---
title: As he ceased speaking he touched one of the cows on her forehead, an… — The Orange Fairy Book · tree and pragmatics
description: As he ceased speaking he touched one of the cows on her forehead, and she stepped along the path, with the two others one on each side. Who acts: wisdom, Gorla. A sentence of «The Orange Fairy Book» by Andrew Lang, Opening, part 30, with its dependency tree and the pragmatics of every clause.
---

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# The Orange Fairy Book, Opening, part 30, sentence 16

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As he ceased speaking he touched one of the cows on her forehead, and she stepped along the path, with the two others one on each side.

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**Who acts:** wisdom, Gorla · **What happens:** cease, speak, touch, step · **To what, where:** one, path · **Speech:** someone speaks here

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This is a sentence of «The Orange Fairy Book» by Andrew Lang, Opening, part 30. The page gives its syntax tree — a dependency tree in the style of Universal Dependencies — and its pragmatics clause by clause: who acts (wisdom, Gorla), 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:pg3027:30:16
# text = As he ceased speaking he touched one of the cows on her forehead, and she stepped along the path, with the two others one on each side.
1	As	as	SCONJ	IN	_	3	mark	_	_
2	he	he	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	3	nsubj	_	_
3	ceased	cease	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	0	root	_	_
4	speaking	speak	VERB	VBG	VerbForm=Ger	3	xcomp	_	_
5	he	he	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	6	nsubj	_	_
6	touched	touch	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	4	ccomp	_	_
7	one	one	NUM	CD	NumForm=Word|NumType=Card	6	obj	_	_
8	of	of	ADP	IN	_	10	case	_	_
9	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	10	det	_	_
10	cows	cow	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	7	nmod	_	_
11	on	on	ADP	IN	_	13	case	_	_
12	her	her	PRON	PRP$	Case=Gen|Gender=Fem|Number=Sing|Person=3|Poss=Yes|PronType=Prs	13	nmod:poss	_	_
13	forehead	forehead	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	10	nmod	_	SpaceAfter=No
14	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	17	punct	_	_
15	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	17	cc	_	_
16	she	she	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Gender=Fem|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	17	nsubj	_	_
17	stepped	step	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	3	conj	_	_
18	along	along	ADP	IN	_	20	case	_	_
19	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	20	det	_	_
20	path	path	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	17	obl	_	SpaceAfter=No
21	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	25	punct	_	_
22	with	with	ADP	IN	_	25	case	_	_
23	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	25	det	_	_
24	two	two	NUM	CD	NumForm=Word|NumType=Card	25	nummod	_	_
25	others	other	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	17	obl	_	_
26	one	one	NUM	CD	NumForm=Word|NumType=Card	25	nmod	_	_
27	on	on	ADP	IN	_	29	case	_	_
28	each	each	DET	DT	PronType=Tot	29	det	_	_
29	side	side	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	26	nmod	_	SpaceAfter=No
30	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	3	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

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| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **cease** | past | wisdom |  |  |  |  |  | vn stop-55.4-1-1 «NP V S\_ING»: agent=Affector clause=Eventuality |
| 2 | **speak** *speech: other* | gerund | wisdom *not said here* |  |  |  |  |  | tree rules |
| 3 | **touch** | past | wisdom | one of the cows on Gorla's forehead |  |  |  |  | vn contiguous\_location-47.8-1 «NP V NP»: agent=Theme one=Co-Theme |
| 4 | **step** | past | Gorla |  |  | the path |  | with the two others  one on each side | vn run-51.3.2 «NP V PP.location»: agent=Theme along path=Trajectory |

<!-- .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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