---
title: At first he could not think what to do with them, but, after a littl… — The Brown Fairy Book · tree and pragmatics
description: At first he could not think what to do with them, but, after a little, a brilliant idea struck him! Who acts: man, brilliant idea. A sentence of «The Brown Fairy Book» by Andrew Lang, Story of Wali Dâd the Simple-Hearted, part 1, with its dependency tree and the pragmatics of every clause.
---

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# The Brown Fairy Book, Story of Wali Dâd the Simple-Hearted, part 1, sentence 35

<!-- .ven lang=en -->
At first he could not think what to do with them, but, after a little, a brilliant idea struck him!

<!-- .vintro -->
**Who acts:** man, brilliant idea · **What happens:** not think, do, strike · **To what, where:** man · **Speech:** someone speaks here

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This is a sentence of «The Brown Fairy Book» by Andrew Lang, Story of Wali Dâd the Simple-Hearted, part 1. The page gives its syntax tree — a dependency tree in the style of Universal Dependencies — and its pragmatics clause by clause: who acts (man, brilliant idea), 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:pg3282:34:35
# text = At first he could not think what to do with them, but, after a little, a brilliant idea struck him!
1	At	at	ADP	IN	_	2	case	_	_
2	first	first	ADV	RB	NumForm=Word|NumType=Ord	6	advmod	_	_
3	he	he	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	6	nsubj	_	_
4	could	could	AUX	MD	VerbForm=Fin	6	aux	_	_
5	not	not	PART	RB	Polarity=Neg	6	advmod	_	_
6	think	think	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	0	root	_	_
7	what	what	PRON	WP	PronType=Int	9	obj	_	_
8	to	to	PART	TO	_	9	mark	_	_
9	do	do	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	6	ccomp	_	_
10	with	with	ADP	IN	_	11	case	_	_
11	them	they	PRON	PRP	Case=Acc|Number=Plur|Person=3|PronType=Prs	9	obl	_	SpaceAfter=No
12	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	22	punct	_	_
13	but	but	CCONJ	CC	_	22	cc	_	SpaceAfter=No
14	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	13	punct	_	_
15	after	after	ADP	IN	_	17	case	_	_
16	a	a	DET	DT	Definite=Ind|PronType=Art	17	det	_	_
17	little	little	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	22	obl	_	SpaceAfter=No
18	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	17	punct	_	_
19	a	a	DET	DT	Definite=Ind|PronType=Art	21	det	_	_
20	brilliant	brilliant	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	21	amod	_	_
21	idea	idea	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	22	nsubj	_	_
22	struck	strike	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	6	conj	_	_
23	him	he	PRON	PRP	Case=Acc|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	22	obj	_	SpaceAfter=No
24	!	!	PUNCT	.	_	6	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

<!-- .fr -->
| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **not** **think** *speech: other* | could | man |  |  |  |  | first *property* | vn consider-29.9-2 «NP V how S\_INF»: agent=Agent clause=Theme |
| 2 | **do** | to-infinitive |  |  |  |  |  | with horses *= horse* | vn act-114-1 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent what=Eventuality |
| 3 | **strike** | past | a brilliant idea | man |  |  | after a little |  | vn hit-18.1-1 «NP V NP PP»: agent=Agent he=Instrument |

<!-- .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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