---
title: The robbers were lying all ready, expecting every moment to see thei… — The Brown Fairy Book · tree and pragmatics
description: The robbers were lying all ready, expecting every moment to see their victims coming round the corner a few yards away, when a shower of huge stones fell on their heads, killing half the band. Who acts: robbers, victims, shower. A sentence of «The Brown Fairy Book» by Andrew Lang, The Brown Fairy Bo
---

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# The Brown Fairy Book, The Brown Fairy Book, part 12, sentence 98

<!-- .ven lang=en -->
The robbers were lying all ready, expecting every moment to see their victims coming round the corner a few yards away, when a shower of huge stones fell on their heads, killing half the band.

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**Who acts:** robbers, victims, shower · **What happens:** lie, expect, see, come, fall, kill · **To what, where:** victims, corner, heads, band

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This is a sentence of «The Brown Fairy Book» by Andrew Lang, The Brown Fairy Book, part 12. The page gives its syntax tree — a dependency tree in the style of Universal Dependencies — and its pragmatics clause by clause: who acts (robbers, victims, shower), 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:pg3282:12:98
# text = The robbers were lying all ready, expecting every moment to see their victims coming round the corner a few yards away, when a shower of huge stones fell on their heads, killing half the band.
1	The	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	2	det	_	_
2	robbers	robber	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	4	nsubj	_	_
3	were	be	AUX	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Plur|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	4	aux	_	_
4	lying	lie	VERB	VBG	Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Part	0	root	_	_
5	all	all	DET	DT	PronType=Tot	6	advmod	_	_
6	ready	ready	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	4	xcomp	_	SpaceAfter=No
7	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	8	punct	_	_
8	expecting	expect	VERB	VBG	Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Part	4	conj	_	_
9	every	every	DET	DT	PronType=Tot	10	det	_	_
10	moment	moment	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	8	obj	_	_
11	to	to	PART	TO	_	12	mark	_	_
12	see	see	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	8	advcl	_	_
13	their	their	PRON	PRP$	Case=Gen|Number=Plur|Person=3|Poss=Yes|PronType=Prs	14	nmod:poss	_	_
14	victims	victim	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	12	obj	_	_
15	coming	come	VERB	VBG	VerbForm=Ger	12	xcomp	_	_
16	round	round	ADP	IN	_	18	case	_	_
17	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	18	det	_	_
18	corner	corner	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	15	obl	_	_
19	a	a	DET	DT	Definite=Ind|PronType=Art	21	det	_	_
20	few	few	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	21	amod	_	_
21	yards	yard	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	22	obl:unmarked	_	_
22	away	away	ADV	RB	_	18	advmod	_	SpaceAfter=No
23	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	30	punct	_	_
24	when	when	ADV	WRB	PronType=Int	30	advmod	_	_
25	a	a	DET	DT	Definite=Ind|PronType=Art	26	det	_	_
26	shower	shower	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	30	nsubj	_	_
27	of	of	ADP	IN	_	29	case	_	_
28	huge	huge	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	29	amod	_	_
29	stones	stone	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	26	nmod	_	_
30	fell	fall	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	4	conj	_	_
31	on	on	ADP	IN	_	33	case	_	_
32	their	their	PRON	PRP$	Case=Gen|Number=Plur|Person=3|Poss=Yes|PronType=Prs	33	nmod:poss	_	_
33	heads	head	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	30	obl	_	SpaceAfter=No
34	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	35	punct	_	_
35	killing	kill	VERB	VBG	Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Part	30	advcl	_	_
36	half	half	DET	PDT	NumForm=Word|NumType=Frac|PronType=Ind	38	det:predet	_	_
37	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	38	det	_	_
38	band	band	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	35	obj	_	SpaceAfter=No
39	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	4	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

<!-- .fr -->
| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **lie** | past · progressive | the robbers |  |  |  |  | ready *property* | vn assuming\_position-50 «NP V»: agent=Agent |
| 2 | **expect** | gerund | the robbers *not said here* |  |  |  | moment |  | vn conjecture-29.5-1 «NP V that S»: agent=Agent |
| 3 | **see** | to-infinitive | the robbers *not said here* | robbers's victims |  |  |  |  | tree rules |
| 4 | **come** | gerund | robbers's victims *not said here* |  |  | the corner |  |  | vn escape-51.1-1 «NP V PP.initial\_location»: agent=Theme round corner=Initial\_Location |
| 5 | **fall** | past | a shower of huge stones |  |  | stones's heads |  |  | vn occur-48.3 «NP V PP»: agent=Theme on head=Location |
| 6 | **kill** | gerund | a shower of huge stones *not said here* | half band |  |  |  |  | vn remove-10.1 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent band=Theme |

<!-- .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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