---
title: Peter sat trembling on the tree dreading lest his dogs had never hea… — The Crimson Fairy Book · tree and pragmatics
description: Peter sat trembling on the tree dreading lest his dogs had never heard, or else that, having heard, they had refused to come. Who acts: Peter, dogs. A sentence of «The Crimson Fairy Book» by Andrew Lang, The Crimson Fairy Book, part 28, with its dependency tree and the pragmatics of every clause.
---

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[Mova](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/) · [this page in HTML](https://mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg2435/28/36/)

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# The Crimson Fairy Book, The Crimson Fairy Book, part 28, sentence 36

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Peter sat trembling on the tree dreading lest his dogs had never heard, or else that, having heard, they had refused to come.

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**Who acts:** Peter, dogs · **What happens:** sit, tremble, dread, not hear, have, hear · **To what, where:** that, tree, dogs

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This is a sentence of «The Crimson Fairy Book» by Andrew Lang, The Crimson Fairy Book, part 28. The page gives its syntax tree — a dependency tree in the style of Universal Dependencies — and its pragmatics clause by clause: who acts (Peter, dogs), 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:pg2435:28:36
# text = Peter sat trembling on the tree dreading lest his dogs had never heard, or else that, having heard, they had refused to come.
1	Peter	Peter	PROPN	NNP	Number=Sing	2	nsubj	_	_
2	sat	sit	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	0	root	_	_
3	trembling	tremble	VERB	VBG	Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Part	2	advcl	_	_
4	on	on	ADP	IN	_	6	case	_	_
5	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	6	det	_	_
6	tree	tree	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	3	obl	_	_
7	dreading	dread	VERB	VBG	Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Part	3	conj	_	_
8	lest	lest	SCONJ	IN	_	13	mark	_	_
9	his	his	PRON	PRP$	Case=Gen|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|Poss=Yes|PronType=Prs	10	nmod:poss	_	_
10	dogs	dog	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	13	nsubj:pass	_	_
11	had	have	AUX	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Plur|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	13	aux	_	_
12	never	never	ADV	RB	PronType=Neg	13	advmod	_	_
13	heard	hear	VERB	VBN	Tense=Past|VerbForm=Part|Voice=Pass	7	advcl	_	SpaceAfter=No
14	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	17	punct	_	_
15	or	or	CCONJ	CC	_	17	cc	_	_
16	else	else	ADV	RB	_	17	advmod	_	_
17	that	that	PRON	DT	Number=Sing|PronType=Dem	2	obl	_	SpaceAfter=No
18	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	19	punct	_	_
19	having	have	VERB	VBG	Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Part	2	advcl	_	_
20	heard	hear	VERB	VBN	Tense=Past|VerbForm=Part|Voice=Pass	19	xcomp	_	SpaceAfter=No
21	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	24	punct	_	_
22	they	they	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Number=Plur|Person=3|PronType=Prs	24	nsubj	_	_
23	had	have	AUX	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Plur|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	24	aux	_	_
24	refused	refuse	VERB	VBN	Tense=Past|VerbForm=Part	2	conj	_	_
25	to	to	PART	TO	_	26	mark	_	_
26	come	come	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	24	xcomp	_	SpaceAfter=No
27	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	2	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

<!-- .fr -->
| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **sit** | past | Peter | that |  |  |  |  | vn assuming\_position-50 «NP V»: agent=Agent |
| 2 | **tremble** | gerund | Peter *not said here* |  |  | the tree |  |  | vn modes\_of\_being\_with\_motion-47.3 «NP V PP.location»: agent=Theme on tree=Location |
| 3 | **dread** | gerund | Peter *not said here* |  |  |  |  |  | vn admire-31.2 «NP V that S»: agent=Experiencer |
| 4 | **not** **hear** | past · perfect · passive |  | master's dogs |  |  |  |  | vn see-30.1-1-1 «NP V S»: subject=Stimulus |
| 5 | **have** | gerund | Peter *not said here* |  |  |  |  |  | tree rules |
| 6 | **hear** | participle | Peter *not said here* |  |  |  |  |  | vn see-30.1-1-1 «NP V PP.stimulus»: agent=Experiencer |
| 7 | **refuse** | past · perfect | dogs *= dog* |  |  |  |  |  | vn reject-77.2 «NP V S\_ING»: agent=Agent clause=Theme |
| 8 | **not** **come** | to-infinitive | dogs *= dog* *not said here* |  |  |  |  |  | vn escape-51.1-1 «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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