---
title: Quite by accident he caught sight of her white skin shining through… — The Orange Fairy Book · tree and pragmatics
description: Quite by accident he caught sight of her white skin shining through the bushes, and at the same instant she heard a twig snap under his feet. Who acts: doe, white skin, Eglantine. A sentence of «The Orange Fairy Book» by Andrew Lang, Opening, part 24, with its dependency tree and the pragmatics of e
---

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# The Orange Fairy Book, Opening, part 24, sentence 61

<!-- .ven lang=en -->
Quite by accident he caught sight of her white skin shining through the bushes, and at the same instant she heard a twig snap under his feet.

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**Who acts:** doe, white skin, Eglantine · **What happens:** catch, shine, hear, sight · **To what, where:** sight, bushes, twig snap, same instant, white skin

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This is a sentence of «The Orange Fairy Book» by Andrew Lang, Opening, part 24. The page gives its syntax tree — a dependency tree in the style of Universal Dependencies — and its pragmatics clause by clause: who acts (doe, white skin, Eglantine), 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:pg3027:24:61
# text = Quite by accident he caught sight of her white skin shining through the bushes, and at the same instant she heard a twig snap under his feet.
1	Quite	quite	ADV	RB	_	5	advmod	_	_
2	by	by	ADP	IN	_	3	case	_	_
3	accident	accident	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	5	obl	_	_
4	he	he	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	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	_	10	case	_	_
8	her	her	PRON	PRP$	Case=Gen|Gender=Fem|Number=Sing|Person=3|Poss=Yes|PronType=Prs	10	nmod:poss	_	_
9	white	white	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	10	amod	_	_
10	skin	skin	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	6	nmod	_	_
11	shining	shine	VERB	VBG	VerbForm=Ger	10	acl	_	_
12	through	through	ADP	IN	_	14	case	_	_
13	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	14	det	_	_
14	bushes	bush	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	11	obl	_	SpaceAfter=No
15	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	22	punct	_	_
16	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	22	cc	_	_
17	at	at	ADP	IN	_	20	case	_	_
18	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	20	det	_	_
19	same	same	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	20	amod	_	_
20	instant	instant	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	22	obl	_	_
21	she	she	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Gender=Fem|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	22	nsubj	_	_
22	heard	hear	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	5	conj	_	_
23	a	a	DET	DT	Definite=Ind|PronType=Art	25	det	_	_
24	twig	twig	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	25	compound	_	_
25	snap	snap	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	22	obj	_	_
26	under	under	ADP	IN	_	28	case	_	_
27	his	his	PRON	PRP$	Case=Gen|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|Poss=Yes|PronType=Prs	28	nmod:poss	_	_
28	feet	foot	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	22	obl	_	SpaceAfter=No
29	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	5	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

<!-- .fr -->
| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **catch** | past | doe | sight of Eglantine's white skin |  |  |  | by accident | vn get-13.5.1 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent sight=Theme |
| 2 | **shine** | gerund | Eglantine's white skin *not said here* |  |  | the bushes |  |  | vn light\_emission-43.1 «NP V PP.location»: agent=Theme through bush=Location |
| 3 | **hear** | past | Eglantine | a twig snap |  | the same instant |  | under doe's feet | vn see-30.1-1-1 «NP V S»: agent=Experiencer snap=Stimulus |
| 4 | **sight** |  |  | Eglantine's white skin |  |  |  |  | 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 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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