catch up** | gerund | the princess *not said here* | princess's husband's sword |  |  |  |  | vn get-13.5.1 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent sword=Theme |
| 4 | **sever** | past | princess | the snake's head |  | head's body |  |  | vn remove-10.1 «NP V NP PP»: agent=Agent head=Theme from body=Initial\_Location |

<!-- .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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