---
title: 'I have just had a narrow escape of my life,' gasped the jackal, 'an… — The Orange Fairy Book · tree and pragmatics
description: 'I have just had a narrow escape of my life,' gasped the jackal, 'and I need some sleep. Who acts: I, life. A sentence of «The Orange Fairy Book» by Andrew Lang, Opening, part 18, with its dependency tree and the pragmatics of every clause.
---

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# The Orange Fairy Book, Opening, part 18, sentence 102

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'I have just had a narrow escape of my life,' gasped the jackal, 'and I need some sleep.

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**Who acts:** I, life · **What happens:** have, gasp, need, escape · **To what, where:** narrow escape, jackal, sleep

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This is a sentence of «The Orange Fairy Book» by Andrew Lang, Opening, part 18. The page gives its syntax tree — a dependency tree in the style of Universal Dependencies — and its pragmatics clause by clause: who acts (I, life), 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:pg3027:18:102
# text = 'I have just had a narrow escape of my life,' gasped the jackal, 'and I need some sleep.
1	'	'	PUNCT	``	_	5	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
2	I	I	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Number=Sing|Person=1|PronType=Prs	5	nsubj	_	_
3	have	have	AUX	VBP	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=1|Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Fin	5	aux	_	_
4	just	just	ADV	RB	_	5	advmod	_	_
5	had	have	VERB	VBN	Tense=Past|VerbForm=Part	14	ccomp	_	_
6	a	a	DET	DT	Definite=Ind|PronType=Art	8	det	_	_
7	narrow	narrow	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	8	amod	_	_
8	escape	escape	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	5	obj	_	_
9	of	of	ADP	IN	_	11	case	_	_
10	my	my	PRON	PRP$	Case=Gen|Number=Sing|Person=1|Poss=Yes|PronType=Prs	11	nmod:poss	_	_
11	life	life	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	8	nmod	_	SpaceAfter=No
12	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	5	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
13	'	'	PUNCT	''	_	14	punct	_	_
14	gasped	gasp	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=1|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	0	root	_	_
15	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	16	det	_	_
16	jackal	jackal	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	14	obj	_	SpaceAfter=No
17	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	14	punct	_	_
18	'	'	PUNCT	''	_	14	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
19	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	21	cc	_	_
20	I	I	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Number=Sing|Person=1|PronType=Prs	21	nsubj	_	_
21	need	need	VERB	VBP	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=1|Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Fin	14	conj	_	_
22	some	some	DET	DT	PronType=Ind	23	det	_	_
23	sleep	sleep	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	21	obj	_	SpaceAfter=No
24	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	14	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

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| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **have** | present · perfect | I | a narrow escape of my life |  |  |  |  | vn birth-28.2-1 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent escape=Patient |
| 2 | **gasp** | past |  | the jackal |  |  |  |  | tree rules |
| 3 | **need** | present | I | some sleep |  |  |  |  | vn want-32.1-1-1 «NP V NP ADV»: agent=Pivot sleep=Theme |
| 4 | **escape** |  | my life |  |  |  |  |  | nom escape «act intransitive»: of=agent |

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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 Orange Fairy Book» by Andrew Lang, Project Gutenberg book 3027 (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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