---
title: “Ah! those were better times when I used to paint all the birds such… — The Brown Fairy Book · tree and pragmatics
description: “Ah! those were better times when I used to paint all the birds such gay colours,” said the fox again to himself. Who acts: fox. A sentence of «The Brown Fairy Book» by Andrew Lang, The Brown Fairy Book, part 26, with its dependency tree and the pragmatics of every clause.
---

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# The Brown Fairy Book, The Brown Fairy Book, part 26, sentence 103

<!-- .ven lang=en -->
“Ah! those were better times when I used to paint all the birds such gay colours,” said the fox again to himself.

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**Who acts:** fox · **What happens:** be, use, paint, say · **To what, where:** better times, birds, bird · **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 26. The page gives its syntax tree — a dependency tree in the style of Universal Dependencies — and its pragmatics clause by clause: who acts (fox), 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:pg3282:26:103
# text = “Ah! those were better times when I used to paint all the birds such gay colours,” said the fox again to himself.
1	“	"	PUNCT	``	_	21	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
2	Ah	ah	INTJ	UH	_	4	discourse	_	SpaceAfter=No
3	!	!	PUNCT	.	_	2	punct	_	_
4	those	that	DET	DT	Number=Plur|PronType=Dem	7	det	_	_
5	were	be	AUX	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	7	cop	_	_
6	better	good	ADJ	JJR	Degree=Cmp	7	amod	_	_
7	times	time	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	21	nsubj	_	_
8	when	when	ADV	WRB	PronType=Int	10	advmod	_	_
9	I	I	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Number=Sing|Person=1|PronType=Prs	10	nsubj	_	_
10	used	use	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=1|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	7	acl:relcl	_	_
11	to	to	PART	TO	_	12	mark	_	_
12	paint	paint	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	10	xcomp	_	_
13	all	all	DET	PDT	PronType=Tot	15	det:predet	_	_
14	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	15	det	_	_
15	birds	bird	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	12	obj	_	_
16	such	such	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	18	amod	_	_
17	gay	gay	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	18	amod	_	_
18	colours	colour	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	15	conj	_	SpaceAfter=No
19	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	10	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
20	”	"	PUNCT	''	_	10	punct	_	_
21	said	say	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Plur|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	0	root	_	_
22	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	23	det	_	_
23	fox	fox	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	21	obj	_	_
24	again	again	ADV	RB	_	21	advmod	_	_
25	to	to	ADP	IN	_	26	case	_	_
26	himself	himself	PRON	PRP	Case=Acc|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs|Reflex=Yes	21	obl	_	SpaceAfter=No
27	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	21	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

<!-- .fr -->
| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **is a** *in a quote* | past |  | that better times |  |  |  |  | tree rules |
| 2 | **use** *in a quote* | past | the fox *= fox* |  |  |  |  |  | vn use-105.1 «NP V NP S\_INF»: agent=Agent clause=Eventuality |
| 3 | **paint** *in a quote* | to-infinitive | the fox *= fox* *not said here* | all birds and such gay colours |  |  |  |  | vn image\_impression-25.1 «NP V NP.theme»: agent=Agent bird=Theme |
| 4 | **say** *speech: express* | past | the fox |  | bird |  | again |  | vn say-37.7-1-1 «NP V PP.recipient S-Quote»: agent=Agent to himself=Recipient |

<!-- .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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