---
title: There was one tortoise in particular that always managed to get the… — The Brown Fairy Book · tree and pragmatics
description: There was one tortoise in particular that always managed to get the better of everybody, and many were the tales told in the forest of his great deeds. Who acts: one tortoise. A sentence of «The Brown Fairy Book» by Andrew Lang, Story of Wali Dâd the Simple-Hearted, part 2, with its dependency tree 
---

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# The Brown Fairy Book, Story of Wali Dâd the Simple-Hearted, part 2, sentence 42

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There was one tortoise in particular that always managed to get the better of everybody, and many were the tales told in the forest of his great deeds.

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**Who acts:** one tortoise · **What happens:** be, manage, get, tell · **To what, where:** one tortoise, many tales, forest · **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 2. The page gives its syntax tree — a dependency tree in the style of Universal Dependencies — and its pragmatics clause by clause: who acts (one tortoise), 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:pg3282:35:42
# text = There was one tortoise in particular that always managed to get the better of everybody, and many were the tales told in the forest of his great deeds.
1	There	there	PRON	EX	PronType=Dem	2	expl	_	_
2	was	be	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	0	root	_	_
3	one	one	NUM	CD	NumForm=Word|NumType=Card	4	nummod	_	_
4	tortoise	tortoise	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	2	nsubj	_	_
5	in	in	ADP	IN	_	6	case	_	_
6	particular	particular	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	4	nmod	_	_
7	that	that	PRON	WDT	PronType=Rel	9	obj	_	_
8	always	always	ADV	RB	PronType=Tot	9	advmod	_	_
9	managed	manage	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	4	acl:relcl	_	_
10	to	to	PART	TO	_	11	mark	_	_
11	get	get	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	9	xcomp	_	_
12	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	13	det	_	_
13	better	good	ADJ	JJR	Degree=Cmp	11	xcomp	_	_
14	of	of	ADP	IN	_	15	case	_	_
15	everybody	everybody	PRON	NN	Number=Sing|PronType=Tot	13	obl	_	SpaceAfter=No
16	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	21	punct	_	_
17	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	21	cc	_	_
18	many	many	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	21	amod	_	_
19	were	be	AUX	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	21	cop	_	_
20	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	21	det	_	_
21	tales	tale	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	2	parataxis	_	_
22	told	tell	VERB	VBN	Tense=Past|VerbForm=Part|Voice=Pass	21	acl	_	_
23	in	in	ADP	IN	_	25	case	_	_
24	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	25	det	_	_
25	forest	forest	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	22	obl	_	_
26	of	of	ADP	IN	_	29	case	_	_
27	his	his	PRON	PRP$	Case=Gen|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|Poss=Yes|PronType=Prs	29	nmod:poss	_	_
28	great	great	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	29	amod	_	_
29	deeds	deed	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	25	nmod	_	SpaceAfter=No
30	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	2	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

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| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **be** | past | one tortoise in particular |  |  | there |  |  | vn exist-47.1 «NP V»: agent=Theme |
| 2 | **manage** | past |  | one tortoise in particular |  |  |  | always *property* | tree rules |
| 3 | **get** | to-infinitive |  |  |  |  |  | good *property* | vn comprehend-87.2-1 «NP V S\_ING»: agent=Experiencer |
| 4 | **is a** | past |  | the many tales |  |  |  |  | tree rules |
| 5 | **tell** *speech: assert* | participle |  | the many tales *not said here* |  | the forest of Tale's great deeds |  |  | vn transfer\_mesg-37.1.1-1-1 «NP V»: agent=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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