---
title: He actually reflected for about five seconds on his folly, and came… — The Green Fairy Book · tree and pragmatics
description: He actually reflected for about five seconds on his folly, and came to the conclusion that it might sometimes be advisable to think before one acted. Who acts: Prince, it, one. A sentence of «The Green Fairy Book» by Andrew Lang, Prince Vivien and the Princess Placida, part 2, with its dependency tr
---

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# The Green Fairy Book, Prince Vivien and the Princess Placida, part 2, sentence 11

<!-- .ven lang=en -->
He actually reflected for about five seconds on his folly, and came to the conclusion that it might sometimes be advisable to think before one acted.

<!-- .vintro -->
**Who acts:** Prince, it, one · **What happens:** reflect, come, be, think, act · **To what, where:** conclusion

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This is a sentence of «The Green Fairy Book» by Andrew Lang, Prince Vivien and the Princess Placida, part 2. The page gives its syntax tree — a dependency tree in the style of Universal Dependencies — and its pragmatics clause by clause: who acts (Prince, it, one), 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:pg7277:37:11
# text = He actually reflected for about five seconds on his folly, and came to the conclusion that it might sometimes be advisable to think before one acted.
1	He	he	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	3	nsubj	_	_
2	actually	actually	ADV	RB	_	3	advmod	_	_
3	reflected	reflect	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	0	root	_	_
4	for	for	ADP	IN	_	7	case	_	_
5	about	about	ADV	RB	_	6	advmod	_	_
6	five	five	NUM	CD	NumForm=Word|NumType=Card	7	nummod	_	_
7	seconds	second	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	3	obl	_	_
8	on	on	ADP	IN	_	10	case	_	_
9	his	his	PRON	PRP$	Case=Gen|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|Poss=Yes|PronType=Prs	10	nmod:poss	_	_
10	folly	folly	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	3	obl	_	SpaceAfter=No
11	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	13	punct	_	_
12	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	13	cc	_	_
13	came	come	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	3	parataxis	_	_
14	to	to	ADP	IN	_	16	case	_	_
15	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	16	det	_	_
16	conclusion	conclusion	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	13	obl	_	_
17	that	that	SCONJ	IN	_	22	mark	_	_
18	it	it	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Gender=Neut|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	22	nsubj	_	_
19	might	might	AUX	MD	VerbForm=Fin	22	aux	_	_
20	sometimes	sometimes	ADV	RB	PronType=Ind	22	advmod	_	_
21	be	be	AUX	VB	VerbForm=Inf	22	cop	_	_
22	advisable	advisable	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	13	conj	_	_
23	to	to	PART	TO	_	24	mark	_	_
24	think	think	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	22	csubj	_	_
25	before	before	SCONJ	IN	_	27	mark	_	_
26	one	one	NUM	CD	NumForm=Word|NumType=Card	27	nsubj	_	_
27	acted	act	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	24	ccomp	_	SpaceAfter=No
28	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	3	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

<!-- .fr -->
| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **reflect** | past | Prince |  |  |  | second | on Prince's folly; actually *property* | vn focus-87.1-1 «NP V PP.topic»: agent=Agent on folly=Topic |
| 2 | **come** | past |  |  |  | the conclusion |  |  | vn escape-51.1-1 «NP V PP.initial\_location»: agent=Theme to conclusion=Initial\_Location |
| 3 | **is** | might | it |  |  |  |  | advisable, sometimes *property* | tree rules |
| 4 | **think** *speech: other* | to-infinitive |  |  |  |  |  |  | vn consider-29.9-2 «NP V how S»: agent=Agent clause=Theme |
| 5 | **act** | past | one |  |  |  |  |  | vn act-114-1-1 «NP V»: agent=Agent |

<!-- .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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