---
title: They were not speaking, but they were thinking over all the good thi… — The Yellow Fairy Book · tree and pragmatics
description: They were not speaking, but they were thinking over all the good things they were going to say, for everything had to be thought out. Who acts: brothers, everything. A sentence of «The Yellow Fairy Book» by Andrew Lang, The Steadfast Tin-soldier, with its dependency tree and the pragmatics of every 
---

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# The Yellow Fairy Book, The Steadfast Tin-soldier, sentence 115

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They were not speaking, but they were thinking over all the good things they were going to say, for everything had to be thought out.

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**Who acts:** brothers, everything · **What happens:** not speak, think, go, say, have, think out · **To what, where:** good things · **Speech:** someone speaks here

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This is a sentence of «The Yellow Fairy Book» by Andrew Lang, The Steadfast Tin-soldier. The page gives its syntax tree — a dependency tree in the style of Universal Dependencies — and its pragmatics clause by clause: who acts (brothers, everything), 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:pg640:50:115
# text = They were not speaking, but they were thinking over all the good things they were going to say, for everything had to be thought out.
1	They	they	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Number=Plur|Person=3|PronType=Prs	4	nsubj	_	_
2	were	be	AUX	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Plur|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	4	aux	_	_
3	not	not	PART	RB	Polarity=Neg	4	advmod	_	_
4	speaking	speak	VERB	VBG	Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Part	0	root	_	SpaceAfter=No
5	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	9	punct	_	_
6	but	but	CCONJ	CC	_	9	cc	_	_
7	they	they	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Number=Plur|Person=3|PronType=Prs	9	nsubj	_	_
8	were	be	AUX	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Plur|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	9	aux	_	_
9	thinking	think	VERB	VBG	Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Part	4	conj	_	_
10	over	over	ADP	IN	_	14	case	_	_
11	all	all	DET	PDT	PronType=Tot	14	det:predet	_	_
12	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	14	det	_	_
13	good	good	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	14	amod	_	_
14	things	thing	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	9	obl	_	_
15	they	they	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Number=Plur|Person=3|PronType=Prs	17	nsubj	_	_
16	were	be	AUX	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Plur|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	17	aux	_	_
17	going	go	VERB	VBG	Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Part	14	acl:relcl	_	_
18	to	to	PART	TO	_	19	mark	_	_
19	say	say	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	17	xcomp	_	SpaceAfter=No
20	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	23	punct	_	_
21	for	for	ADP	IN	_	23	case	_	_
22	everything	everything	PRON	NN	Number=Sing|PronType=Tot	23	nsubj	_	_
23	had	have	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	19	ccomp	_	_
24	to	to	PART	TO	_	26	mark	_	_
25	be	be	AUX	VB	VerbForm=Inf	26	aux:pass	_	_
26	thought	think	VERB	VBN	Tense=Past|VerbForm=Part|Voice=Pass	23	xcomp	_	_
27	out	out	ADP	RP	_	26	compound:prt	_	SpaceAfter=No
28	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	4	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

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| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **not** **speak** *speech: other* | past · progressive | brothers *= brother* |  |  |  |  |  | vn talk-37.5 «NP V»: agent=Agent |
| 2 | **think** *speech: other* | past · progressive | brothers *= brother* |  |  | all good things |  |  | vn focus-87.1-1 «NP V»: agent=Agent |
| 3 | **go** | past · progressive | brothers *= brother* | all good things *not said here* |  |  |  |  | tree rules |
| 4 | **say** *speech: assert* | to-infinitive | brothers *= brother* *not said here* |  |  |  |  |  | vn say-37.7-1-1 «NP V that S»: agent=Agent clause=Topic |
| 5 | **have** | past | everything |  |  |  |  |  | tree rules |
| 6 | **think out** *speech: other* | to-infinitive · passive | everything *not said here* |  |  |  |  |  | vn focus-87.1-1 «NP V» |

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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 Yellow Fairy Book» by Andrew Lang, Project Gutenberg book 640 (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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