---
title: Why, horses and oxen and sheep stepped out in such numbers that they… — The Crimson Fairy Book · tree and pragmatics
description: Why, horses and oxen and sheep stepped out in such numbers that they seemed as if they would stretch to the world’s end! Who acts: horses. A sentence of «The Crimson Fairy Book» by Andrew Lang, The Crimson Fairy Book, part 27, with its dependency tree and the pragmatics of every clause.
---

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# The Crimson Fairy Book, The Crimson Fairy Book, part 27, sentence 66

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Why, horses and oxen and sheep stepped out in such numbers that they seemed as if they would stretch to the world’s end!

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**Who acts:** horses · **What happens:** step out, seem, stretch · **To what, where:** such numbers, end

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This is a sentence of «The Crimson Fairy Book» by Andrew Lang, The Crimson Fairy Book, part 27. The page gives its syntax tree — a dependency tree in the style of Universal Dependencies — and its pragmatics clause by clause: who acts (horses), 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:pg2435:27:66
# text = Why, horses and oxen and sheep stepped out in such numbers that they seemed as if they would stretch to the world’s end!
1	Why	why	ADV	WRB	PronType=Int	8	advmod	_	SpaceAfter=No
2	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	3	punct	_	_
3	horses	horse	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	8	nsubj	_	_
4	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	5	cc	_	_
5	oxen	ox	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	3	conj	_	_
6	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	7	cc	_	_
7	sheep	sheep	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	3	conj	_	_
8	stepped	step	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Plur|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	15	advcl	_	_
9	out	out	ADP	RP	_	8	compound:prt	_	_
10	in	in	ADP	IN	_	12	case	_	_
11	such	such	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	12	amod	_	_
12	numbers	number	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	8	obl	_	_
13	that	that	SCONJ	IN	_	15	mark	_	_
14	they	they	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Number=Plur|Person=3|PronType=Prs	15	nsubj	_	_
15	seemed	seem	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Plur|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	0	root	_	_
16	as	as	SCONJ	IN	_	20	mark	_	_
17	if	if	SCONJ	IN	_	20	mark	_	_
18	they	they	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Number=Plur|Person=3|PronType=Prs	20	nsubj	_	_
19	would	would	AUX	MD	VerbForm=Fin	20	aux	_	_
20	stretch	stretch	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	15	xcomp	_	_
21	to	to	ADP	IN	_	25	case	_	_
22	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	23	det	_	_
23	world	world	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	25	nmod:poss	_	SpaceAfter=No
24	’s	's	PART	POS	_	23	case	_	_
25	end	end	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	20	obl	_	SpaceAfter=No
26	!	!	PUNCT	.	_	15	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

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| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **step out** | past | horses and oxen and sheep |  |  | such numbers |  |  | vn run-51.3.2 «NP V PP.location»: agent=Theme in number=Trajectory |
| 2 | **seem** | past | horses *= horse* |  |  |  |  |  | vn seem-109-1-1-1 «NP V S\_INF»: agent=Theme clause=Attribute |
| 3 | **stretch** *a condition, not said to happen* | would | horses *= horse* |  |  |  | to the world's end |  | vn meander-47.7 «NP V PP.location»: agent=Theme to end=Location |

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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 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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