---
title: A moment now and he would have gained it, when, through the groans a… — The Pink Fairy Book · tree and pragmatics
description: A moment now and he would have gained it, when, through the groans and yells, he heard his brothers’ voices. Who acts: man, moment. A sentence of «The Pink Fairy Book» by Andrew Lang, The Pink Fairy Book, part 20, with its dependency tree and the pragmatics of every clause.
---

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[Mova](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/) · [this page in HTML](https://mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg5615/20/101/)

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# The Pink Fairy Book, The Pink Fairy Book, part 20, sentence 101

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A moment now and he would have gained it, when, through the groans and yells, he heard his brothers’ voices.

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**Who acts:** man, moment · **What happens:** gain, hear · **To what, where:** top, voices

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This is a sentence of «The Pink Fairy Book» by Andrew Lang, The Pink Fairy Book, part 20. The page gives its syntax tree — a dependency tree in the style of Universal Dependencies — and its pragmatics clause by clause: who acts (man, moment), 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:pg5615:20:101
# text = A moment now and he would have gained it, when, through the groans and yells, he heard his brothers’ voices.
1	A	a	DET	DT	Definite=Ind|PronType=Art	2	det	_	_
2	moment	moment	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	20	nsubj	_	_
3	now	now	ADV	RB	PronType=Dem	8	advmod	_	_
4	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	8	cc	_	_
5	he	he	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	8	nsubj	_	_
6	would	would	AUX	MD	VerbForm=Fin	8	aux	_	_
7	have	have	AUX	VB	VerbForm=Inf	8	aux	_	_
8	gained	gain	VERB	VBN	Tense=Past|VerbForm=Part	2	acl:relcl	_	_
9	it	it	PRON	PRP	Case=Acc|Gender=Neut|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	8	obj	_	SpaceAfter=No
10	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	20	punct	_	_
11	when	when	ADV	WRB	PronType=Int	20	advmod	_	SpaceAfter=No
12	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	15	punct	_	_
13	through	through	ADP	IN	_	15	case	_	_
14	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	15	det	_	_
15	groans	groan	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	20	nsubj	_	_
16	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	17	cc	_	_
17	yells	yell	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	15	conj	_	SpaceAfter=No
18	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	15	punct	_	_
19	he	he	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	20	nsubj	_	_
20	heard	hear	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	0	root	_	_
21	his	his	PRON	PRP$	Case=Gen|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|Poss=Yes|PronType=Prs	22	nmod:poss	_	_
22	brothers	brother	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	24	nmod:poss	_	SpaceAfter=No
23	’	's	PART	POS	_	22	case	_	_
24	voices	voice	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	20	obj	_	SpaceAfter=No
25	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	20	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

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| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **gain** | would · perfect | man | top |  |  | now |  | vn get-13.5.1-1 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent it=Theme |
| 2 | **hear** | past | a moment | man's brothers's voices |  |  |  |  | vn see-30.1-1-1 «NP V S»: agent=Experiencer voice=Stimulus |

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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 Pink Fairy Book» by Andrew Lang, Project Gutenberg book 5615 (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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