---
title: He took his hands from before his face, and saw before him two lovel… — The Brown Fairy Book · tree and pragmatics
description: He took his hands from before his face, and saw before him two lovely beings whom his instinct told him were not mortal, but were Peris from Paradise. Who acts: He, instinct, two lovely beings. A sentence of «The Brown Fairy Book» by Andrew Lang, Story of Wali Dâd the Simple-Hearted, part 2, with it
---

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# The Brown Fairy Book, Story of Wali Dâd the Simple-Hearted, part 2, sentence 3

<!-- .ven lang=en -->
He took his hands from before his face, and saw before him two lovely beings whom his instinct told him were not mortal, but were Peris from Paradise.

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**Who acts:** He, instinct, two lovely beings · **What happens:** take, see, tell, not be, be · **To what, where:** hands, face, two lovely beings, him, Peris, Paradise · **Speech:** someone speaks here

<!-- .vabout -->
This is a sentence of «The Brown Fairy Book» by Andrew Lang, Story of Wali Dâd the Simple-Hearted, part 2. The page gives its syntax tree — a dependency tree in the style of Universal Dependencies — and its pragmatics clause by clause: who acts (He, instinct, two lovely beings), 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:pg3282:35:3
# text = He took his hands from before his face, and saw before him two lovely beings whom his instinct told him were not mortal, but were Peris from Paradise.
1	He	he	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	2	nsubj	_	_
2	took	take	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	0	root	_	_
3	his	his	PRON	PRP$	Case=Gen|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|Poss=Yes|PronType=Prs	4	nmod:poss	_	_
4	hands	hand	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	2	obj	_	_
5	from	from	ADP	IN	_	8	case	_	_
6	before	before	ADP	IN	_	8	case	_	_
7	his	his	PRON	PRP$	Case=Gen|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|Poss=Yes|PronType=Prs	8	nmod:poss	_	_
8	face	face	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	2	obl	_	SpaceAfter=No
9	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	11	punct	_	_
10	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	11	cc	_	_
11	saw	see	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	2	conj	_	_
12	before	before	ADP	IN	_	13	case	_	_
13	him	he	PRON	PRP	Case=Acc|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	11	obl	_	_
14	two	two	NUM	CD	NumForm=Word|NumType=Card	16	nummod	_	_
15	lovely	lovely	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	16	amod	_	_
16	beings	being	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	24	nsubj	_	_
17	whom	whom	PRON	WP	PronType=Rel	20	obj	_	_
18	his	his	PRON	PRP$	Case=Gen|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|Poss=Yes|PronType=Prs	19	nmod:poss	_	_
19	instinct	instinct	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	20	nsubj	_	_
20	told	tell	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	16	acl:relcl	_	_
21	him	he	PRON	PRP	Case=Acc|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	20	iobj	_	_
22	were	be	AUX	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Plur|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	24	cop	_	_
23	not	not	PART	RB	Polarity=Neg	24	advmod	_	_
24	mortal	mortal	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	11	ccomp	_	SpaceAfter=No
25	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	28	punct	_	_
26	but	but	CCONJ	CC	_	28	cc	_	_
27	were	be	AUX	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	28	cop	_	_
28	Peris	Peris	PROPN	NNP	Number=Sing	2	parataxis	_	_
29	from	from	ADP	IN	_	30	case	_	_
30	Paradise	Paradise	PROPN	NNP	Number=Sing	28	nmod	_	SpaceAfter=No
31	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	2	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

<!-- .fr -->
| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **take** | past | He | his hands |  | his face |  |  | vn bring-11.3 «NP V NP PP.initial\_location»: agent=Agent hand=Theme from face=Initial\_Location |
| 2 | **see** | past | He *not said here* |  |  |  | before him *= he* |  | vn comprehend-87.2-1-1 «NP V»: agent=Experiencer |
| 3 | **tell** *speech: assert* | past | his instinct | two lovely beings | him *= he* |  |  |  | vn transfer\_mesg-37.1.1-1-1 «NP V NP-Dative NP»: agent=Agent he=Recipient whom=Topic |
| 4 | **not** **is** | past | two lovely beings |  |  |  |  | mortal *property* | tree rules |
| 5 | **is a** | past |  | Peris |  | Paradise |  |  | 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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