---
title: But just as the tongues had almost reached them, the lindworm gave a… — The Crimson Fairy Book · tree and pragmatics
description: But just as the tongues had almost reached them, the lindworm gave a fearful cry, and turned and fell backwards. Who acts: lindworm. A sentence of «The Crimson Fairy Book» by Andrew Lang, The Crimson Fairy Book, part 10, with its dependency tree and the pragmatics of every clause.
---

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# The Crimson Fairy Book, The Crimson Fairy Book, part 10, sentence 8

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But just as the tongues had almost reached them, the lindworm gave a fearful cry, and turned and fell backwards.

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**Who acts:** lindworm · **What happens:** reach, give, turn, fall · **To what, where:** tongues, fearful cry

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This is a sentence of «The Crimson Fairy Book» by Andrew Lang, The Crimson Fairy Book, part 10. The page gives its syntax tree — a dependency tree in the style of Universal Dependencies — and its pragmatics clause by clause: who acts (lindworm), 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:pg2435:10:8
# text = But just as the tongues had almost reached them, the lindworm gave a fearful cry, and turned and fell backwards.
1	But	but	CCONJ	CC	_	13	cc	_	_
2	just	just	ADV	RB	_	8	advmod	_	_
3	as	as	SCONJ	IN	_	8	mark	_	_
4	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	5	det	_	_
5	tongues	tongue	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	8	nsubj:pass	_	_
6	had	have	AUX	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Plur|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	8	aux	_	_
7	almost	almost	ADV	RB	_	8	advmod	_	_
8	reached	reach	VERB	VBN	Tense=Past|VerbForm=Part|Voice=Pass	13	advcl	_	_
9	them	they	PRON	PRP	Case=Acc|Number=Plur|Person=3|PronType=Prs	8	obj	_	SpaceAfter=No
10	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	8	punct	_	_
11	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	12	det	_	_
12	lindworm	lindworm	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	13	nsubj	_	_
13	gave	give	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	0	root	_	_
14	a	a	DET	DT	Definite=Ind|PronType=Art	16	det	_	_
15	fearful	fearful	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	16	amod	_	_
16	cry	cry	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	13	obj	_	SpaceAfter=No
17	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	19	punct	_	_
18	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	19	cc	_	_
19	turned	turn	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	13	conj	_	_
20	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	21	cc	_	_
21	fell	fall	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	19	conj	_	_
22	backwards	backwards	ADV	RB	_	21	advmod	_	SpaceAfter=No
23	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	13	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

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| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **reach** | past · perfect · passive |  | the tongues |  |  |  | almost *property* | vn get-13.5.1 «NP V NP.beneficiary NP»: subject=Beneficiary they=Theme |
| 2 | **give** | past | the lindworm | a fearful cry |  |  |  |  | vn give-13.1-1 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent cry=Theme |
| 3 | **turn** | past | the lindworm *not said here* |  |  |  |  |  | vn roll-51.3.1 «NP.theme V»: agent=Theme |
| 4 | **fall** | past | the lindworm *not said here* |  |  |  |  | backwards *property* | vn occur-48.3 «NP V»: agent=Theme |

<!-- .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 Crimson Fairy Book» by Andrew Lang, Project Gutenberg book 2435 (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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