---
title: The fox so far kept his word that each morning when the sun rose he… — The Brown Fairy Book · tree and pragmatics
description: The fox so far kept his word that each morning when the sun rose he appeared to ask how the tortoise was getting on. Who acts: fox, word, tortoise. 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 pragmatics of every 
---

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# The Brown Fairy Book, Story of Wali Dâd the Simple-Hearted, part 2, sentence 79

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The fox so far kept his word that each morning when the sun rose he appeared to ask how the tortoise was getting on.

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**Who acts:** fox, word, tortoise · **What happens:** keep, rise, appear, ask, get on, word · **To what, where:** word · **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 (fox, word, 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:pg3282:35:79
# text = The fox so far kept his word that each morning when the sun rose he appeared to ask how the tortoise was getting on.
1	The	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	2	det	_	_
2	fox	fox	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	5	nsubj	_	_
3	so	so	ADV	RB	_	4	advmod	_	_
4	far	far	ADV	RB	Degree=Pos	5	advmod	_	_
5	kept	keep	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	0	root	_	_
6	his	his	PRON	PRP$	Case=Gen|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|Poss=Yes|PronType=Prs	7	nmod:poss	_	_
7	word	word	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	5	obj	_	_
8	that	that	PRON	WDT	PronType=Rel	14	nsubj	_	_
9	each	each	DET	DT	PronType=Tot	10	det	_	_
10	morning	morning	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	14	obl:unmarked	_	_
11	when	when	ADV	WRB	PronType=Int	14	advmod	_	_
12	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	13	det	_	_
13	sun	sun	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	14	nsubj	_	_
14	rose	rise	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	7	acl:relcl	_	_
15	he	he	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	16	nsubj	_	_
16	appeared	appear	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	14	conj	_	_
17	to	to	PART	TO	_	18	mark	_	_
18	ask	ask	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	16	xcomp	_	_
19	how	how	ADV	WRB	PronType=Int	23	advmod	_	_
20	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	21	det	_	_
21	tortoise	tortoise	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	23	nsubj	_	_
22	was	be	AUX	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	23	aux	_	_
23	getting	get	VERB	VBG	Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Part	18	ccomp	_	_
24	on	on	ADP	RP	_	23	compound:prt	_	SpaceAfter=No
25	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	5	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

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| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **keep** | past | the fox | fox's word |  |  |  | far *property* | vn keep-15.2 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent word=Theme |
| 2 | **rise** | past | fox's word |  |  |  | morning |  | vn assuming\_position-50 «NP V»: agent=Agent |
| 3 | **appear** | past | fox |  |  |  |  |  | vn seem-109-1-1-1 «NP V S\_INF»: agent=Theme clause=Attribute |
| 4 | **ask** *speech: ask* | to-infinitive | fox *not said here* |  |  |  |  |  | vn inquire-37.1.2 «NP V how S»: agent=Agent clause=Topic |
| 5 | **get on** | past · progressive | the tortoise |  |  |  |  |  | vn comprehend-87.2-1 «NP V S\_ING»: agent=Experiencer |
| 6 | **word** |  | fox |  |  |  |  |  | nom word «communication transitive»: poss=agent |

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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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