---
title: To his surprise a voice spoke to him, and he saw that the thing whic… — The Brown Fairy Book · tree and pragmatics
description: To his surprise a voice spoke to him, and he saw that the thing which he had taken for a branch was really a crocodile. Who acts: voice, prince, thing. 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 88

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To his surprise a voice spoke to him, and he saw that the thing which he had taken for a branch was really a crocodile.

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**Who acts:** voice, prince, thing · **What happens:** speak, see, take, be, surprise · **To what, where:** prince, thing, crocodile · **Speech:** someone speaks here

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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 (voice, prince, thing), 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:pg3282:25:88
# text = To his surprise a voice spoke to him, and he saw that the thing which he had taken for a branch was really a crocodile.
1	To	to	ADP	IN	_	3	case	_	_
2	his	his	PRON	PRP$	Case=Gen|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|Poss=Yes|PronType=Prs	3	nmod:poss	_	_
3	surprise	surprise	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	6	obl	_	_
4	a	a	DET	DT	Definite=Ind|PronType=Art	5	det	_	_
5	voice	voice	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	6	nsubj	_	_
6	spoke	speak	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	0	root	_	_
7	to	to	ADP	IN	_	8	case	_	_
8	him	he	PRON	PRP	Case=Acc|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	6	obl	_	SpaceAfter=No
9	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	12	punct	_	_
10	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	12	cc	_	_
11	he	he	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	12	nsubj	_	_
12	saw	see	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	6	conj	_	_
13	that	that	SCONJ	IN	_	26	mark	_	_
14	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	15	det	_	_
15	thing	thing	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	26	nsubj	_	_
16	which	which	PRON	WDT	PronType=Rel	19	nsubj:pass	_	_
17	he	he	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	19	nsubj	_	_
18	had	have	AUX	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	19	aux	_	_
19	taken	take	VERB	VBN	Tense=Past|VerbForm=Part|Voice=Pass	15	acl:relcl	_	_
20	for	for	ADP	IN	_	22	case	_	_
21	a	a	DET	DT	Definite=Ind|PronType=Art	22	det	_	_
22	branch	branch	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	19	obl	_	_
23	was	be	AUX	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	26	cop	_	_
24	really	really	ADV	RB	_	26	advmod	_	_
25	a	a	DET	DT	Definite=Ind|PronType=Art	26	det	_	_
26	crocodile	crocodile	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	12	ccomp	_	SpaceAfter=No
27	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	6	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

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| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **speak** *speech: other* | past | a voice |  | prince |  |  | to prince's surprise | vn talk-37.5 «NP V PP.co-agent»: agent=Agent to surprise=Co-Agent |
| 2 | **see** | past | prince |  |  |  |  |  | vn comprehend-87.2-1-1 «NP V»: agent=Experiencer |
| 3 | **take** | past · perfect · passive |  | the thing |  |  |  | for a branch | vn get-13.5.1 «NP V NP PP.beneficiary»: subject=Theme for branch=Beneficiary |
| 4 | **is a** | past | the thing | a crocodile |  |  |  |  | tree rules |
| 5 | **surprise** |  | prince |  |  |  |  |  | nom surprise «feeling 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.

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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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