---
title: This was so unexpected that the prince’s arm fell helplessly to his… — The Brown Fairy Book · tree and pragmatics
description: This was so unexpected that the prince’s arm fell helplessly to his side at the sound, and he stood motionless. Who acts: This, arm. A sentence of «The Brown Fairy Book» by Andrew Lang, The Brown Fairy Book, part 32, with its dependency tree and the pragmatics of every clause.
---

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[Mova](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/) · [this page in HTML](https://mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg3282/32/20/)

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# The Brown Fairy Book, The Brown Fairy Book, part 32, sentence 20

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This was so unexpected that the prince’s arm fell helplessly to his side at the sound, and he stood motionless.

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**Who acts:** This, arm · **What happens:** be, fall, stand

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This is a sentence of «The Brown Fairy Book» by Andrew Lang, The Brown Fairy Book, part 32. The page gives its syntax tree — a dependency tree in the style of Universal Dependencies — and its pragmatics clause by clause: who acts (This, arm), 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:pg3282:32:20
# text = This was so unexpected that the prince’s arm fell helplessly to his side at the sound, and he stood motionless.
1	This	this	PRON	DT	Number=Sing|PronType=Dem	4	nsubj	_	_
2	was	be	AUX	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	4	cop	_	_
3	so	so	ADV	RB	_	4	advmod	_	_
4	unexpected	unexpected	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	0	root	_	_
5	that	that	SCONJ	IN	_	10	mark	_	_
6	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	7	det	_	_
7	prince	prince	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	9	nmod:poss	_	SpaceAfter=No
8	’s	's	PART	POS	_	7	case	_	_
9	arm	arm	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	10	nsubj	_	_
10	fell	fall	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	4	advcl	_	_
11	helplessly	helplessly	ADV	RB	_	14	advmod	_	_
12	to	to	ADP	IN	_	14	case	_	_
13	his	his	PRON	PRP$	Case=Gen|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|Poss=Yes|PronType=Prs	14	nmod:poss	_	_
14	side	side	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	10	obl	_	_
15	at	at	ADP	IN	_	17	case	_	_
16	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	17	det	_	_
17	sound	sound	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	14	nmod	_	SpaceAfter=No
18	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	21	punct	_	_
19	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	21	cc	_	_
20	he	he	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	21	nsubj	_	_
21	stood	stand	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	10	conj	_	_
22	motionless	motionless	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	21	xcomp	_	SpaceAfter=No
23	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	4	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

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| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **is** | past | This |  |  |  |  | unexpected *property* | tree rules |
| 2 | **fall** | past | the prince's arm |  |  |  |  | to arm's side at the sound | vn acquiesce-95.1-1 «NP V PP.theme»: agent=Agent to side=Theme |
| 3 | **stand** | past | arm |  |  |  |  | motionless *property* | vn assuming\_position-50 «NP V»: agent=Agent |

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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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