---
title: This sad news spread like lightning through the country, and the peo… — The Orange Fairy Book · tree and pragmatics
description: This sad news spread like lightning through the country, and the people flocked from far and near to bewail the loss of the beast who had been their pride. Who acts: sad news, beast. A sentence of «The Orange Fairy Book» by Andrew Lang, Opening, part 21, with its dependency tree and the pragmatics o
---

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# The Orange Fairy Book, Opening, part 21, sentence 135

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This sad news spread like lightning through the country, and the people flocked from far and near to bewail the loss of the beast who had been their pride.

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**Who acts:** sad news, beast · **What happens:** spread, flock, bewail, be · **To what, where:** sad news, country, loss, pride

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This is a sentence of «The Orange Fairy Book» by Andrew Lang, Opening, part 21. The page gives its syntax tree — a dependency tree in the style of Universal Dependencies — and its pragmatics clause by clause: who acts (sad news, beast), 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:pg3027:21:135
# text = This sad news spread like lightning through the country, and the people flocked from far and near to bewail the loss of the beast who had been their pride.
1	This	this	DET	DT	Number=Sing|PronType=Dem	3	det	_	_
2	sad	sad	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	3	amod	_	_
3	news	news	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	14	nsubj	_	_
4	spread	spread	VERB	VBN	Tense=Past|VerbForm=Part|Voice=Pass	3	acl	_	_
5	like	like	ADP	IN	_	6	case	_	_
6	lightning	lightning	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	4	obl	_	_
7	through	through	ADP	IN	_	9	case	_	_
8	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	9	det	_	_
9	country	country	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	4	obl	_	SpaceAfter=No
10	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	14	punct	_	_
11	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	14	cc	_	_
12	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	13	det	_	_
13	people	people	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	14	nsubj	_	_
14	flocked	flock	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	0	root	_	_
15	from	from	ADP	IN	_	16	case	_	_
16	far	far	ADV	RB	Degree=Pos	14	obl	_	_
17	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	18	cc	_	_
18	near	near	ADV	RB	_	16	conj	_	_
19	to	to	PART	TO	_	20	mark	_	_
20	bewail	bewail	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	14	advcl	_	_
21	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	22	det	_	_
22	loss	loss	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	20	obj	_	_
23	of	of	ADP	IN	_	25	case	_	_
24	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	25	det	_	_
25	beast	beast	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	22	nmod	_	_
26	who	who	PRON	WP	PronType=Rel	30	nsubj	_	_
27	had	have	AUX	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	30	aux	_	_
28	been	be	AUX	VBN	Tense=Past|VerbForm=Part	30	cop	_	_
29	their	their	PRON	PRP$	Case=Gen|Number=Plur|Person=3|Poss=Yes|PronType=Prs	30	nmod:poss	_	_
30	pride	pride	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	25	acl:relcl	_	SpaceAfter=No
31	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	14	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

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| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **spread** | participle |  | this sad news *not said here* |  | the country |  | like lightning | vn appear-48.1.1 «NP V PP.location»: agent=Theme through country=Location |
| 2 | **flock** | past | this sad news |  |  |  |  |  | vn herd-47.5.2 «NP V»: agent=Theme |
| 3 | **bewail** | to-infinitive | this sad news *not said here* | the loss of the beast |  |  |  |  | vn admire-31.2 «NP V NP»: agent=Experiencer loss=Stimulus |
| 4 | **is a** | past · perfect | the beast | people's pride |  |  |  |  | tree rules |

<!-- .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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