---
title: Now it happened one day that her husband went to the wood to collect… — The Green Fairy Book · tree and pragmatics
description: Now it happened one day that her husband went to the wood to collect brushwood, and when he had brought it home, he discovered a pretty little snake among the twigs. Who acts: it, husband. A sentence of «The Green Fairy Book» by Andrew Lang, The Enchanted Snake, with its dependency tree and the prag
---

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# The Green Fairy Book, The Enchanted Snake, sentence 2

<!-- .ven lang=en -->
Now it happened one day that her husband went to the wood to collect brushwood, and when he had brought it home, he discovered a pretty little snake among the twigs.

<!-- .vintro -->
**Who acts:** it, husband · **What happens:** happen, go, collect, bring, discover · **To what, where:** wood, brushwood, pretty little snake

<!-- .vabout -->
This is a sentence of «The Green Fairy Book» by Andrew Lang, The Enchanted Snake. The page gives its syntax tree — a dependency tree in the style of Universal Dependencies — and its pragmatics clause by clause: who acts (it, husband), 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:pg7277:25:2
# text = Now it happened one day that her husband went to the wood to collect brushwood, and when he had brought it home, he discovered a pretty little snake among the twigs.
1	Now	now	ADV	RB	PronType=Dem	3	advmod	_	_
2	it	it	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Gender=Neut|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	3	nsubj	_	_
3	happened	happen	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	0	root	_	_
4	one	one	NUM	CD	NumForm=Word|NumType=Card	5	nummod	_	_
5	day	day	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	9	obl:unmarked	_	_
6	that	that	SCONJ	IN	_	9	mark	_	_
7	her	her	PRON	PRP$	Case=Gen|Gender=Fem|Number=Sing|Person=3|Poss=Yes|PronType=Prs	8	nmod:poss	_	_
8	husband	husband	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	9	nsubj	_	_
9	went	go	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	3	conj	_	_
10	to	to	ADP	IN	_	12	case	_	_
11	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	12	det	_	_
12	wood	wood	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	9	obl	_	_
13	to	to	PART	TO	_	14	mark	_	_
14	collect	collect	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	9	advcl	_	_
15	brushwood	brushwood	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	14	obj	_	SpaceAfter=No
16	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	21	punct	_	_
17	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	21	cc	_	_
18	when	when	ADV	WRB	PronType=Int	21	advmod	_	_
19	he	he	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	21	nsubj	_	_
20	had	have	AUX	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	21	aux	_	_
21	brought	bring	VERB	VBN	Tense=Past|VerbForm=Part	3	conj	_	_
22	it	it	PRON	PRP	Case=Acc|Gender=Neut|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	21	obj	_	_
23	home	home	ADV	RB	_	21	advmod	_	SpaceAfter=No
24	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	26	punct	_	_
25	he	he	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	26	nsubj	_	_
26	discovered	discover	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	3	conj	_	_
27	a	a	DET	DT	Definite=Ind|PronType=Art	30	det	_	_
28	pretty	pretty	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	30	amod	_	_
29	little	little	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	30	amod	_	_
30	snake	snake	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	26	obj	_	_
31	among	among	ADP	IN	_	33	case	_	_
32	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	33	det	_	_
33	twigs	twig	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	26	obl	_	SpaceAfter=No
34	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	3	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

<!-- .fr -->
| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **happen** | past | it |  |  |  | now |  | vn occur-48.3-1 «NP V»: agent=Theme |
| 2 | **go** | past | woman's husband |  |  | the wood | day |  | vn escape-51.1-1 «NP V PP.initial\_location»: agent=Theme to wood=Initial\_Location |
| 3 | **collect** | to-infinitive | woman's husband *not said here* | brushwood |  |  |  |  | vn obtain-13.5.2 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent brushwood=Theme |
| 4 | **bring** | past · perfect | husband | brushwood |  |  |  | home *property* | vn bring-11.3-1 «NP V NP together»: agent=Agent it=Theme |
| 5 | **discover** | past | husband | a pretty little snake |  |  |  | among the twigs | vn discover-84-1 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent snake=Topic |

<!-- .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 Green Fairy Book» by Andrew Lang, Project Gutenberg book 7277 (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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