---
title: The man made no reply, for the white fur of the ermine, who was crou… — The Brown Fairy Book · tree and pragmatics
description: The man made no reply, for the white fur of the ermine, who was crouching with the mouse behind some stones, had just caught his eye. Who acts: man, ermine. A sentence of «The Brown Fairy Book» by Andrew Lang, The Brown Fairy Book, part 27, with its dependency tree and the pragmatics of every clause
---

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# The Brown Fairy Book, The Brown Fairy Book, part 27, sentence 55

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The man made no reply, for the white fur of the ermine, who was crouching with the mouse behind some stones, had just caught his eye.

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**Who acts:** man, ermine · **What happens:** make, crouch, catch · **To what, where:** reply, eye

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This is a sentence of «The Brown Fairy Book» by Andrew Lang, The Brown Fairy Book, part 27. The page gives its syntax tree — a dependency tree in the style of Universal Dependencies — and its pragmatics clause by clause: who acts (man, ermine), 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:pg3282:27:55
# text = The man made no reply, for the white fur of the ermine, who was crouching with the mouse behind some stones, had just caught his eye.
1	The	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	2	det	_	_
2	man	man	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	3	nsubj	_	_
3	made	make	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	0	root	_	_
4	no	no	DET	DT	PronType=Neg	5	det	_	_
5	reply	reply	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	3	obj	_	SpaceAfter=No
6	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	10	punct	_	_
7	for	for	ADP	IN	_	10	case	_	_
8	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	10	det	_	_
9	white	white	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	10	amod	_	_
10	fur	fur	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	3	obl	_	_
11	of	of	ADP	IN	_	13	case	_	_
12	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	13	det	_	_
13	ermine	ermine	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	10	nmod	_	SpaceAfter=No
14	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	17	punct	_	_
15	who	who	PRON	WP	PronType=Rel	17	nsubj	_	_
16	was	be	AUX	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	17	aux	_	_
17	crouching	crouch	VERB	VBG	Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Part	13	acl:relcl	_	_
18	with	with	ADP	IN	_	20	case	_	_
19	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	20	det	_	_
20	mouse	mouse	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	17	obl	_	_
21	behind	behind	ADP	IN	_	23	case	_	_
22	some	some	DET	DT	PronType=Ind	23	det	_	_
23	stones	stone	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	20	nmod	_	SpaceAfter=No
24	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	27	punct	_	_
25	had	have	AUX	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	27	aux	_	_
26	just	just	ADV	RB	_	27	advmod	_	_
27	caught	catch	VERB	VBN	Tense=Past|VerbForm=Part	3	parataxis	_	_
28	his	his	PRON	PRP$	Case=Gen|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|Poss=Yes|PronType=Prs	29	nmod:poss	_	_
29	eye	eye	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	27	obj	_	SpaceAfter=No
30	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	3	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

<!-- .fr -->
| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **make** | past | the man | no reply |  |  |  | for the white fur of the ermine | vn build-26.1-1 «NP V NP P.asset»: agent=Agent reply=Product for fur=Asset |
| 2 | **crouch** | past · progressive | the ermine |  |  |  |  | with the mouse behind some stones | vn spatial\_configuration-47.6 «NP V»: agent=Theme |
| 3 | **catch** | past · perfect |  | man's eye |  |  |  |  | vn get-13.5.1 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent eye=Theme |

<!-- .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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