---
title: The instant the animals caught sight of the lake lying before them,… — The Crimson Fairy Book · tree and pragmatics
description: The instant the animals caught sight of the lake lying before them, they trotted off as fast as their legs would go to the green meadows lying round it. Who acts: instant, lake, animals, legs. A sentence of «The Crimson Fairy Book» by Andrew Lang, The Crimson Fairy Book, part 8, with its dependency 
---

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# The Crimson Fairy Book, The Crimson Fairy Book, part 8, sentence 88

<!-- .ven lang=en -->
The instant the animals caught sight of the lake lying before them, they trotted off as fast as their legs would go to the green meadows lying round it.

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**Who acts:** instant, lake, animals, legs, green meadows · **What happens:** catch, lie, trot off, go, sight · **To what, where:** sight, green meadows, lake

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This is a sentence of «The Crimson Fairy Book» by Andrew Lang, The Crimson Fairy Book, part 8. The page gives its syntax tree — a dependency tree in the style of Universal Dependencies — and its pragmatics clause by clause: who acts (instant, lake, animals, legs), 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:pg2435:8:88
# text = The instant the animals caught sight of the lake lying before them, they trotted off as fast as their legs would go to the green meadows lying round it.
1	The	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	2	det	_	_
2	instant	instant	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	5	nsubj	_	_
3	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	4	det	_	_
4	animals	animal	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	5	nsubj	_	_
5	caught	catch	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	0	root	_	_
6	sight	sight	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	5	obj	_	_
7	of	of	ADP	IN	_	9	case	_	_
8	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	9	det	_	_
9	lake	lake	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	6	nmod	_	_
10	lying	lie	VERB	VBG	VerbForm=Ger	9	acl	_	_
11	before	before	ADP	IN	_	12	case	_	_
12	them	they	PRON	PRP	Case=Acc|Number=Plur|Person=3|PronType=Prs	10	obl	_	SpaceAfter=No
13	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	15	punct	_	_
14	they	they	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Number=Plur|Person=3|PronType=Prs	15	nsubj	_	_
15	trotted	trot	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Plur|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	5	conj	_	_
16	off	off	ADP	RP	_	15	compound:prt	_	_
17	as	as	ADV	RB	_	18	advmod	_	_
18	fast	fast	ADV	RB	Degree=Pos	15	advmod	_	_
19	as	as	SCONJ	IN	_	23	mark	_	_
20	their	their	PRON	PRP$	Case=Gen|Number=Plur|Person=3|Poss=Yes|PronType=Prs	21	nmod:poss	_	_
21	legs	leg	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	23	nsubj	_	_
22	would	would	AUX	MD	VerbForm=Fin	23	aux	_	_
23	go	go	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	15	advcl	_	_
24	to	to	ADP	IN	_	27	case	_	_
25	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	27	det	_	_
26	green	green	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	27	amod	_	_
27	meadows	meadow	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	23	obl	_	_
28	lying	lie	VERB	VBG	VerbForm=Ger	27	acl	_	_
29	round	round	ADP	IN	_	30	case	_	_
30	it	it	PRON	PRP	Case=Acc|Gender=Neut|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	28	obl	_	SpaceAfter=No
31	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	5	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

<!-- .fr -->
| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **catch** | past | the instant | sight of the lake |  |  |  |  | vn get-13.5.1 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent sight=Theme |
| 2 | **lie** | gerund | the lake *not said here* |  |  |  | before animals *= animal* |  | vn assuming\_position-50 «NP V PP.location»: agent=Agent before they=Location |
| 3 | **trot off** | past | animals *= animal* |  |  |  |  | fast *property* | vn run-51.3.2-2 «NP V»: agent=Theme |
| 4 | **go** | would | animals's legs |  |  | the green meadows |  |  | vn escape-51.1-1 «NP V PP.initial\_location»: agent=Theme to meadow=Initial\_Location |
| 5 | **lie** | gerund | the green meadows *not said here* |  |  |  |  | round instant | vn assuming\_position-50 «NP V»: agent=Agent |
| 6 | **sight** |  |  | the lake |  |  |  |  | nom sight «cognition transitive»: of=patient |

<!-- .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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