---
title: They found a very high oak tree, and there they sat, turn about, kee… — The Red Fairy Book · tree and pragmatics
description: They found a very high oak tree, and there they sat, turn about, keeping their eyes always fixed on the castle tower. Who acts: sons, eyes. A sentence of «The Red Fairy Book» by Andrew Lang, The Twelve Brothers, with its dependency tree and the pragmatics of every clause.
---

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# The Red Fairy Book, The Twelve Brothers, sentence 17

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They found a very high oak tree, and there they sat, turn about, keeping their eyes always fixed on the castle tower.

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**Who acts:** sons, eyes · **What happens:** find, sit, turn about, keep, fix · **To what, where:** high oak tree, eyes, castle tower

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This is a sentence of «The Red Fairy Book» by Andrew Lang, The Twelve Brothers. The page gives its syntax tree — a dependency tree in the style of Universal Dependencies — and its pragmatics clause by clause: who acts (sons, eyes), 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:pg540:41:17
# text = They found a very high oak tree, and there they sat, turn about, keeping their eyes always fixed on the castle tower.
1	They	they	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Number=Plur|Person=3|PronType=Prs	2	nsubj	_	_
2	found	find	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Plur|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	0	root	_	_
3	a	a	DET	DT	Definite=Ind|PronType=Art	7	det	_	_
4	very	very	ADV	RB	_	5	advmod	_	_
5	high	high	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	7	amod	_	_
6	oak	oak	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	7	compound	_	_
7	tree	tree	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	2	obj	_	SpaceAfter=No
8	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	12	punct	_	_
9	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	12	cc	_	_
10	there	there	PRON	EX	PronType=Dem	12	expl	_	_
11	they	they	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Number=Plur|Person=3|PronType=Prs	12	nsubj	_	_
12	sat	sit	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Plur|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	2	parataxis	_	SpaceAfter=No
13	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	14	punct	_	_
14	turn	turn	VERB	VB	Mood=Imp|VerbForm=Fin	12	conj	_	_
15	about	about	ADV	RB	_	14	advmod	_	SpaceAfter=No
16	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	17	punct	_	_
17	keeping	keep	VERB	VBG	Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Part	14	advcl	_	_
18	their	their	PRON	PRP$	Case=Gen|Number=Plur|Person=3|Poss=Yes|PronType=Prs	19	nmod:poss	_	_
19	eyes	eye	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	17	obj	_	_
20	always	always	ADV	RB	PronType=Tot	21	advmod	_	_
21	fixed	fix	VERB	VBN	Tense=Past|VerbForm=Part|Voice=Pass	17	xcomp	_	_
22	on	on	ADP	IN	_	25	case	_	_
23	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	25	det	_	_
24	castle	castle	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	25	compound	_	_
25	tower	tower	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	21	obl	_	SpaceAfter=No
26	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	2	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

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| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **find** | past | sons *= son* | a high oak tree |  |  |  |  | vn discover-84 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent tree=Topic |
| 2 | **sit** | past | sons *= son* |  |  | there |  |  | vn assuming\_position-50 «NP V»: agent=Agent |
| 3 | **turn about** | infinitive | sons *= son* *not said here* |  |  |  |  | about *property* | vn roll-51.3.1 «NP.theme V»: agent=Theme |
| 4 | **keep** | gerund | sons *= son* *not said here* | sons's eyes |  |  |  |  | tree rules |
| 5 | **fix** | participle | sons's eyes *not said here* |  |  | the castle tower |  | always *property* | vn shake-22.3-2 «NP V ADV-Middle»: agent=Patient |

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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 Red Fairy Book» by Andrew Lang, Project Gutenberg book 540 (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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