---
title: But just as he was about to plunge his nose in he saw two brown eyes… — The Orange Fairy Book · tree and pragmatics
description: But just as he was about to plunge his nose in he saw two brown eyes calmly looking at him. Who acts: jackal, two brown eyes. A sentence of «The Orange Fairy Book» by Andrew Lang, Opening, part 19, with its dependency tree and the pragmatics of every clause.
---

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# The Orange Fairy Book, Opening, part 19, sentence 81

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But just as he was about to plunge his nose in he saw two brown eyes calmly looking at him.

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**Who acts:** jackal, two brown eyes · **What happens:** be, plunge, see, look · **To what, where:** nose, two brown eyes

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This is a sentence of «The Orange Fairy Book» by Andrew Lang, Opening, part 19. The page gives its syntax tree — a dependency tree in the style of Universal Dependencies — and its pragmatics clause by clause: who acts (jackal, two brown eyes), 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:pg3027:19:81
# text = But just as he was about to plunge his nose in he saw two brown eyes calmly looking at him.
1	But	but	CCONJ	CC	_	6	cc	_	_
2	just	just	ADV	RB	_	6	advmod	_	_
3	as	as	SCONJ	IN	_	6	mark	_	_
4	he	he	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	6	nsubj	_	_
5	was	be	AUX	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	6	cop	_	_
6	about	about	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	0	root	_	_
7	to	to	PART	TO	_	8	mark	_	_
8	plunge	plunge	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	6	xcomp	_	_
9	his	his	PRON	PRP$	Case=Gen|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|Poss=Yes|PronType=Prs	10	nmod:poss	_	_
10	nose	nose	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	8	obj	_	_
11	in	in	SCONJ	IN	_	13	mark	_	_
12	he	he	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	13	nsubj	_	_
13	saw	see	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	8	advcl	_	_
14	two	two	NUM	CD	NumForm=Word|NumType=Card	16	nummod	_	_
15	brown	brown	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	16	amod	_	_
16	eyes	eye	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	13	obj	_	_
17	calmly	calmly	ADV	RB	_	16	advmod	_	_
18	looking	look	VERB	VBG	VerbForm=Ger	13	xcomp	_	_
19	at	at	ADP	IN	_	20	case	_	_
20	him	he	PRON	PRP	Case=Acc|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	18	obl	_	SpaceAfter=No
21	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	6	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

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| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **is** | past | jackal |  |  |  |  | about *property* | tree rules |
| 2 | **plunge** | to-infinitive | jackal *not said here* | jackal's nose |  |  |  |  | vn meander-47.7-1 «PP.location V NP»: agent=Location nose=Theme |
| 3 | **see** | past | jackal | two brown eyes |  |  |  |  | tree rules |
| 4 | **look** | gerund | two brown eyes *not said here* |  |  |  |  | at jackal | vn peer-30.3 «NP V PP.theme»: agent=Agent at he=Theme |

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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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