---
title: And they crept steadily along till at length they reached the mouth… — The Orange Fairy Book · tree and pragmatics
description: And they crept steadily along till at length they reached the mouth of the valley where a ram, a sheep and a lamb were feeding on the rich grass, unconscious of their danger. Who acts: legs, ram. A sentence of «The Orange Fairy Book» by Andrew Lang, Opening, part 18, with its dependency tree and the
---

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# The Orange Fairy Book, Opening, part 18, sentence 86

<!-- .ven lang=en -->
And they crept steadily along till at length they reached the mouth of the valley where a ram, a sheep and a lamb were feeding on the rich grass, unconscious of their danger.

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**Who acts:** legs, ram · **What happens:** creep, reach, feed · **To what, where:** mouth

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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 (legs, ram), 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:pg3027:18:86
# text = And they crept steadily along till at length they reached the mouth of the valley where a ram, a sheep and a lamb were feeding on the rich grass, unconscious of their danger.
1	And	and	CCONJ	CC	_	3	cc	_	_
2	they	they	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Number=Plur|Person=3|PronType=Prs	3	nsubj	_	_
3	crept	creep	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Plur|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	0	root	_	_
4	steadily	steadily	ADV	RB	_	3	advmod	_	_
5	along	along	ADV	RB	_	3	advmod	_	_
6	till	till	ADP	IN	_	8	case	_	_
7	at	at	ADP	IN	_	8	case	_	_
8	length	length	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	3	obl	_	_
9	they	they	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Number=Plur|Person=3|PronType=Prs	10	nsubj	_	_
10	reached	reach	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Plur|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	8	acl:relcl	_	_
11	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	12	det	_	_
12	mouth	mouth	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	10	obj	_	_
13	of	of	ADP	IN	_	15	case	_	_
14	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	15	det	_	_
15	valley	valley	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	12	nmod	_	_
16	where	where	ADV	WRB	PronType=Rel	26	advmod	_	_
17	a	a	DET	DT	Definite=Ind|PronType=Art	18	det	_	_
18	ram	ram	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	26	nsubj	_	SpaceAfter=No
19	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	21	punct	_	_
20	a	a	DET	DT	Definite=Ind|PronType=Art	21	det	_	_
21	sheep	sheep	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	18	appos	_	_
22	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	24	cc	_	_
23	a	a	DET	DT	Definite=Ind|PronType=Art	24	det	_	_
24	lamb	lamb	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	18	conj	_	_
25	were	be	AUX	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Plur|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	26	aux	_	_
26	feeding	feed	VERB	VBG	Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Part	15	acl	_	_
27	on	on	ADP	IN	_	30	case	_	_
28	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	30	det	_	_
29	rich	rich	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	30	amod	_	_
30	grass	grass	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	26	obl	_	SpaceAfter=No
31	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	32	punct	_	_
32	unconscious	unconscious	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	30	conj	_	_
33	of	of	ADP	IN	_	35	case	_	_
34	their	their	PRON	PRP$	Case=Gen|Number=Plur|Person=3|Poss=Yes|PronType=Prs	35	nmod:poss	_	_
35	danger	danger	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	32	nmod	_	SpaceAfter=No
36	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	3	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

<!-- .fr -->
| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **creep** | past | legs *= leg* |  |  |  | till length | along, steadily *property* | vn run-51.3.2 «NP V»: agent=Theme |
| 2 | **reach** | past | legs *= leg* | the mouth of the valley |  |  |  |  | vn body\_motion-49.2-1-1 «NP V NP ADV»: agent=Agent mouth=Theme |
| 3 | **feed** | past · progressive | a ram and a lamb |  |  |  |  | on the rich grass and unconscious of ram's danger | vn gorge-39.6 «NP V PP.patient»: agent=Agent on grass=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 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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