---
title: The woman seized Ball-Carrier between her finger and thumb, and was… — The Brown Fairy Book · tree and pragmatics
description: The woman seized Ball-Carrier between her finger and thumb, and was going to carry him to the kitchen, when the boy spoke: Who acts: woman, boy. A sentence of «The Brown Fairy Book» by Andrew Lang, The Brown Fairy Book, part 7, with its dependency tree and the pragmatics of every clause.
---

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# The Brown Fairy Book, The Brown Fairy Book, part 7, sentence 42

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The woman seized Ball-Carrier between her finger and thumb, and was going to carry him to the kitchen, when the boy spoke:

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**Who acts:** woman, boy · **What happens:** seize, go, carry, speak · **To what, where:** Ball, kitchen · **Speech:** someone speaks here

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This is a sentence of «The Brown Fairy Book» by Andrew Lang, The Brown Fairy Book, part 7. The page gives its syntax tree — a dependency tree in the style of Universal Dependencies — and its pragmatics clause by clause: who acts (woman, boy), 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:pg3282:7:42
# text = The woman seized Ball-Carrier between her finger and thumb, and was going to carry him to the kitchen, when the boy spoke:
1	The	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	2	det	_	_
2	woman	woman	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	3	nsubj	_	_
3	seized	seize	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	0	root	_	_
4	Ball	Ball	PROPN	NNP	Number=Sing	3	obj	_	SpaceAfter=No
5	-	-	PUNCT	HYPH	_	6	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
6	Carrier	Carrier	PROPN	NNP	Number=Sing	4	conj	_	_
7	between	between	ADP	IN	_	9	case	_	_
8	her	her	PRON	PRP$	Case=Gen|Gender=Fem|Number=Sing|Person=3|Poss=Yes|PronType=Prs	9	nmod:poss	_	_
9	finger	finger	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	3	obl	_	_
10	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	11	cc	_	_
11	thumb	thumb	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	9	conj	_	SpaceAfter=No
12	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	15	punct	_	_
13	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	15	cc	_	_
14	was	be	AUX	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	15	aux	_	_
15	going	go	VERB	VBG	Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Part	3	advcl	_	_
16	to	to	PART	TO	_	17	mark	_	_
17	carry	carry	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	15	xcomp	_	_
18	him	he	PRON	PRP	Case=Acc|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	17	obj	_	_
19	to	to	ADP	IN	_	21	case	_	_
20	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	21	det	_	_
21	kitchen	kitchen	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	17	obl	_	SpaceAfter=No
22	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	26	punct	_	_
23	when	when	ADV	WRB	PronType=Int	26	advmod	_	_
24	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	25	det	_	_
25	boy	boy	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	26	nsubj	_	_
26	spoke	speak	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	3	parataxis	_	SpaceAfter=No
27	:	:	PUNCT	:	_	26	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

<!-- .fr -->
| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **seize** | past | the woman | Ball and Carrier |  |  |  | between woman's finger and thumb | vn obtain-13.5.2 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent ball=Theme |
| 2 | **go** | past · progressive | the woman *not said here* |  |  |  |  |  | vn say-37.7 «NP V S-Quote»: agent=Agent clause=Topic |
| 3 | **carry** | to-infinitive | the woman *not said here* | ball |  | the kitchen |  |  | vn carry-11.4 «NP V NP PP.destination»: agent=Agent he=Theme to kitchen=Destination |
| 4 | **speak** *speech: other* | past | the boy |  |  |  |  |  | vn talk-37.5 «NP V»: agent=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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