---
title: Unwilling as the gnome was to lose sight of his beautiful bride for… — The Brown Fairy Book · tree and pragmatics
description: Unwilling as the gnome was to lose sight of his beautiful bride for a moment, he obeyed her commands without delay, and hurried off to begin his task. Who acts: gnome, bride. A sentence of «The Brown Fairy Book» by Andrew Lang, The Brown Fairy Book, part 32, with its dependency tree and the pragmati
---

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# The Brown Fairy Book, The Brown Fairy Book, part 32, sentence 48

<!-- .ven lang=en -->
Unwilling as the gnome was to lose sight of his beautiful bride for a moment, he obeyed her commands without delay, and hurried off to begin his task.

<!-- .vintro -->
**Who acts:** gnome, bride · **What happens:** unwill, be, obey, hurry off, begin, sight · **To what, where:** commands, task, beautiful bride · **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 32. The page gives its syntax tree — a dependency tree in the style of Universal Dependencies — and its pragmatics clause by clause: who acts (gnome, bride), 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:pg3282:32:48
# text = Unwilling as the gnome was to lose sight of his beautiful bride for a moment, he obeyed her commands without delay, and hurried off to begin his task.
1	Unwilling	unwill	VERB	VBG	Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Part	18	advcl	_	_
2	as	as	SCONJ	IN	_	7	mark	_	_
3	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	4	det	_	_
4	gnome	gnome	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	7	nsubj	_	_
5	was	be	AUX	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	7	cop	_	_
6	to	to	PART	TO	_	7	mark	_	_
7	lose	lose	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	1	xcomp	_	_
8	sight	sight	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	7	obj	_	_
9	of	of	ADP	IN	_	12	case	_	_
10	his	his	PRON	PRP$	Case=Gen|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|Poss=Yes|PronType=Prs	12	nmod:poss	_	_
11	beautiful	beautiful	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	12	amod	_	_
12	bride	bride	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	8	nmod	_	_
13	for	for	ADP	IN	_	15	case	_	_
14	a	a	DET	DT	Definite=Ind|PronType=Art	15	det	_	_
15	moment	moment	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	7	obl	_	SpaceAfter=No
16	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	1	punct	_	_
17	he	he	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	18	nsubj	_	_
18	obeyed	obey	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	0	root	_	_
19	her	her	PRON	PRP$	Case=Gen|Gender=Fem|Number=Sing|Person=3|Poss=Yes|PronType=Prs	20	nmod:poss	_	_
20	commands	command	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	18	obj	_	_
21	without	without	ADP	IN	_	22	case	_	_
22	delay	delay	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	18	obl	_	SpaceAfter=No
23	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	25	punct	_	_
24	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	25	cc	_	_
25	hurried	hurry	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	18	conj	_	_
26	off	off	ADP	RP	_	25	compound:prt	_	_
27	to	to	PART	TO	_	28	mark	_	_
28	begin	begin	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	25	advcl	_	_
29	his	his	PRON	PRP$	Case=Gen|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|Poss=Yes|PronType=Prs	30	nmod:poss	_	_
30	task	task	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	28	obj	_	SpaceAfter=No
31	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	18	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

<!-- .fr -->
| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **unwill** | gerund | gnome *not said here* |  |  |  |  |  | tree rules |
| 2 | **is** | past | the gnome |  |  |  | moment | lose *property* | tree rules |
| 3 | **obey** | past | gnome | bride's commands |  |  |  | without delay | vn abide\_by-93.2 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent command=Theme |
| 4 | **hurry off** | past | gnome *not said here* |  |  |  |  |  | vn run-51.3.2-2 «NP V»: agent=Theme |
| 5 | **begin** | to-infinitive | gnome *not said here* | gnome's task |  |  |  |  | vn begin-55.1-1-1 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent task=Eventuality |
| 6 | **sight** |  |  | gnome's beautiful bride |  |  |  |  | nom sight «cognition transitive»: of=patient |
| 7 | **command** |  | bride |  |  |  |  |  | nom command «communication transitive»: poss=agent |
| 8 | **task** |  | gnome |  |  |  |  |  | nom task «act transitive»: 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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