---
title: But, frightened though they were, they did not forget to beg the lig… — The Brown Fairy Book · tree and pragmatics
description: But, frightened though they were, they did not forget to beg the lightning to take off the wolverine’s coat and to free his legs, but to be careful not to hurt him. Who acts: wolves, lightning. A sentence of «The Brown Fairy Book» by Andrew Lang, The Brown Fairy Book, part 16, with its dependency tr
---

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# The Brown Fairy Book, The Brown Fairy Book, part 16, sentence 89

<!-- .ven lang=en -->
But, frightened though they were, they did not forget to beg the lightning to take off the wolverine’s coat and to free his legs, but to be careful not to hurt him.

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**Who acts:** wolves, lightning · **What happens:** frighten, not forget, beg, take off, be, not hurt · **To what, where:** lightning, coat, Wolverine

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This is a sentence of «The Brown Fairy Book» by Andrew Lang, The Brown Fairy Book, part 16. The page gives its syntax tree — a dependency tree in the style of Universal Dependencies — and its pragmatics clause by clause: who acts (wolves, lightning), 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:pg3282:16:89
# text = But, frightened though they were, they did not forget to beg the lightning to take off the wolverine’s coat and to free his legs, but to be careful not to hurt him.
1	But	but	CCONJ	CC	_	3	cc	_	SpaceAfter=No
2	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	3	punct	_	_
3	frightened	frighten	VERB	VBN	Tense=Past|VerbForm=Part|Voice=Pass	0	root	_	_
4	though	though	SCONJ	IN	_	11	mark	_	_
5	they	they	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Number=Plur|Person=3|PronType=Prs	11	nsubj	_	_
6	were	be	AUX	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Plur|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	11	aux	_	SpaceAfter=No
7	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	11	punct	_	_
8	they	they	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Number=Plur|Person=3|PronType=Prs	11	nsubj	_	_
9	did	do	AUX	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Plur|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	11	aux	_	_
10	not	not	PART	RB	Polarity=Neg	11	advmod	_	_
11	forget	forget	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	3	ccomp	_	_
12	to	to	PART	TO	_	13	mark	_	_
13	beg	beg	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	11	xcomp	_	_
14	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	15	det	_	_
15	lightning	lightning	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	13	obj	_	_
16	to	to	PART	TO	_	17	mark	_	_
17	take	take	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	13	xcomp	_	_
18	off	off	ADP	RP	_	17	compound:prt	_	_
19	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	20	det	_	_
20	wolverine	wolverine	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	22	nmod:poss	_	SpaceAfter=No
21	’s	's	PART	POS	_	20	case	_	_
22	coat	coat	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	17	obj	_	_
23	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	27	cc	_	_
24	to	to	PART	TO	_	25	mark	_	_
25	free	free	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	27	amod	_	_
26	his	his	PRON	PRP$	Case=Gen|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|Poss=Yes|PronType=Prs	27	nmod:poss	_	_
27	legs	leg	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	17	conj	_	SpaceAfter=No
28	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	32	punct	_	_
29	but	but	CCONJ	CC	_	32	cc	_	_
30	to	to	PART	TO	_	32	mark	_	_
31	be	be	AUX	VB	VerbForm=Inf	32	cop	_	_
32	careful	careful	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	11	parataxis	_	_
33	not	not	PART	RB	Polarity=Neg	35	advmod	_	_
34	to	to	PART	TO	_	35	mark	_	_
35	hurt	hurt	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	32	advcl	_	_
36	him	he	PRON	PRP	Case=Acc|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	35	obj	_	SpaceAfter=No
37	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	3	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

<!-- .fr -->
| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **frighten** | participle |  |  |  |  |  |  | tree rules |
| 2 | **not** **forget** | past · do-support | wolves *= wolf* |  |  |  |  |  | tree rules |
| 3 | **beg** *speech: request* | to-infinitive | wolves *= wolf* *not said here* | the lightning |  |  |  |  | vn beg-58.2-1-1 «NP V NP S\_INF»: agent=Agent lightning=Recipient clause=Topic |
| 4 | **take off** *not said to happen* | to-infinitive | the lightning *not said here* | the wolverine's coat |  |  |  |  | vn remove-10.1 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent coat=Theme |
| 5 | **is** | to-infinitive |  |  |  |  |  | careful *property* | tree rules |
| 6 | **not** **hurt** | to-infinitive |  | Wolverine |  |  |  |  | vn hurt-40.8.3-2 «NP V NP»: agent=Experiencer he=Patient |

<!-- .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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