---
title: Unluckily some children who were playing about caught sight of him,… — The Brown Fairy Book · tree and pragmatics
description: Unluckily some children who were playing about caught sight of him, and one of them, stealing softly up behind him, laid tight hold of his ears. Who acts: children, one. A sentence of «The Brown Fairy Book» by Andrew Lang, The Brown Fairy Book, part 11, with its dependency tree and the pragmatics of
---

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# The Brown Fairy Book, The Brown Fairy Book, part 11, sentence 68

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Unluckily some children who were playing about caught sight of him, and one of them, stealing softly up behind him, laid tight hold of his ears.

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**Who acts:** children, one · **What happens:** play, catch, steal, lay, sight, hold · **To what, where:** tight hold, bend, ears

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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 (children, one), 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:pg3282:11:68
# text = Unluckily some children who were playing about caught sight of him, and one of them, stealing softly up behind him, laid tight hold of his ears.
1	Unluckily	unluckily	ADV	RB	_	6	advmod	_	_
2	some	some	DET	DT	PronType=Ind	3	det	_	_
3	children	child	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	6	nsubj	_	_
4	who	who	PRON	WP	PronType=Rel	6	nsubj	_	_
5	were	be	AUX	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Plur|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	6	aux	_	_
6	playing	play	VERB	VBG	Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Part	0	root	_	_
7	about	about	ADP	IN	_	9	case	_	_
8	caught	catch	VERB	VBN	Tense=Past|VerbForm=Part|Voice=Pass	9	amod	_	_
9	sight	sight	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	6	obl	_	_
10	of	of	ADP	IN	_	11	case	_	_
11	him	he	PRON	PRP	Case=Acc|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	9	nmod	_	SpaceAfter=No
12	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	18	punct	_	_
13	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	18	cc	_	_
14	one	one	NUM	CD	NumForm=Word|NumType=Card	18	nsubj	_	_
15	of	of	ADP	IN	_	16	case	_	_
16	them	they	PRON	PRP	Case=Acc|Number=Plur|Person=3|PronType=Prs	14	nmod	_	SpaceAfter=No
17	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	18	punct	_	_
18	stealing	steal	VERB	VBG	Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Part	6	parataxis	_	_
19	softly	softly	ADV	RB	_	20	advmod	_	_
20	up	up	ADV	RB	_	18	advmod	_	_
21	behind	behind	ADP	IN	_	22	case	_	_
22	him	he	PRON	PRP	Case=Acc|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	18	obl	_	SpaceAfter=No
23	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	24	punct	_	_
24	laid	lay	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	18	conj	_	_
25	tight	tight	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	26	amod	_	_
26	hold	hold	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	24	obj	_	_
27	of	of	ADP	IN	_	29	case	_	_
28	his	his	PRON	PRP$	Case=Gen|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|Poss=Yes|PronType=Prs	29	nmod:poss	_	_
29	ears	ear	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	26	nmod	_	SpaceAfter=No
30	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	6	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

<!-- .fr -->
| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **play** | past · progressive | some children |  |  |  |  | about caught sight of bend; unluckily *property* | vn performance-26.7-1 «NP V»: agent=Agent |
| 2 | **catch** | participle |  |  |  |  |  |  | vn get-13.5.1 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent |
| 3 | **steal** | gerund | one of children |  |  |  |  | behind bend | vn appear-48.1.1 «NP V PP.location»: agent=Theme behind he=Location |
| 4 | **lay** | past | one of children *not said here* | tight hold of bend's ears |  |  |  |  | vn create-26.4 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent hold=Result |
| 5 | **sight** |  |  | bend |  |  |  |  | nom sight «cognition transitive»: of=patient |
| 6 | **hold** |  |  | bend's ears |  |  |  |  | nom hold «act transitive»: of=patient |

<!-- .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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