---
title: But the pleasure of taking a letter which was not meant for her was… — The Brown Fairy Book · tree and pragmatics
description: But the pleasure of taking a letter which was not meant for her was more than she could resist, and in another moment it was in her hand. Who acts: pleasure, letter, corner. A sentence of «The Brown Fairy Book» by Andrew Lang, Story Of The King Who Would Be Stronger Than Fate, with its dependency tr
---

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# The Brown Fairy Book, Story Of The King Who Would Be Stronger Than Fate, sentence 149

<!-- .ven lang=en -->
But the pleasure of taking a letter which was not meant for her was more than she could resist, and in another moment it was in her hand.

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**Who acts:** pleasure, letter, corner · **What happens:** take, not mean, be, resist · **To what, where:** letter, hand

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This is a sentence of «The Brown Fairy Book» by Andrew Lang, Story Of The King Who Would Be Stronger Than Fate. The page gives its syntax tree — a dependency tree in the style of Universal Dependencies — and its pragmatics clause by clause: who acts (pleasure, letter, corner), 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:pg3282:33:149
# text = But the pleasure of taking a letter which was not meant for her was more than she could resist, and in another moment it was in her hand.
1	But	but	CCONJ	CC	_	3	cc	_	_
2	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	3	det	_	_
3	pleasure	pleasure	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	0	root	_	_
4	of	of	SCONJ	IN	_	5	mark	_	_
5	taking	take	VERB	VBG	VerbForm=Ger	3	acl	_	_
6	a	a	DET	DT	Definite=Ind|PronType=Art	7	det	_	_
7	letter	letter	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	15	nsubj	_	_
8	which	which	PRON	WDT	PronType=Rel	11	nsubj:pass	_	_
9	was	be	AUX	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	11	aux:pass	_	_
10	not	not	PART	RB	Polarity=Neg	11	advmod	_	_
11	meant	mean	VERB	VBN	Tense=Past|VerbForm=Part|Voice=Pass	7	acl:relcl	_	_
12	for	for	ADP	IN	_	13	case	_	_
13	her	she	PRON	PRP	Case=Acc|Gender=Fem|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	11	obl	_	_
14	was	be	AUX	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	15	cop	_	_
15	more	more	ADJ	JJR	Degree=Cmp	5	obj	_	_
16	than	than	SCONJ	IN	_	19	mark	_	_
17	she	she	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Gender=Fem|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	19	nsubj	_	_
18	could	could	AUX	MD	VerbForm=Fin	19	aux	_	_
19	resist	resist	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	15	advcl	_	SpaceAfter=No
20	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	29	punct	_	_
21	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	29	cc	_	_
22	in	in	ADP	IN	_	24	case	_	_
23	another	another	DET	DT	PronType=Ind	24	det	_	_
24	moment	moment	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	29	obl	_	_
25	it	it	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Gender=Neut|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	29	nsubj	_	_
26	was	be	AUX	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	29	cop	_	_
27	in	in	ADP	IN	_	29	case	_	_
28	her	her	PRON	PRP$	Case=Gen|Gender=Fem|Number=Sing|Person=3|Poss=Yes|PronType=Prs	29	nmod:poss	_	_
29	hand	hand	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	5	obl	_	SpaceAfter=No
30	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	3	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

<!-- .fr -->
| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **take** | gerund | the pleasure *not said here* |  |  |  |  |  | vn bring-11.3 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent |
| 2 | **not** **mean** | past · passive |  | a letter |  |  |  | for corner | vn representation-110.1 «NP V NP PP.attribute»: subject=Theme for she=Attribute |
| 3 | **is** | past | a letter |  |  |  |  | more *property* | tree rules |
| 4 | **resist** | could | corner |  |  |  |  |  | tree rules |
| 5 | **is** | past | letter |  |  | corner's hand | moment |  | tree rules |

<!-- .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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