---
title: These signed to him with eye and foot to go back, for that this was… — The Brown Fairy Book · tree and pragmatics
description: These signed to him with eye and foot to go back, for that this was enchanted ground; but he did not understand them, and thought their pretty gestures were a welcome. Who acts: prince, pretty gestures, eye. A sentence of «The Brown Fairy Book» by Andrew Lang, The Brown Fairy Book, part 3, with its 
---

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# The Brown Fairy Book, The Brown Fairy Book, part 3, sentence 4

<!-- .ven lang=en -->
These signed to him with eye and foot to go back, for that this was enchanted ground; but he did not understand them, and thought their pretty gestures were a welcome.

<!-- .vintro -->
**Who acts:** prince, pretty gestures, eye · **What happens:** sign, go back, enchant, not understand, think, be · **To what, where:** These, prince, eye, welcome · **Speech:** someone speaks here

<!-- .vabout -->
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 (prince, pretty gestures, eye), what happens, when and where, as Mova's frames read it from the tree.

<!-- .note-en -->
**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:pg3282:3:4
# text = These signed to him with eye and foot to go back, for that this was enchanted ground; but he did not understand them, and thought their pretty gestures were a welcome.
1	These	this	PRON	DT	Number=Plur|PronType=Dem	2	nsubj:pass	_	_
2	signed	sign	VERB	VBN	Tense=Past|VerbForm=Part|Voice=Pass	0	root	_	_
3	to	to	ADP	IN	_	4	case	_	_
4	him	he	PRON	PRP	Case=Acc|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	2	obl	_	_
5	with	with	ADP	IN	_	6	case	_	_
6	eye	eye	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	2	obl	_	_
7	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	8	cc	_	_
8	foot	foot	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	6	conj	_	_
9	to	to	PART	TO	_	10	mark	_	_
10	go	go	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	8	acl	_	_
11	back	back	ADV	RB	_	10	advmod	_	SpaceAfter=No
12	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	18	punct	_	_
13	for	for	ADP	IN	_	18	case	_	_
14	that	that	SCONJ	IN	_	18	mark	_	_
15	this	this	DET	DT	Number=Sing|PronType=Dem	18	det	_	_
16	was	be	AUX	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	17	aux:pass	_	_
17	enchanted	enchant	VERB	VBN	Tense=Past|VerbForm=Part|Voice=Pass	18	amod	_	_
18	ground	ground	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	10	obl	_	SpaceAfter=No
19	;	;	PUNCT	:	_	24	punct	_	_
20	but	but	CCONJ	CC	_	24	cc	_	_
21	he	he	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	24	nsubj	_	_
22	did	do	AUX	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	24	aux	_	_
23	not	not	PART	RB	Polarity=Neg	24	advmod	_	_
24	understand	understand	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	2	parataxis	_	_
25	them	they	PRON	PRP	Case=Acc|Number=Plur|Person=3|PronType=Prs	24	obj	_	SpaceAfter=No
26	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	28	punct	_	_
27	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	28	cc	_	_
28	thought	think	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	24	conj	_	_
29	their	their	PRON	PRP$	Case=Gen|Number=Plur|Person=3|Poss=Yes|PronType=Prs	31	nmod:poss	_	_
30	pretty	pretty	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	31	amod	_	_
31	gestures	gesture	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	34	nsubj	_	_
32	were	be	AUX	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Plur|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	34	cop	_	_
33	a	a	DET	DT	Definite=Ind|PronType=Art	34	det	_	_
34	welcome	welcome	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	28	ccomp	_	SpaceAfter=No
35	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	2	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

<!-- .fr -->
| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **sign** | participle · passive |  | These | prince |  |  | with eye and foot | vn image\_impression-25.1 «NP V NP.destination PP.theme»: subject=Destination with eye=Theme |
| 2 | **go back** | to-infinitive |  |  |  |  |  | for this enchanted ground | vn convert-26.6.2 «NP V S\_ING»: agent=Patient |
| 3 | **enchant** | past · passive |  |  |  |  |  |  | vn amuse-31.1 «NP V ADV-Middle» |
| 4 | **not** **understand** | past · do-support | prince | eye |  |  |  |  | vn comprehend-87.2-1-1-1 «NP V NP PP.attribute»: agent=Experiencer they=Stimulus |
| 5 | **think** *speech: other* | past | prince *not said here* |  |  |  |  |  | vn focus-87.1-1 «NP V»: agent=Agent |
| 6 | **is a** | past | eye's pretty gestures | a welcome |  |  |  |  | tree rules |
| 7 | **gesture** |  | eye |  |  |  |  |  | nom gesture «act intransitive»: 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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