---
title: But all that night the man seemed getting weaker and weaker, and at… — The Brown Fairy Book · tree and pragmatics
description: But all that night the man seemed getting weaker and weaker, and at last, quite early, the wife crept out, and stealing to the hut, killed the bird, and brought him home to her husband. Who acts: man, wife, stealing. A sentence of «The Brown Fairy Book» by Andrew Lang, The Brown Fairy Book, part 8, 
---

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# The Brown Fairy Book, The Brown Fairy Book, part 8, sentence 30

<!-- .ven lang=en -->
But all that night the man seemed getting weaker and weaker, and at last, quite early, the wife crept out, and stealing to the hut, killed the bird, and brought him home to her husband.

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**Who acts:** man, wife, stealing · **What happens:** seem, get, creep out, steal, kill, bring · **To what, where:** last, bird, man, husband

<!-- .vabout -->
This is a sentence of «The Brown Fairy Book» by Andrew Lang, The Brown Fairy Book, part 8. The page gives its syntax tree — a dependency tree in the style of Universal Dependencies — and its pragmatics clause by clause: who acts (man, wife, stealing), 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:pg3282:8:30
# text = But all that night the man seemed getting weaker and weaker, and at last, quite early, the wife crept out, and stealing to the hut, killed the bird, and brought him home to her husband.
1	But	but	CCONJ	CC	_	7	cc	_	_
2	all	all	DET	PDT	PronType=Tot	4	det:predet	_	_
3	that	that	DET	DT	Number=Sing|PronType=Dem	4	det	_	_
4	night	night	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	7	obl:unmarked	_	_
5	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	6	det	_	_
6	man	man	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	7	nsubj	_	_
7	seemed	seem	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	0	root	_	_
8	getting	get	VERB	VBG	VerbForm=Ger	7	xcomp	_	_
9	weaker	weak	ADJ	JJR	Degree=Cmp	8	xcomp	_	_
10	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	11	cc	_	_
11	weaker	weak	ADJ	JJR	Degree=Cmp	9	conj	_	SpaceAfter=No
12	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	22	punct	_	_
13	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	22	cc	_	_
14	at	at	ADP	IN	_	15	case	_	_
15	last	last	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	22	obl	_	SpaceAfter=No
16	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	15	punct	_	_
17	quite	quite	ADV	RB	_	18	advmod	_	_
18	early	early	ADV	RB	Degree=Pos	15	advmod	_	SpaceAfter=No
19	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	15	punct	_	_
20	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	21	det	_	_
21	wife	wife	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	22	nsubj	_	_
22	crept	creep	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	7	parataxis	_	_
23	out	out	ADP	RP	_	22	compound:prt	_	SpaceAfter=No
24	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	31	punct	_	_
25	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	31	cc	_	_
26	stealing	steal	VERB	VBG	VerbForm=Ger	31	csubj	_	_
27	to	to	ADP	IN	_	29	case	_	_
28	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	29	det	_	_
29	hut	hut	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	26	obl	_	SpaceAfter=No
30	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	26	punct	_	_
31	killed	kill	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	22	conj	_	_
32	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	33	det	_	_
33	bird	bird	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	31	obj	_	SpaceAfter=No
34	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	36	punct	_	_
35	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	36	cc	_	_
36	brought	bring	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	7	conj	_	_
37	him	he	PRON	PRP	Case=Acc|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	36	obj	_	_
38	home	home	ADV	RB	_	36	advmod	_	_
39	to	to	ADP	IN	_	41	case	_	_
40	her	her	PRON	PRP$	Case=Gen|Gender=Fem|Number=Sing|Person=3|Poss=Yes|PronType=Prs	41	nmod:poss	_	_
41	husband	husband	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	36	obl	_	SpaceAfter=No
42	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	7	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

<!-- .fr -->
| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **seem** | past | the man |  |  |  | night |  | vn seem-109-1-1-1 «NP V S\_INF»: agent=Theme clause=Attribute |
| 2 | **get** | gerund | the man *not said here* |  |  |  |  | weak *property* | vn comprehend-87.2-1 «NP V S\_ING»: agent=Experiencer |
| 3 | **creep out** | past | the wife |  |  | last |  |  | vn run-51.3.2 «NP V PP.location»: agent=Theme at last=Trajectory |
| 4 | **steal** | gerund |  |  |  |  |  | to the hut | vn appear-48.1.1 «NP V»: agent=Theme |
| 5 | **kill** | past | stealing | the bird |  |  |  |  | vn remove-10.1 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent bird=Theme |
| 6 | **bring** | past | the man *not said here* | man | wife's husband |  |  | home *property* | vn bring-11.3-1 «NP V NP PP.destination»: agent=Agent he=Theme to husband=Destination |

<!-- .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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