---
title: Suddenly--he could not have told why--a nameless fear seized upon hi… — The Orange Fairy Book · tree and pragmatics
description: Suddenly--he could not have told why--a nameless fear seized upon him, and he fled away from the shore as if for his life. Who acts: stumble, nameless fear. A sentence of «The Orange Fairy Book» by Andrew Lang, Opening, part 36, with its dependency tree and the pragmatics of every clause.
---

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# The Orange Fairy Book, Opening, part 36, sentence 90

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Suddenly--he could not have told why--a nameless fear seized upon him, and he fled away from the shore as if for his life.

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**Who acts:** stumble, nameless fear · **What happens:** not tell, seize, flee away · **To what, where:** shore · **Speech:** someone speaks here

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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 (stumble, nameless fear), 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:pg3027:36:90
# text = Suddenly--he could not have told why--a nameless fear seized upon him, and he fled away from the shore as if for his life.
1	Suddenly	suddenly	ADV	RB	_	7	advmod	_	SpaceAfter=No
2	--	--	PUNCT	,	_	1	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
3	he	he	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	7	nsubj	_	_
4	could	could	AUX	MD	VerbForm=Fin	7	aux	_	_
5	not	not	PART	RB	Polarity=Neg	7	advmod	_	_
6	have	have	AUX	VB	VerbForm=Inf	7	aux	_	_
7	told	tell	VERB	VBN	Tense=Past|VerbForm=Part	0	root	_	_
8	why	why	ADV	WRB	PronType=Int	7	advmod	_	SpaceAfter=No
9	--	--	PUNCT	,	_	13	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
10	a	a	DET	DT	Definite=Ind|PronType=Art	12	det	_	_
11	nameless	nameless	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	12	amod	_	_
12	fear	fear	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	13	nsubj	_	_
13	seized	seize	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	7	parataxis	_	_
14	upon	upon	ADP	IN	_	15	case	_	_
15	him	he	PRON	PRP	Case=Acc|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	13	obl	_	SpaceAfter=No
16	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	19	punct	_	_
17	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	19	cc	_	_
18	he	he	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	19	nsubj	_	_
19	fled	flee	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	13	conj	_	_
20	away	away	ADV	RB	_	19	advmod	_	_
21	from	from	ADP	IN	_	23	case	_	_
22	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	23	det	_	_
23	shore	shore	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	19	obl	_	_
24	as	as	ADP	IN	_	28	case	_	_
25	if	if	SCONJ	IN	_	28	mark	_	_
26	for	for	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	life	life	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	19	obl	_	SpaceAfter=No
29	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	7	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

<!-- .fr -->
| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **not** **tell** *speech: assert* | could · perfect | stumble |  |  |  |  | suddenly *property* | vn transfer\_mesg-37.1.1-1-1 «NP V»: agent=Agent |
| 2 | **seize** | past | a nameless fear |  |  |  |  | upon stumble | vn obtain-13.5.2 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent |
| 3 | **flee away** | past | stumble |  |  | the shore |  | as stumble's life; away *property* | vn escape-51.1-1-1 «NP V PP.initial\_location»: agent=Theme from shore=Initial\_Location |

<!-- .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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