---
title: He had lost two years of happiness, but comforted himself with think… — The Red Fairy Book · tree and pragmatics
description: He had lost two years of happiness, but comforted himself with thinking that his wife was a clever spinner, and, what was much more rare, a brave and good woman. Who acts: Guilbert, wife. A sentence of «The Red Fairy Book» by Andrew Lang, The Nettle Spinner, with its dependency tree and the pragmati
---

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# The Red Fairy Book, The Nettle Spinner, sentence 152

<!-- .ven lang=en -->
He had lost two years of happiness, but comforted himself with thinking that his wife was a clever spinner, and, what was much more rare, a brave and good woman.

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**Who acts:** Guilbert, wife · **What happens:** lose, comfort, think, be · **To what, where:** Guilbert, clever spinner · **Speech:** someone speaks here

<!-- .vabout -->
This is a sentence of «The Red Fairy Book» by Andrew Lang, The Nettle Spinner. The page gives its syntax tree — a dependency tree in the style of Universal Dependencies — and its pragmatics clause by clause: who acts (Guilbert, wife), 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:pg540:42:152
# text = He had lost two years of happiness, but comforted himself with thinking that his wife was a clever spinner, and, what was much more rare, a brave and good woman.
1	He	he	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	3	nsubj	_	_
2	had	have	AUX	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	3	aux	_	_
3	lost	lose	VERB	VBN	Tense=Past|VerbForm=Part	0	root	_	_
4	two	two	NUM	CD	NumForm=Word|NumType=Card	5	nummod	_	_
5	years	year	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	3	obj	_	_
6	of	of	ADP	IN	_	7	case	_	_
7	happiness	happiness	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	5	nmod	_	SpaceAfter=No
8	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	10	punct	_	_
9	but	but	CCONJ	CC	_	10	cc	_	_
10	comforted	comfort	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	3	conj	_	_
11	himself	himself	PRON	PRP	Case=Acc|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs|Reflex=Yes	10	obj	_	_
12	with	with	SCONJ	IN	_	13	mark	_	_
13	thinking	think	VERB	VBG	Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Part	10	advcl	_	_
14	that	that	SCONJ	IN	_	20	mark	_	_
15	his	his	PRON	PRP$	Case=Gen|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|Poss=Yes|PronType=Prs	16	nmod:poss	_	_
16	wife	wife	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	20	nsubj	_	_
17	was	be	AUX	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	20	cop	_	_
18	a	a	DET	DT	Definite=Ind|PronType=Art	20	det	_	_
19	clever	clever	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	20	amod	_	_
20	spinner	spinner	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	13	ccomp	_	SpaceAfter=No
21	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	28	punct	_	_
22	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	28	cc	_	SpaceAfter=No
23	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	28	punct	_	_
24	what	what	PRON	WP	PronType=Int	28	nsubj	_	_
25	was	be	AUX	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	28	cop	_	_
26	much	much	ADV	RB	_	27	advmod	_	_
27	more	more	ADV	RBR	Degree=Cmp	28	advmod	_	_
28	rare	rare	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	3	conj	_	SpaceAfter=No
29	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	34	punct	_	_
30	a	a	DET	DT	Definite=Ind|PronType=Art	34	det	_	_
31	brave	brave	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	34	amod	_	_
32	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	33	cc	_	_
33	good	good	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	31	conj	_	_
34	woman	woman	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	28	obl	_	SpaceAfter=No
35	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	3	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

<!-- .fr -->
| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **lose** | past · perfect | Guilbert |  |  |  | year |  | vn succeed-74-3-1 «NP V»: agent=Agent |
| 2 | **comfort** | past | Guilbert *not said here* | Guilbert |  |  |  |  | vn amuse-31.1 «NP V NP»: agent=Stimulus himself=Experiencer |
| 3 | **think** *speech: other* | gerund | Guilbert *not said here* |  |  |  |  |  | vn focus-87.1-1 «NP V»: agent=Agent |
| 4 | **is a** | past | Guilbert's wife | a clever spinner |  |  |  |  | tree rules |
| 5 | **is** | past |  |  |  |  |  | a brave woman *obl*; rare *property* | tree rules |

<!-- .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 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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