---
title: He grasped her as she fell and broke her neck, after which he laid h… — The Brown Fairy Book · tree and pragmatics
description: He grasped her as she fell and broke her neck, after which he laid her in the snow beside her husband, and went back to tell the bear chief. Who acts: bear, trail. 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
---

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# The Brown Fairy Book, The Brown Fairy Book, part 14, sentence 96

<!-- .ven lang=en -->
He grasped her as she fell and broke her neck, after which he laid her in the snow beside her husband, and went back to tell the bear chief.

<!-- .vintro -->
**Who acts:** bear, trail · **What happens:** grasp, fall, break, lay, go back, tell · **To what, where:** trail, neck, snow, bear chief · **Speech:** someone speaks here

<!-- .vabout -->
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 (bear, trail), 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:pg3282:14:96
# text = He grasped her as she fell and broke her neck, after which he laid her in the snow beside her husband, and went back to tell the bear chief.
1	He	he	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	2	nsubj	_	_
2	grasped	grasp	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	0	root	_	_
3	her	she	PRON	PRP	Case=Acc|Gender=Fem|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	2	obj	_	_
4	as	as	SCONJ	IN	_	6	mark	_	_
5	she	she	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Gender=Fem|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	6	nsubj	_	_
6	fell	fall	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	2	advcl	_	_
7	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	8	cc	_	_
8	broke	break	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	6	conj	_	_
9	her	her	PRON	PRP$	Case=Gen|Gender=Fem|Number=Sing|Person=3|Poss=Yes|PronType=Prs	10	nmod:poss	_	_
10	neck	neck	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	8	obj	_	SpaceAfter=No
11	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	15	punct	_	_
12	after	after	ADP	IN	_	13	case	_	_
13	which	which	PRON	WDT	PronType=Rel	15	obl	_	_
14	he	he	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	15	nsubj	_	_
15	laid	lay	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	2	conj	_	_
16	her	she	PRON	PRP	Case=Acc|Gender=Fem|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	15	obj	_	_
17	in	in	ADP	IN	_	19	case	_	_
18	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	19	det	_	_
19	snow	snow	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	15	obl	_	_
20	beside	beside	ADP	IN	_	22	case	_	_
21	her	her	PRON	PRP$	Case=Gen|Gender=Fem|Number=Sing|Person=3|Poss=Yes|PronType=Prs	22	nmod:poss	_	_
22	husband	husband	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	15	obl	_	SpaceAfter=No
23	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	25	punct	_	_
24	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	25	cc	_	_
25	went	go	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	2	conj	_	_
26	back	back	ADV	RB	_	25	advmod	_	_
27	to	to	PART	TO	_	28	mark	_	_
28	tell	tell	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	25	xcomp	_	_
29	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	31	det	_	_
30	bear	bear	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	31	compound	_	_
31	chief	chief	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	28	obj	_	SpaceAfter=No
32	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	2	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

<!-- .fr -->
| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **grasp** | past | bear | trail |  |  |  |  | vn comprehend-87.2-1 «NP V NP»: agent=Experiencer she=Stimulus |
| 2 | **fall** | past | trail |  |  |  |  |  | vn occur-48.3 «NP V»: agent=Theme |
| 3 | **break** | past | trail *not said here* | trail's neck |  |  |  |  | vn hurt-40.8.3-1-1 «NP V NP»: agent=Experiencer neck=Patient |
| 4 | **lay** | past | bear | trail |  | the snow |  | beside trail's husband | vn put\_spatial-9.2 «NP V NP PP.destination»: agent=Agent she=Theme in snow=Destination |
| 5 | **go back** | past | bear *not said here* |  |  |  |  |  | tree rules |
| 6 | **tell** *speech: assert* | to-infinitive | bear *not said here* | the bear chief |  |  |  |  | vn transfer\_mesg-37.1.1-1-1 «NP V NP.recipient»: agent=Agent chief=Recipient |

<!-- .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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