---
title: But time passed, and it grew later and later, and still the man did… — The Red Fairy Book · tree and pragmatics
description: But time passed, and it grew later and later, and still the man did not come back, and at last the Governor grew so weary of keeping his finger in the tap-hole that he took it out. Who acts: best, man, last, tap hole. A sentence of «The Red Fairy Book» by Andrew Lang, The Master Thief, with its depe
---

<!-- md -->
[Mova](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/) · [this page in HTML](https://mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg540/9/219/)

<!-- crumbs -->
[home](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/) / [corpora](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/) / [tales](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/) / [The Red Fairy Book](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg540/) / [The Master Thief](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg540/9/) / 219

# The Red Fairy Book, The Master Thief, sentence 219

<!-- .ven lang=en -->
But time passed, and it grew later and later, and still the man did not come back, and at last the Governor grew so weary of keeping his finger in the tap-hole that he took it out.

<!-- .vintro -->
**Who acts:** best, man, last, tap hole · **What happens:** pass, grow, not come back, keep, take out · **To what, where:** finger, tap hole, best

<!-- .vabout -->
This is a sentence of «The Red Fairy Book» by Andrew Lang, The Master Thief. The page gives its syntax tree — a dependency tree in the style of Universal Dependencies — and its pragmatics clause by clause: who acts (best, man, last, tap hole), 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:pg540:9:219
# text = But time passed, and it grew later and later, and still the man did not come back, and at last the Governor grew so weary of keeping his finger in the tap-hole that he took it out.
1	But	but	CCONJ	CC	_	3	cc	_	_
2	time	time	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	3	obl:unmarked	_	_
3	passed	pass	VERB	VBN	Tense=Past|VerbForm=Part|Voice=Pass	0	root	_	SpaceAfter=No
4	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	7	punct	_	_
5	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	7	cc	_	_
6	it	it	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Gender=Neut|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	7	nsubj	_	_
7	grew	grow	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	3	conj	_	_
8	later	late	ADV	RBR	Degree=Cmp	7	advmod	_	_
9	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	10	cc	_	_
10	later	late	ADV	RBR	Degree=Cmp	8	conj	_	SpaceAfter=No
11	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	18	punct	_	_
12	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	18	cc	_	_
13	still	still	ADV	RB	_	18	advmod	_	_
14	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	15	det	_	_
15	man	man	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	18	nsubj	_	_
16	did	do	AUX	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	18	aux	_	_
17	not	not	PART	RB	Polarity=Neg	18	advmod	_	_
18	come	come	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	7	conj	_	_
19	back	back	ADV	RB	_	18	advmod	_	SpaceAfter=No
20	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	26	punct	_	_
21	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	26	cc	_	_
22	at	at	ADP	IN	_	23	case	_	_
23	last	last	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	26	nsubj	_	_
24	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	25	det	_	_
25	Governor	Governor	PROPN	NNP	Number=Sing	23	nsubj	_	_
26	grew	grow	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	7	conj	_	_
27	so	so	ADV	RB	_	28	advmod	_	_
28	weary	weary	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	26	xcomp	_	_
29	of	of	SCONJ	IN	_	30	mark	_	_
30	keeping	keep	VERB	VBG	Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Part	28	advcl	_	_
31	his	his	PRON	PRP$	Case=Gen|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|Poss=Yes|PronType=Prs	32	nmod:poss	_	_
32	finger	finger	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	30	obj	_	_
33	in	in	ADP	IN	_	37	case	_	_
34	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	37	det	_	_
35	tap	tap	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	37	compound	_	SpaceAfter=No
36	-	-	PUNCT	HYPH	_	35	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
37	hole	hole	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	30	obl	_	_
38	that	that	PRON	WDT	PronType=Rel	40	nsubj	_	_
39	he	he	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	40	nsubj	_	_
40	took	take	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	37	acl:relcl	_	_
41	it	it	PRON	PRP	Case=Acc|Gender=Neut|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	40	obj	_	_
42	out	out	ADP	RP	_	40	compound:prt	_	SpaceAfter=No
43	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	3	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

<!-- .fr -->
| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **pass** | participle |  |  |  |  | time |  | vn occur-48.3-1 «NP V»: agent=Theme |
| 2 | **grow** | past | best *= good* |  |  |  |  | late *property* | vn appear-48.1.1 «NP V»: agent=Theme |
| 3 | **not** **come back** | past · do-support | the man |  |  |  | still |  | vn escape-51.1-1 «NP V»: agent=Theme |
| 4 | **grow** | past | last |  |  |  |  | weary *property* | vn appear-48.1.1 «NP V»: agent=Theme |
| 5 | **keep** | gerund | last *not said here* | Governor's finger |  | the tap hole |  |  | vn keep-15.2 «NP V NP PP.location»: agent=Agent finger=Theme in hole=Location |
| 6 | **take out** | past | the tap hole | best *= good* |  |  |  |  | vn remove-10.1 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent it=Theme |

<!-- .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.

<!-- div src -->

**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.

<!-- /div -->

<!-- pn -->
- ← previous: [sentence 218](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg540/9/218/)
- next →: [sentence 220](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg540/9/220/)
- ↑ back to [The Master Thief](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg540/9/)