---
title: This state of things had gone on for quite a long while, when at las… — The Brown Fairy Book · tree and pragmatics
description: This state of things had gone on for quite a long while, when at last there came a season such as the oldest parrot in the forest could never remember. Who acts: state, season. A sentence of «The Brown Fairy Book» by Andrew Lang, Story of Wali Dâd the Simple-Hearted, part 3, with its dependency tree
---

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# The Brown Fairy Book, Story of Wali Dâd the Simple-Hearted, part 3, sentence 31

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This state of things had gone on for quite a long while, when at last there came a season such as the oldest parrot in the forest could never remember.

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**Who acts:** state, season · **What happens:** go on, come, not remember

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This is a sentence of «The Brown Fairy Book» by Andrew Lang, Story of Wali Dâd the Simple-Hearted, part 3. The page gives its syntax tree — a dependency tree in the style of Universal Dependencies — and its pragmatics clause by clause: who acts (state, season), 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:pg3282:36:31
# text = This state of things had gone on for quite a long while, when at last there came a season such as the oldest parrot in the forest could never remember.
1	This	this	DET	DT	Number=Sing|PronType=Dem	2	det	_	_
2	state	state	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	6	nsubj	_	_
3	of	of	ADP	IN	_	4	case	_	_
4	things	thing	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	2	nmod	_	_
5	had	have	AUX	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	6	aux	_	_
6	gone	go	VERB	VBN	Tense=Past|VerbForm=Part	0	root	_	_
7	on	on	ADP	RP	_	6	compound:prt	_	_
8	for	for	ADP	IN	_	12	case	_	_
9	quite	quite	DET	PDT	PronType=Ind	12	det:predet	_	_
10	a	a	DET	DT	Definite=Ind|PronType=Art	12	det	_	_
11	long	long	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	12	amod	_	_
12	while	while	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	6	obl	_	SpaceAfter=No
13	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	16	punct	_	_
14	when	when	ADV	WRB	PronType=Int	16	advmod	_	_
15	at	at	ADP	IN	_	16	case	_	_
16	last	last	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	12	acl:relcl	_	_
17	there	there	PRON	EX	PronType=Dem	18	expl	_	_
18	came	come	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	16	acl:relcl	_	_
19	a	a	DET	DT	Definite=Ind|PronType=Art	20	det	_	_
20	season	season	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	18	nsubj	_	_
21	such	such	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos|ExtPos=ADP	25	case	_	_
22	as	as	ADP	IN	_	21	fixed	_	_
23	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	25	det	_	_
24	oldest	old	ADJ	JJS	Degree=Sup	25	amod	_	_
25	parrot	parrot	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	31	obl	_	_
26	in	in	ADP	IN	_	28	case	_	_
27	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	28	det	_	_
28	forest	forest	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	25	nmod	_	_
29	could	could	AUX	MD	VerbForm=Fin	31	aux	_	_
30	never	never	ADV	RB	PronType=Neg	31	advmod	_	_
31	remember	remember	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	20	acl:relcl	_	SpaceAfter=No
32	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	6	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

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| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **go on** | past · perfect | this state of things |  |  |  | while |  | vn function-105.2.1 «NP V»: agent=Theme |
| 2 | **come** | past | a season |  |  | there |  |  | vn escape-51.1-1 «NP V»: agent=Theme |
| 3 | **not** **remember** | could | a season *not said here* |  |  |  |  | such the oldest parrot in the forest | vn characterize-29.2-1-1 «NP V S\_ING»: 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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