---
title: At last the waters parted softly, and floating on the surface he saw… — The Brown Fairy Book · tree and pragmatics
description: At last the waters parted softly, and floating on the surface he saw the beautiful woman whom he had fled from only a few nights before. Who acts: last waters, manner. A sentence of «The Brown Fairy Book» by Andrew Lang, The Brown Fairy Book, part 11, with its dependency tree and the pragmatics of e
---

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# The Brown Fairy Book, The Brown Fairy Book, part 11, sentence 20

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At last the waters parted softly, and floating on the surface he saw the beautiful woman whom he had fled from only a few nights before.

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**Who acts:** last waters, manner · **What happens:** part, float, see, flee · **To what, where:** surface, beautiful woman · **Speech:** someone speaks here

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This is a sentence of «The Brown Fairy Book» by Andrew Lang, The Brown Fairy Book, part 11. The page gives its syntax tree — a dependency tree in the style of Universal Dependencies — and its pragmatics clause by clause: who acts (last waters, manner), 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:pg3282:11:20
# text = At last the waters parted softly, and floating on the surface he saw the beautiful woman whom he had fled from only a few nights before.
1	At	at	ADP	IN	_	2	case	_	_
2	last	last	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	4	amod	_	_
3	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	4	det	_	_
4	waters	water	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	5	nsubj	_	_
5	parted	part	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Plur|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	0	root	_	_
6	softly	softly	ADV	RB	_	5	advmod	_	SpaceAfter=No
7	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	14	punct	_	_
8	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	14	cc	_	_
9	floating	float	VERB	VBG	VerbForm=Ger	14	csubj	_	_
10	on	on	ADP	IN	_	12	case	_	_
11	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	12	det	_	_
12	surface	surface	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	9	obl	_	_
13	he	he	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	14	nsubj	_	_
14	saw	see	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	5	conj	_	_
15	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	17	det	_	_
16	beautiful	beautiful	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	17	amod	_	_
17	woman	woman	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	14	obj	_	_
18	whom	whom	PRON	WP	PronType=Rel	21	obj	_	_
19	he	he	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	21	nsubj	_	_
20	had	have	AUX	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	21	aux	_	_
21	fled	flee	VERB	VBN	Tense=Past|VerbForm=Part	17	acl:relcl	_	_
22	from	from	ADP	IN	_	26	case	_	_
23	only	only	ADV	RB	_	26	advmod	_	_
24	a	a	DET	DT	Definite=Ind|PronType=Art	26	det	_	_
25	few	few	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	26	amod	_	_
26	nights	night	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	21	obl	_	_
27	before	before	ADV	RB	_	26	advmod	_	SpaceAfter=No
28	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	5	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

<!-- .fr -->
| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **part** | past | the last waters |  |  |  |  | softly *property* | vn separate-23.1-1-1 «NP V»: agent=Patient |
| 2 | **float** | gerund |  |  |  | the surface |  |  | vn run-51.3.2-2 «NP V PP.location»: agent=Theme on surface=Trajectory |
| 3 | **see** | past | manner | the beautiful woman |  |  |  |  | vn comprehend-87.2-1-1 «NP V NP»: agent=Experiencer woman=Stimulus |
| 4 | **flee** | past · perfect | manner | the beautiful woman |  |  | night |  | vn escape-51.1-1-1 «NP V NP»: agent=Theme whom=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 Brown Fairy Book» by Andrew Lang, Project Gutenberg book 3282 (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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