---
title: At length their eyes dropped on the thread which lay on the snow, an… — The Orange Fairy Book · tree and pragmatics
description: At length their eyes dropped on the thread which lay on the snow, and they set out to follow it. Who acts: eyes, thread. A sentence of «The Orange Fairy Book» by Andrew Lang, Opening, part 35, with its dependency tree and the pragmatics of every clause.
---

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# The Orange Fairy Book, Opening, part 35, sentence 107

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At length their eyes dropped on the thread which lay on the snow, and they set out to follow it.

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**Who acts:** eyes, thread · **What happens:** drop, lie, set out, follow · **To what, where:** length, snow

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This is a sentence of «The Orange Fairy Book» by Andrew Lang, Opening, part 35. The page gives its syntax tree — a dependency tree in the style of Universal Dependencies — and its pragmatics clause by clause: who acts (eyes, thread), 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:pg3027:35:107
# text = At length their eyes dropped on the thread which lay on the snow, and they set out to follow it.
1	At	at	ADP	IN	_	2	case	_	_
2	length	length	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	5	obl	_	_
3	their	their	PRON	PRP$	Case=Gen|Number=Plur|Person=3|Poss=Yes|PronType=Prs	4	nmod:poss	_	_
4	eyes	eye	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	5	nsubj	_	_
5	dropped	drop	VERB	VBN	Tense=Past|VerbForm=Part	0	root	_	_
6	on	on	ADP	IN	_	8	case	_	_
7	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	8	det	_	_
8	thread	thread	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	5	obl	_	_
9	which	which	PRON	WDT	PronType=Rel	10	nsubj	_	_
10	lay	lie	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	8	acl:relcl	_	_
11	on	on	ADP	IN	_	13	case	_	_
12	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	13	det	_	_
13	snow	snow	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	10	obl	_	SpaceAfter=No
14	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	17	punct	_	_
15	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	17	cc	_	_
16	they	they	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Number=Plur|Person=3|PronType=Prs	17	nsubj	_	_
17	set	set	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Plur|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	5	conj	_	_
18	out	out	ADP	RP	_	17	compound:prt	_	_
19	to	to	PART	TO	_	20	mark	_	_
20	follow	follow	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	17	xcomp	_	_
21	it	it	PRON	PRP	Case=Acc|Gender=Neut|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	20	obj	_	SpaceAfter=No
22	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	5	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

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| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **drop** | participle | sheds's eyes |  |  | length |  | on the thread | vn put\_direction-9.4 «NP V NP PP.initial\_location PP.destination»: agent=Agent at length=Destination on thread=Initial\_Location |
| 2 | **lie** | past | the thread |  |  | the snow |  |  | vn assuming\_position-50 «NP V PP.location»: agent=Agent on snow=Location |
| 3 | **set out** | past | eyes *= eye* |  |  |  |  |  | vn begin-55.1 «NP V S\_INF»: agent=Agent clause=Eventuality |
| 4 | **follow** | to-infinitive | eyes *= eye* *not said here* | snow |  |  |  |  | vn chase-51.6 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent it=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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