---
title: The tortoise, however, was too young and too busy to admire such thi… — The Brown Fairy Book · tree and pragmatics
description: The tortoise, however, was too young and too busy to admire such things, and he called to the whale to stop, as he wanted to speak to him. Who acts: tortoise, whale. A sentence of «The Brown Fairy Book» by Andrew Lang, Story of Wali Dâd the Simple-Hearted, part 2, with its dependency tree and the pr
---

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# The Brown Fairy Book, Story of Wali Dâd the Simple-Hearted, part 2, sentence 51

<!-- .ven lang=en -->
The tortoise, however, was too young and too busy to admire such things, and he called to the whale to stop, as he wanted to speak to him.

<!-- .vintro -->
**Who acts:** tortoise, whale · **What happens:** be, admire, call, stop, want, speak · **To what, where:** such things, whale · **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 (tortoise, whale), 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:pg3282:35:51
# text = The tortoise, however, was too young and too busy to admire such things, and he called to the whale to stop, as he wanted to speak to him.
1	The	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	2	det	_	_
2	tortoise	tortoise	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	8	nsubj	_	SpaceAfter=No
3	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	2	punct	_	_
4	however	however	ADV	RB	_	8	advmod	_	SpaceAfter=No
5	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	4	punct	_	_
6	was	be	AUX	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	8	cop	_	_
7	too	too	ADV	RB	_	8	advmod	_	_
8	young	young	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	0	root	_	_
9	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	11	cc	_	_
10	too	too	ADV	RB	_	11	advmod	_	_
11	busy	busy	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	8	conj	_	_
12	to	to	PART	TO	_	13	mark	_	_
13	admire	admire	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	11	xcomp	_	_
14	such	such	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	15	amod	_	_
15	things	thing	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	13	obj	_	SpaceAfter=No
16	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	19	punct	_	_
17	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	19	cc	_	_
18	he	he	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	19	nsubj	_	_
19	called	call	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	8	conj	_	_
20	to	to	ADP	IN	_	22	case	_	_
21	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	22	det	_	_
22	whale	whale	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	19	obl	_	_
23	to	to	PART	TO	_	24	mark	_	_
24	stop	stop	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	19	advcl	_	SpaceAfter=No
25	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	28	punct	_	_
26	as	as	SCONJ	IN	_	28	mark	_	_
27	he	he	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	28	nsubj	_	_
28	wanted	want	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	24	advcl	_	_
29	to	to	PART	TO	_	30	mark	_	_
30	speak	speak	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	28	xcomp	_	_
31	to	to	ADP	IN	_	32	case	_	_
32	him	he	PRON	PRP	Case=Acc|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	30	obl	_	SpaceAfter=No
33	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	8	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

<!-- .fr -->
| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **is** | past | the tortoise |  |  |  |  | however, young *property* | tree rules |
| 2 | **be** |  | the tortoise *not said here* |  |  |  |  |  | tree rules |
| 3 | **admire** | to-infinitive | the tortoise *not said here* | such things |  |  |  |  | vn admire-31.2 «NP V NP»: agent=Experiencer thing=Stimulus |
| 4 | **call** | past | whale |  | the whale |  |  |  | vn animal\_sounds-38 «NP V PP.recipient»: agent=Agent to whale=Recipient |
| 5 | **stop** | to-infinitive | whale *not said here* |  |  |  |  |  | vn stop-55.4-1-1 «NP.eventuality V»: agent=Eventuality |
| 6 | **want** | past | whale |  |  |  |  |  | vn want-32.1-1-1 «NP V NP S\_INF»: agent=Pivot clause=Theme |
| 7 | **speak** *speech: other* *not said to happen* | to-infinitive | whale *not said here* |  | whale |  |  |  | vn talk-37.5 «NP V PP.co-agent»: agent=Agent to he=Co-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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