---
title: Before he could pick himself up the bear had quietly broken his neck… — The Brown Fairy Book · tree and pragmatics
description: Before he could pick himself up the bear had quietly broken his neck, and, hiding the body under the snow, sat down to see if anyone else would pass that way. Who acts: chief, anyone. A sentence of «The Brown Fairy Book» by Andrew Lang, The Brown Fairy Book, part 14, with its dependency tree and the
---

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# The Brown Fairy Book, The Brown Fairy Book, part 14, sentence 91

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Before he could pick himself up the bear had quietly broken his neck, and, hiding the body under the snow, sat down to see if anyone else would pass that way.

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**Who acts:** chief, anyone · **What happens:** pick up, break, hide, sit down, see, pass · **To what, where:** chief, bear, body, snow, way

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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 (chief, anyone), 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:pg3282:14:91
# text = Before he could pick himself up the bear had quietly broken his neck, and, hiding the body under the snow, sat down to see if anyone else would pass that way.
1	Before	before	SCONJ	IN	_	4	mark	_	_
2	he	he	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	4	nsubj	_	_
3	could	could	AUX	MD	VerbForm=Fin	4	aux	_	_
4	pick	pick	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	11	advcl	_	_
5	himself	himself	PRON	PRP	Case=Acc|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs|Reflex=Yes	4	obj	_	_
6	up	up	ADP	RP	_	4	compound:prt	_	_
7	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	8	det	_	_
8	bear	bear	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	11	nsubj:pass	_	_
9	had	have	AUX	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	11	aux	_	_
10	quietly	quietly	ADV	RB	_	11	advmod	_	_
11	broken	break	VERB	VBN	Tense=Past|VerbForm=Part|Voice=Pass	0	root	_	_
12	his	his	PRON	PRP$	Case=Gen|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|Poss=Yes|PronType=Prs	13	nmod:poss	_	_
13	neck	neck	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	11	obj	_	SpaceAfter=No
14	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	24	punct	_	_
15	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	24	cc	_	SpaceAfter=No
16	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	15	punct	_	_
17	hiding	hide	VERB	VBG	Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Part	24	advcl	_	_
18	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	19	det	_	_
19	body	body	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	17	obj	_	_
20	under	under	ADP	IN	_	22	case	_	_
21	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	22	det	_	_
22	snow	snow	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	17	obl	_	SpaceAfter=No
23	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	17	punct	_	_
24	sat	sit	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	11	parataxis	_	_
25	down	down	ADV	RB	_	24	advmod	_	_
26	to	to	PART	TO	_	27	mark	_	_
27	see	see	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	24	advcl	_	_
28	if	if	SCONJ	IN	_	32	mark	_	_
29	anyone	anyone	PRON	NN	Number=Sing|PronType=Ind	32	nsubj	_	_
30	else	else	ADV	RB	_	29	advmod	_	_
31	would	would	AUX	MD	VerbForm=Fin	32	aux	_	_
32	pass	pass	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	27	advcl	_	_
33	that	that	DET	DT	Number=Sing|PronType=Dem	34	det	_	_
34	way	way	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	32	obj	_	SpaceAfter=No
35	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	11	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

<!-- .fr -->
| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **pick up** | could | chief | chief |  |  |  |  | vn discover-84-1 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent himself=Topic |
| 2 | **break** | past · perfect · passive |  | the bear |  |  |  | quietly *property* | vn break-45.1 «NP V NP ADJ»: subject=Patient neck=Result |
| 3 | **hide** | gerund |  | the body |  | the snow |  |  | vn concealment-16-1 «NP V NP PP.location»: agent=Agent body=Patient under snow=Location |
| 4 | **sit down** | past |  |  |  |  |  | down *property* | vn assuming\_position-50 «NP V»: agent=Agent |
| 5 | **see** | to-infinitive |  |  |  |  |  |  | vn comprehend-87.2-1-1 «NP V»: agent=Experiencer |
| 6 | **pass** *a condition, not said to happen* | would | anyone | that way |  |  |  |  | vn escape-51.1-1-3 «NP V NP»: agent=Theme way=Trajectory |

<!-- .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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