---
title: But it was all in vain; three days passed in such festivities, and o… — The Brown Fairy Book · tree and pragmatics
description: But it was all in vain; three days passed in such festivities, and on the fourth the prince said: “O joy of my eyes! Who acts: head, prince. A sentence of «The Brown Fairy Book» by Andrew Lang, The Brown Fairy Book, part 3, with its dependency tree and the pragmatics of every clause.
---

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# The Brown Fairy Book, The Brown Fairy Book, part 3, sentence 28

<!-- .ven lang=en -->
But it was all in vain; three days passed in such festivities, and on the fourth the prince said: “O joy of my eyes!

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**Who acts:** head, prince · **What happens:** be, pass, say, joy · **To what, where:** three days, such festivities, O joy, fourth, eyes · **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 3. The page gives its syntax tree — a dependency tree in the style of Universal Dependencies — and its pragmatics clause by clause: who acts (head, prince), 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:pg3282:3:28
# text = But it was all in vain; three days passed in such festivities, and on the fourth the prince said: “O joy of my eyes!
1	But	but	CCONJ	CC	_	6	cc	_	_
2	it	it	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Gender=Neut|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	6	nsubj	_	_
3	was	be	AUX	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	6	cop	_	_
4	all	all	ADV	RB	_	6	advmod	_	_
5	in	in	ADP	IN	_	6	case	_	_
6	vain	vain	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	0	root	_	SpaceAfter=No
7	;	;	PUNCT	,	_	9	punct	_	_
8	three	three	NUM	CD	NumForm=Word|NumType=Card	9	nummod	_	_
9	days	day	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	6	parataxis	_	_
10	passed	pass	VERB	VBN	Tense=Past|VerbForm=Part|Voice=Pass	9	acl	_	_
11	in	in	ADP	IN	_	13	case	_	_
12	such	such	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	13	amod	_	_
13	festivities	festivity	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	10	obl	_	SpaceAfter=No
14	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	21	punct	_	_
15	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	21	cc	_	_
16	on	on	ADP	IN	_	18	case	_	_
17	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	18	det	_	_
18	fourth	fourth	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	21	obl	_	_
19	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	20	det	_	_
20	prince	prince	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	21	nsubj	_	_
21	said	say	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	6	conj	_	SpaceAfter=No
22	:	:	PUNCT	:	_	25	punct	_	_
23	“	"	PUNCT	``	_	25	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
24	O	o	X	GW	_	25	compound	_	_
25	joy	joy	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	21	obl	_	_
26	of	of	ADP	IN	_	28	case	_	_
27	my	my	PRON	PRP$	Case=Gen|Number=Sing|Person=1|Poss=Yes|PronType=Prs	28	nmod:poss	_	_
28	eyes	eye	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	25	nmod	_	SpaceAfter=No
29	!	!	PUNCT	.	_	6	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

<!-- .fr -->
| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **is** | past | head |  |  |  |  | all, vain *property* | tree rules |
| 2 | **pass** | participle |  | three days *not said here* |  | such festivities |  |  | vn occur-48.3-1 «NP V PP»: agent=Theme in festivity=Location |
| 3 | **say** *speech: assert* | past | the prince | O joy of my eyes |  | the fourth |  |  | vn say-37.7-1-1 «NP V that S»: agent=Agent |
| 4 | **joy** *in a quote* |  |  | my eyes |  |  |  |  | nom joy «feeling transitive»: of=patient |

<!-- .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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