---
title: But this was not so easy; and, moreover, the letter in her hand burn… — The Brown Fairy Book · tree and pragmatics
description: But this was not so easy; and, moreover, the letter in her hand burnt her with longing to read it, and see what was inside. Who acts: this, letter. A sentence of «The Brown Fairy Book» by Andrew Lang, Story Of The King Who Would Be Stronger Than Fate, with its dependency tree and the pragmatics of e
---

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# The Brown Fairy Book, Story Of The King Who Would Be Stronger Than Fate, sentence 151

<!-- .ven lang=en -->
But this was not so easy; and, moreover, the letter in her hand burnt her with longing to read it, and see what was inside.

<!-- .vintro -->
**Who acts:** this, letter · **What happens:** not be, burnt, long, read, see, be · **To what, where:** corner, letter · **Speech:** someone speaks here

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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 (this, letter), 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:pg3282:33:151
# text = But this was not so easy; and, moreover, the letter in her hand burnt her with longing to read it, and see what was inside.
1	But	but	CCONJ	CC	_	6	cc	_	_
2	this	this	PRON	DT	Number=Sing|PronType=Dem	6	nsubj	_	_
3	was	be	AUX	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	6	cop	_	_
4	not	not	PART	RB	Polarity=Neg	6	advmod	_	_
5	so	so	ADV	RB	_	6	advmod	_	_
6	easy	easy	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	0	root	_	SpaceAfter=No
7	;	;	PUNCT	,	_	17	punct	_	_
8	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	17	cc	_	SpaceAfter=No
9	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	8	punct	_	_
10	moreover	moreover	ADV	RB	_	17	advmod	_	SpaceAfter=No
11	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	10	punct	_	_
12	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	13	det	_	_
13	letter	letter	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	17	nsubj	_	_
14	in	in	ADP	IN	_	16	case	_	_
15	her	her	PRON	PRP$	Case=Gen|Gender=Fem|Number=Sing|Person=3|Poss=Yes|PronType=Prs	16	nmod:poss	_	_
16	hand	hand	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	13	nmod	_	_
17	burnt	burnt	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	6	parataxis	_	_
18	her	she	PRON	PRP	Case=Acc|Gender=Fem|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	17	obj	_	_
19	with	with	SCONJ	IN	_	20	mark	_	_
20	longing	long	VERB	VBG	Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Part	17	advcl	_	_
21	to	to	PART	TO	_	22	mark	_	_
22	read	read	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	20	xcomp	_	_
23	it	it	PRON	PRP	Case=Acc|Gender=Neut|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	22	obj	_	SpaceAfter=No
24	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	26	punct	_	_
25	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	26	cc	_	_
26	see	see	VERB	VB	Mood=Imp|VerbForm=Fin	6	parataxis	_	_
27	what	what	PRON	WP	PronType=Int	29	nsubj	_	_
28	was	be	AUX	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	29	cop	_	_
29	inside	inside	ADV	RB	_	26	ccomp	_	SpaceAfter=No
30	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	6	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

<!-- .fr -->
| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **not** **is** | past | this |  |  |  |  | easy *property* | tree rules |
| 2 | **burnt** | past | the letter in corner's hand | corner |  |  |  | moreover *property* | tree rules |
| 3 | **long** | gerund | the letter in corner's hand *not said here* |  |  |  |  |  | vn long-32.2 «NP V S\_INF»: agent=Pivot clause=Theme |
| 4 | **read** *not said to happen* | to-infinitive | the letter in corner's hand *not said here* | letter |  |  |  |  | vn transfer\_mesg-37.1.1-1 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent it=Topic |
| 5 | **see** | infinitive |  |  |  |  |  |  | vn comprehend-87.2-1-1 «NP V»: agent=Experiencer |
| 6 | **is** | past |  |  |  |  |  | inside *property* | 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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