---
title: The air was warm and damp, and the snow soft and slushy, and the eld… — The Brown Fairy Book · tree and pragmatics
description: The air was warm and damp, and the snow soft and slushy, and the elder brother’s bowstring hung loose, while the bow of the younger caught in a tree and snapped in half. Who acts: air, snow, bowstring. A sentence of «The Brown Fairy Book» by Andrew Lang, The Brown Fairy Book, part 14, with its depen
---

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# The Brown Fairy Book, The Brown Fairy Book, part 14, sentence 69

<!-- .ven lang=en -->
The air was warm and damp, and the snow soft and slushy, and the elder brother’s bowstring hung loose, while the bow of the younger caught in a tree and snapped in half.

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**Who acts:** air, snow, bowstring · **What happens:** be, hang, catch, snap · **To what, where:** bow, tree, half

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This is a sentence of «The Brown Fairy Book» by Andrew Lang, The Brown Fairy Book, part 14. The page gives its syntax tree — a dependency tree in the style of Universal Dependencies — and its pragmatics clause by clause: who acts (air, snow, bowstring), what happens, when and where, as Mova's frames read it from the tree.

<!-- .note-en -->
**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:pg3282:14:69
# text = The air was warm and damp, and the snow soft and slushy, and the elder brother’s bowstring hung loose, while the bow of the younger caught in a tree and snapped in half.
1	The	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	2	det	_	_
2	air	air	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	4	nsubj	_	_
3	was	be	AUX	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	4	cop	_	_
4	warm	warm	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	0	root	_	_
5	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	6	cc	_	_
6	damp	damp	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	4	conj	_	SpaceAfter=No
7	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	11	punct	_	_
8	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	11	cc	_	_
9	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	10	det	_	_
10	snow	snow	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	11	nsubj	_	_
11	soft	soft	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	4	conj	_	_
12	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	13	cc	_	_
13	slushy	slushy	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	11	conj	_	SpaceAfter=No
14	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	21	punct	_	_
15	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	21	cc	_	_
16	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	18	det	_	_
17	elder	elder	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	18	amod	_	_
18	brother	brother	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	20	nmod:poss	_	SpaceAfter=No
19	’s	's	PART	POS	_	18	case	_	_
20	bowstring	bowstring	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	21	nsubj	_	_
21	hung	hang	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	4	parataxis	_	_
22	loose	loose	ADV	RB	_	21	advmod	_	SpaceAfter=No
23	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	26	punct	_	_
24	while	while	SCONJ	IN	_	26	mark	_	_
25	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	26	det	_	_
26	bow	bow	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	21	obl	_	_
27	of	of	ADP	IN	_	29	case	_	_
28	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	29	det	_	_
29	younger	young	ADJ	JJR	Degree=Cmp	26	nmod	_	_
30	caught	catch	VERB	VBN	Tense=Past|VerbForm=Part|Voice=Pass	29	conj	_	_
31	in	in	ADP	IN	_	33	case	_	_
32	a	a	DET	DT	Definite=Ind|PronType=Art	33	det	_	_
33	tree	tree	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	30	obl	_	_
34	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	35	cc	_	_
35	snapped	snap	VERB	VBN	Tense=Past|VerbForm=Part|Voice=Pass	30	conj	_	_
36	in	in	ADP	IN	_	37	case	_	_
37	half	half	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing|NumForm=Word|NumType=Frac	35	obl	_	SpaceAfter=No
38	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	4	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

<!-- .fr -->
| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **is** | past | the air |  |  |  |  | warm *property* | tree rules |
| 2 | **be** |  | the air *not said here* |  |  |  |  |  | tree rules |
| 3 | **be** |  | the snow |  |  |  |  |  | tree rules |
| 4 | **hang** | past | the elder brother's bowstring | the bow of the younger |  |  |  | loose *property* | vn assuming\_position-50 «NP V»: agent=Agent |
| 5 | **catch** | participle | the elder brother's bowstring *not said here* |  |  | a tree |  |  | vn get-13.5.1 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent |
| 6 | **snap** | participle | the elder brother's bowstring *not said here* |  |  | half |  |  | vn sound\_emission-43.2 «NP V PP.location»: agent=Theme in half=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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