---
title: The animals were frightened, and began to neigh and kick, as if they… — The Orange Fairy Book · tree and pragmatics
description: The animals were frightened, and began to neigh and kick, as if they were fighting together, and the noise became so great that even the eldest Stalo was awakened by it, and that was a thing which had never occurred before. Who acts: animals, noise, that. A sentence of «The Orange Fairy Book» by And
---

<!-- md -->
[Mova](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/) · [this page in HTML](https://mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg3027/36/15/)

<!-- crumbs -->
[home](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/) / [corpora](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/) / [tales](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/) / [The Orange Fairy Book](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg3027/) / [Opening, part 36](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg3027/36/) / 15

# The Orange Fairy Book, Opening, part 36, sentence 15

<!-- .ven lang=en -->
The animals were frightened, and began to neigh and kick, as if they were fighting together, and the noise became so great that even the eldest Stalo was awakened by it, and that was a thing which had never occurred before.

<!-- .vintro -->
**Who acts:** animals, noise, that · **What happens:** frighten, begin, neigh, kick, fight, become · **To what, where:** animals, eldest Stalo, thing

<!-- .vabout -->
This is a sentence of «The Orange Fairy Book» by Andrew Lang, Opening, part 36. The page gives its syntax tree — a dependency tree in the style of Universal Dependencies — and its pragmatics clause by clause: who acts (animals, noise, that), what happens, when and where, as Mova's frames read it from the tree.

<!-- .note-en -->
**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:pg3027:36:15
# text = The animals were frightened, and began to neigh and kick, as if they were fighting together, and the noise became so great that even the eldest Stalo was awakened by it, and that was a thing which had never occurred before.
1	The	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	2	det	_	_
2	animals	animal	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	4	nsubj:pass	_	_
3	were	be	AUX	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Plur|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	4	aux:pass	_	_
4	frightened	frighten	VERB	VBN	Tense=Past|VerbForm=Part|Voice=Pass	0	root	_	SpaceAfter=No
5	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	7	punct	_	_
6	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	7	cc	_	_
7	began	begin	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	4	conj	_	_
8	to	to	PART	TO	_	9	mark	_	_
9	neigh	neigh	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	7	xcomp	_	_
10	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	11	cc	_	_
11	kick	kick	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	9	conj	_	SpaceAfter=No
12	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	17	punct	_	_
13	as	as	SCONJ	IN	_	17	mark	_	_
14	if	if	SCONJ	IN	_	17	mark	_	_
15	they	they	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Number=Plur|Person=3|PronType=Prs	17	nsubj	_	_
16	were	be	AUX	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Plur|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	17	aux	_	_
17	fighting	fight	VERB	VBG	Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Part	11	conj	_	_
18	together	together	ADV	RB	_	17	advmod	_	SpaceAfter=No
19	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	23	punct	_	_
20	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	23	cc	_	_
21	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	22	det	_	_
22	noise	noise	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	23	nsubj	_	_
23	became	become	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	4	conj	_	_
24	so	so	ADV	RB	_	25	advmod	_	_
25	great	great	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	23	xcomp	_	_
26	that	that	SCONJ	IN	_	32	mark	_	_
27	even	even	ADV	RB	_	30	advmod	_	_
28	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	30	det	_	_
29	eldest	eld	ADJ	JJS	Degree=Sup	30	amod	_	_
30	Stalo	Stalo	PROPN	NNP	Number=Sing	32	nsubj:pass	_	_
31	was	be	AUX	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	32	aux:pass	_	_
32	awakened	awaken	VERB	VBN	Tense=Past|VerbForm=Part|Voice=Pass	25	advcl	_	_
33	by	by	ADP	IN	_	34	case	_	_
34	it	it	PRON	PRP	Case=Acc|Gender=Neut|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	32	obl	_	SpaceAfter=No
35	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	40	punct	_	_
36	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	40	cc	_	_
37	that	that	PRON	DT	Number=Sing|PronType=Dem	40	nsubj	_	_
38	was	be	AUX	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	40	cop	_	_
39	a	a	DET	DT	Definite=Ind|PronType=Art	40	det	_	_
40	thing	thing	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	23	xcomp	_	_
41	which	which	PRON	WDT	PronType=Rel	44	nsubj:pass	_	_
42	had	have	AUX	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	44	aux	_	_
43	never	never	ADV	RB	PronType=Neg	44	advmod	_	_
44	occurred	occur	VERB	VBN	Tense=Past|VerbForm=Part|Voice=Pass	40	acl:relcl	_	_
45	before	before	ADV	RB	_	44	advmod	_	SpaceAfter=No
46	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	4	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

<!-- .fr -->
| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **frighten** | past · passive |  | the animals |  |  |  |  | vn amuse-31.1 «NP V NP»: subject=Experiencer |
| 2 | **begin** | past |  |  |  |  |  |  | vn begin-55.1-1-1 «NP V S\_INF»: agent=Agent clause=Eventuality |
| 3 | **neigh** | to-infinitive |  |  |  |  |  |  | vn animal\_sounds-38 «NP V»: agent=Agent |
| 4 | **kick** | infinitive |  |  |  |  |  |  | vn split-23.2 «NP V apart»: agent=Patient |
| 5 | **fight** *a condition, not said to happen* | past · progressive | animals *= animal* |  |  |  |  | together *property* | vn battle-36.4-1 «NP V»: agent=Agent |
| 6 | **become** | past | the noise |  |  |  |  | great *property* | vn become-109.1-1-1 «NP V PP.attribute»: agent=Patient |
| 7 | **awaken** | past · passive |  | the eldest Stalo |  |  |  | by noise | vn appear-48.1.1 «PP.location V NP»: subject=Theme |
| 8 | **is a** | past | that | a thing |  |  |  |  | tree rules |
| 9 | **not** **occur** | past · perfect · passive |  | a thing |  |  |  | before *property* | 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.

<!-- div src -->

**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.

<!-- /div -->

<!-- pn -->
- ← previous: [sentence 14](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg3027/36/14/)
- next →: [sentence 16](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg3027/36/16/)
- ↑ back to [Opening, part 36](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg3027/36/)