---
title: And, stooping over a spring of water, he dipped a handful of moss in… — The Brown Fairy Book · tree and pragmatics
description: And, stooping over a spring of water, he dipped a handful of moss in it and rubbed it over the arms and legs of the boys. Who acts: head. A sentence of «The Brown Fairy Book» by Andrew Lang, The Brown Fairy Book, part 14, with its dependency tree and the pragmatics of every clause.
---

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# The Brown Fairy Book, The Brown Fairy Book, part 14, sentence 86

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And, stooping over a spring of water, he dipped a handful of moss in it and rubbed it over the arms and legs of the boys.

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**Who acts:** head · **What happens:** stoop, dip, rub · **To what, where:** handful, moss, arms

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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 (head), 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:pg3282:14:86
# text = And, stooping over a spring of water, he dipped a handful of moss in it and rubbed it over the arms and legs of the boys.
1	And	and	CCONJ	CC	_	11	cc	_	SpaceAfter=No
2	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	3	punct	_	_
3	stooping	stoop	VERB	VBG	VerbForm=Ger	11	ccomp	_	_
4	over	over	ADP	IN	_	6	case	_	_
5	a	a	DET	DT	Definite=Ind|PronType=Art	6	det	_	_
6	spring	spring	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	3	obl	_	_
7	of	of	ADP	IN	_	8	case	_	_
8	water	water	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	6	nmod	_	SpaceAfter=No
9	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	3	punct	_	_
10	he	he	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	11	nsubj	_	_
11	dipped	dip	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	0	root	_	_
12	a	a	DET	DT	Definite=Ind|PronType=Art	13	det	_	_
13	handful	handful	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	11	obj	_	_
14	of	of	ADP	IN	_	15	case	_	_
15	moss	moss	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	13	nmod	_	_
16	in	in	ADP	IN	_	17	case	_	_
17	it	it	PRON	PRP	Case=Acc|Gender=Neut|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	11	obl	_	_
18	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	19	cc	_	_
19	rubbed	rub	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	11	conj	_	_
20	it	it	PRON	PRP	Case=Acc|Gender=Neut|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	19	obj	_	_
21	over	over	ADP	IN	_	23	case	_	_
22	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	23	det	_	_
23	arms	arm	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	19	obl	_	_
24	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	25	cc	_	_
25	legs	leg	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	23	conj	_	_
26	of	of	ADP	IN	_	28	case	_	_
27	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	28	det	_	_
28	boys	boy	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	25	nmod	_	SpaceAfter=No
29	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	11	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

<!-- .fr -->
| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **stoop** | gerund | head *not said here* |  |  |  | spring |  | vn assuming\_position-50 «NP V»: agent=Agent |
| 2 | **dip** | past | head | a handful of moss |  | moss |  |  | tree rules |
| 3 | **rub** | past | head *not said here* | handful |  | the arms and legs of the boys |  |  | vn spray-9.7-1 «NP V NP PP.destination»: agent=Agent it=Theme over arm=Destination |

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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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