---
title: When she was ready she said to the ball: “Go back the way you came,… — The Brown Fairy Book · tree and pragmatics
description: When she was ready she said to the ball: “Go back the way you came, and lead me to my grandson.” Who acts: wife, ball. A sentence of «The Brown Fairy Book» by Andrew Lang, The Brown Fairy Book, part 8, with its dependency tree and the pragmatics of every clause.
---

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# The Brown Fairy Book, The Brown Fairy Book, part 8, sentence 41

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When she was ready she said to the ball: “Go back the way you came, and lead me to my grandson.”

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**Who acts:** wife, ball · **What happens:** be, say, go back, come, lead · **To what, where:** ball, way, wife, grandson · **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 8. The page gives its syntax tree — a dependency tree in the style of Universal Dependencies — and its pragmatics clause by clause: who acts (wife, ball), 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:pg3282:8:41
# text = When she was ready she said to the ball: “Go back the way you came, and lead me to my grandson.”
1	When	when	ADV	WRB	PronType=Int	4	advmod	_	_
2	she	she	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Gender=Fem|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	4	nsubj	_	_
3	was	be	AUX	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	4	cop	_	_
4	ready	ready	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	0	root	_	_
5	she	she	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Gender=Fem|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	6	nsubj	_	_
6	said	say	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	4	acl	_	_
7	to	to	ADP	IN	_	9	case	_	_
8	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	9	det	_	_
9	ball	ball	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	6	obl	_	SpaceAfter=No
10	:	:	PUNCT	:	_	12	punct	_	_
11	“	"	PUNCT	``	_	12	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
12	Go	go	VERB	VB	Mood=Imp|VerbForm=Fin	6	ccomp	_	_
13	back	back	ADV	RB	_	12	advmod	_	_
14	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	15	det	_	_
15	way	way	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	12	obl:unmarked	_	_
16	you	you	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Person=2|PronType=Prs	17	nsubj	_	_
17	came	come	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=2|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	15	acl:relcl	_	SpaceAfter=No
18	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	20	punct	_	_
19	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	20	cc	_	_
20	lead	lead	VERB	VB	Mood=Imp|VerbForm=Fin	12	conj	_	_
21	me	I	PRON	PRP	Case=Acc|Number=Sing|Person=1|PronType=Prs	20	obj	_	_
22	to	to	ADP	IN	_	24	case	_	_
23	my	my	PRON	PRP$	Case=Gen|Number=Sing|Person=1|Poss=Yes|PronType=Prs	24	nmod:poss	_	_
24	grandson	grandson	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	20	obl	_	SpaceAfter=No
25	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	4	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
26	”	"	PUNCT	''	_	4	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

<!-- .fr -->
| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **is** | past | wife |  |  |  |  | ready *property* | tree rules |
| 2 | **say** *speech: assert* | past | wife |  | the ball |  |  |  | vn say-37.7-1-1 «NP V PP.recipient S-Quote»: agent=Agent to ball=Recipient clause=Topic |
| 3 | **go back** *in a quote* | infinitive |  | the way |  |  |  |  | vn convert-26.6.2 «NP V S\_ING»: agent=Patient |
| 4 | **come** *in a quote* | past | the ball *= ball* | the way *not said here* |  |  |  |  | vn appear-48.1.1 «PP.location V NP»: agent=Location way=Theme |
| 5 | **lead** *in a quote* | infinitive |  | wife |  | my grandson |  |  | vn accompany-51.7 «NP V NP PP.destination»: agent=Agent i=Theme to grandson=Destination |

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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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