---
title: Then, his pistol being empty, he grasped the barrel with both hands,… — The Brown Fairy Book · tree and pragmatics
description: Then, his pistol being empty, he grasped the barrel with both hands, and stood ready to use it as a club should the Yara approach and closer. Who acts: bullet, club. A sentence of «The Brown Fairy Book» by Andrew Lang, The Brown Fairy Book, part 11, with its dependency tree and the pragmatics of eve
---

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[Mova](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/) · [this page in HTML](https://mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg3282/11/27/)

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# The Brown Fairy Book, The Brown Fairy Book, part 11, sentence 27

<!-- .ven lang=en -->
Then, his pistol being empty, he grasped the barrel with both hands, and stood ready to use it as a club should the Yara approach and closer.

<!-- .vintro -->
**Who acts:** bullet, club · **What happens:** grasp, stand, use, approach · **To what, where:** barrel

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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 (bullet, club), 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:pg3282:11:27
# text = Then, his pistol being empty, he grasped the barrel with both hands, and stood ready to use it as a club should the Yara approach and closer.
1	Then	then	ADV	RB	PronType=Dem	6	advmod	_	SpaceAfter=No
2	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	1	punct	_	_
3	his	his	PRON	PRP$	Case=Gen|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|Poss=Yes|PronType=Prs	4	nmod:poss	_	_
4	pistol	pistol	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	6	nsubj	_	_
5	being	be	AUX	VBG	Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Part	6	aux	_	_
6	empty	empty	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	0	root	_	SpaceAfter=No
7	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	9	punct	_	_
8	he	he	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	9	nsubj	_	_
9	grasped	grasp	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	6	conj	_	_
10	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	11	det	_	_
11	barrel	barrel	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	9	obj	_	_
12	with	with	ADP	IN	_	14	case	_	_
13	both	both	DET	DT	PronType=Tot	14	det	_	_
14	hands	hand	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	9	obl	_	SpaceAfter=No
15	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	17	punct	_	_
16	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	17	cc	_	_
17	stood	stand	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	6	conj	_	_
18	ready	ready	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	17	xcomp	_	_
19	to	to	PART	TO	_	20	mark	_	_
20	use	use	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	17	advcl	_	_
21	it	it	PRON	PRP	Case=Acc|Gender=Neut|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	20	obj	_	_
22	as	as	SCONJ	IN	_	28	mark	_	_
23	a	a	DET	DT	Definite=Ind|PronType=Art	24	det	_	_
24	club	club	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	28	nsubj	_	_
25	should	should	AUX	MD	VerbForm=Fin	28	aux	_	_
26	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	28	det	_	_
27	Yara	Yara	PROPN	NNP	Number=Sing	28	compound	_	_
28	approach	approach	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	20	obl:unmarked	_	_
29	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	30	cc	_	_
30	closer	close	ADJ	JJR	Degree=Cmp	28	conj	_	SpaceAfter=No
31	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	6	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

<!-- .fr -->
| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **grasp** | past | bullet | the barrel |  |  |  | with both hands | vn touch-20-1 «NP V NP PP.instrument»: agent=Agent barrel=Theme with hand=Instrument |
| 2 | **stand** | past |  |  |  |  |  | ready *property* | vn assuming\_position-50 «NP V»: agent=Agent |
| 3 | **use** | to-infinitive |  | barrel |  |  |  |  | vn eat-39.1 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent it=Patient |
| 4 | **approach** | should | a club |  |  |  |  |  | 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.

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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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