---
title: ‘Look!’ said the barber, ‘here comes something in the nick of time!’… — The Pink Fairy Book · tree and pragmatics
description: ‘Look!’ said the barber, ‘here comes something in the nick of time!’ seized basin and soap, made a lather whilst the hare was approaching, and then, as it ran at full tilt, shaved its moustaches, without cutting it or injuring a single hair on its body. Who acts: hare, full tilt. A sentence of «The 
---

<!-- md -->
[Mova](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/) · [this page in HTML](https://mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg5615/8/23/)

<!-- 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 Pink Fairy Book](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg5615/) / [The Pink Fairy Book, part 8](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg5615/8/) / 23

# The Pink Fairy Book, The Pink Fairy Book, part 8, sentence 23

<!-- .ven lang=en -->
‘Look!’ said the barber, ‘here comes something in the nick of time!’ seized basin and soap, made a lather whilst the hare was approaching, and then, as it ran at full tilt, shaved its moustaches, without cutting it or injuring a single hair on its body.

<!-- .vintro -->
**Who acts:** hare, full tilt · **What happens:** look, say, come, seize, make, approach · **To what, where:** barber, something, nick, basin, lather, full tilt · **Speech:** someone speaks here

<!-- .vabout -->
This is a sentence of «The Pink Fairy Book» by Andrew Lang, The Pink Fairy Book, part 8. The page gives its syntax tree — a dependency tree in the style of Universal Dependencies — and its pragmatics clause by clause: who acts (hare, full tilt), 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:pg5615:8:23
# text = ‘Look!’ said the barber, ‘here comes something in the nick of time!’ seized basin and soap, made a lather whilst the hare was approaching, and then, as it ran at full tilt, shaved its moustaches, without cutting it or injuring a single hair on its body.
1	‘	'	PUNCT	``	_	2	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
2	Look	look	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	5	ccomp	_	SpaceAfter=No
3	!	!	PUNCT	.	_	2	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
4	’	'	PUNCT	''	_	2	punct	_	_
5	said	say	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=1|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	0	root	_	_
6	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	7	det	_	_
7	barber	barber	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	5	obj	_	SpaceAfter=No
8	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	11	punct	_	_
9	‘	'	PUNCT	``	_	10	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
10	here	here	ADV	RB	PronType=Dem	11	advmod	_	_
11	comes	come	VERB	VBZ	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Fin	20	advcl	_	_
12	something	something	PRON	NN	Number=Sing|PronType=Ind	11	obj	_	_
13	in	in	ADP	IN	_	15	case	_	_
14	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	15	det	_	_
15	nick	nick	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	12	nmod	_	_
16	of	of	ADP	IN	_	17	case	_	_
17	time	time	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	15	nmod	_	SpaceAfter=No
18	!	!	PUNCT	.	_	11	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
19	’	'	PUNCT	''	_	11	punct	_	_
20	seized	seize	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=1|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	5	conj	_	_
21	basin	basin	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	20	obj	_	_
22	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	23	cc	_	_
23	soap	soap	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	21	conj	_	SpaceAfter=No
24	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	25	punct	_	_
25	made	make	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	5	parataxis	_	_
26	a	a	DET	DT	Definite=Ind|PronType=Art	27	det	_	_
27	lather	lather	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	25	obj	_	_
28	whilst	whilst	SCONJ	IN	_	32	mark	_	_
29	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	30	det	_	_
30	hare	hare	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	32	nsubj	_	_
31	was	be	AUX	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	32	aux	_	_
32	approaching	approach	VERB	VBG	Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Part	25	advcl	_	SpaceAfter=No
33	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	39	punct	_	_
34	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	39	cc	_	_
35	then	then	ADV	RB	PronType=Dem	39	advmod	_	SpaceAfter=No
36	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	39	punct	_	_
37	as	as	SCONJ	IN	_	39	mark	_	_
38	it	it	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Gender=Neut|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	39	nsubj	_	_
39	ran	run	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	25	conj	_	_
40	at	at	ADP	IN	_	42	case	_	_
41	full	full	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	42	amod	_	_
42	tilt	tilt	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	39	obl	_	SpaceAfter=No
43	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	44	punct	_	_
44	shaved	shave	VERB	VBN	Tense=Past|VerbForm=Part|Voice=Pass	42	acl	_	_
45	its	its	PRON	PRP$	Case=Gen|Gender=Neut|Number=Sing|Person=3|Poss=Yes|PronType=Prs	46	nmod:poss	_	_
46	moustaches	moustache	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	44	obj	_	SpaceAfter=No
47	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	49	punct	_	_
48	without	without	SCONJ	IN	_	49	mark	_	_
49	cutting	cut	VERB	VBG	Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Part	39	advcl	_	_
50	it	it	PRON	PRP	Case=Acc|Gender=Neut|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	49	obj	_	_
51	or	or	CCONJ	CC	_	52	cc	_	_
52	injuring	injure	VERB	VBG	Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Part	49	conj	_	_
53	a	a	DET	DT	Definite=Ind|PronType=Art	55	det	_	_
54	single	single	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	55	amod	_	_
55	hair	hair	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	52	obj	_	_
56	on	on	ADP	IN	_	58	case	_	_
57	its	its	PRON	PRP$	Case=Gen|Gender=Neut|Number=Sing|Person=3|Poss=Yes|PronType=Prs	58	nmod:poss	_	_
58	body	body	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	52	obl	_	SpaceAfter=No
59	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	5	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

<!-- .fr -->
| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **look** | infinitive |  |  |  |  |  |  | vn stimulus\_subject-30.4 «NP V PP.attribute»: agent=Stimulus |
| 2 | **say** *speech: assert* | past |  | the barber |  |  |  |  | tree rules |
| 3 | **come** | present |  | something |  | the nick of time; here |  |  | vn appear-48.1.1 «PP.location V NP»: agent=Location something=Theme |
| 4 | **seize** | past |  | basin and soap |  |  |  |  | vn obtain-13.5.2 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent basin=Theme |
| 5 | **make** | past |  | a lather |  |  |  |  | vn build-26.1-1 «NP.asset V NP»: agent=Asset lather=Product |
| 6 | **approach** | past · progressive | the hare |  |  |  |  |  | vn escape-51.1-1 «NP V»: agent=Theme |
| 7 | **run** | past | hare |  |  | full tilt | then |  | vn run-51.3.2-2-1 «NP V PP.location»: agent=Theme at tilt=Trajectory |
| 8 | **shave** | participle | full tilt *not said here* | hare's moustaches |  |  |  |  | vn dress-41.1.1-1-1 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent moustache=Patient |
| 9 | **cut** | gerund | hare *not said here* | hare |  |  |  |  | vn build-26.1-1 «NP.asset V NP»: agent=Asset it=Product |
| 10 | **injure** | gerund | hare *not said here* | a single hair |  | hare's body |  |  | 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.

<!-- div src -->

**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.

<!-- /div -->

<!-- pn -->
- ← previous: [sentence 22](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg5615/8/22/)
- next →: [sentence 24](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg5615/8/24/)
- ↑ back to [The Pink Fairy Book, part 8](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg5615/8/)