---
title: ‘Well, what a time it has taken to lock the house door, father!’ sai… — The Red Fairy Book · tree and pragmatics
description: ‘Well, what a time it has taken to lock the house door, father!’ said his wife, ‘and what have you done with the sheet and the night-gown?’ Who acts: you. A sentence of «The Red Fairy Book» by Andrew Lang, The Master Thief, with its dependency tree and the pragmatics of every clause.
---

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# The Red Fairy Book, The Master Thief, sentence 248

<!-- .ven lang=en -->
‘Well, what a time it has taken to lock the house door, father!’ said his wife, ‘and what have you done with the sheet and the night-gown?’

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**Who acts:** you · **What happens:** take, lock, say, do · **To what, where:** it, house door, wife · **Speech:** someone speaks here

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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 (you), 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:pg540:9:248
# text = ‘Well, what a time it has taken to lock the house door, father!’ said his wife, ‘and what have you done with the sheet and the night-gown?’
1	‘	'	PUNCT	``	_	4	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
2	Well	well	INTJ	UH	_	4	discourse	_	SpaceAfter=No
3	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	2	punct	_	_
4	what	what	PRON	WP	PronType=Rel	19	nsubj:outer	_	_
5	a	a	DET	DT	Definite=Ind|PronType=Art	6	det	_	_
6	time	time	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	9	obl:unmarked	_	_
7	it	it	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Gender=Neut|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	9	nsubj:pass	_	_
8	has	have	AUX	VBZ	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Fin	9	aux	_	_
9	taken	take	VERB	VBN	Tense=Past|VerbForm=Part|Voice=Pass	4	acl:relcl	_	_
10	to	to	PART	TO	_	11	mark	_	_
11	lock	lock	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	9	xcomp	_	_
12	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	14	det	_	_
13	house	house	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	14	compound	_	_
14	door	door	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	11	obj	_	SpaceAfter=No
15	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	16	punct	_	_
16	father	father	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	14	conj	_	SpaceAfter=No
17	!	!	PUNCT	.	_	9	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
18	’	'	PUNCT	''	_	4	punct	_	_
19	said	say	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Plur|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	0	root	_	_
20	his	his	PRON	PRP$	Case=Gen|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|Poss=Yes|PronType=Prs	21	nmod:poss	_	_
21	wife	wife	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	19	obj	_	SpaceAfter=No
22	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	19	punct	_	_
23	‘	‘	PUNCT	:	_	28	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
24	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	28	cc	_	_
25	what	what	PRON	WP	PronType=Int	28	obj	_	_
26	have	have	AUX	VBP	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=2|Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Fin	28	aux	_	_
27	you	you	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Person=2|PronType=Prs	28	nsubj	_	_
28	done	do	VERB	VBN	Tense=Past|VerbForm=Part	19	ccomp	_	_
29	with	with	ADP	IN	_	31	case	_	_
30	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	31	det	_	_
31	sheet	sheet	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	28	obl	_	_
32	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	36	cc	_	_
33	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	36	det	_	_
34	night	night	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	36	compound	_	SpaceAfter=No
35	-	-	PUNCT	HYPH	_	34	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
36	gown	gown	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	31	conj	_	SpaceAfter=No
37	?	?	PUNCT	.	_	28	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
38	’	'	PUNCT	''	_	28	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

<!-- .fr -->
| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **take** | present · perfect · passive |  | it |  |  | time |  | vn characterize-29.2 «NP V NP to be ADJ»: subject=Theme clause=Attribute |
| 2 | **lock** | to-infinitive |  | the house door and father |  |  |  |  | vn tape-22.4 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent door=Patient |
| 3 | **say** *speech: assert* | past |  | father's wife |  |  |  |  | tree rules |
| 4 | **do** | present · perfect | you |  |  |  |  | with the sheet and the night gown | vn act-114-1 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent what=Eventuality |

<!-- .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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