---
title: At length he reached a soft mossy bank under a tree, and was just ab… — The Brown Fairy Book · tree and pragmatics
description: At length he reached a soft mossy bank under a tree, and was just about to stretch himself out on it, when a fearful roar made him start and tremble all over. Who acts: least, fearful roar. A sentence of «The Brown Fairy Book» by Andrew Lang, The Brown Fairy Book, part 17, with its dependency tree a
---

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# The Brown Fairy Book, The Brown Fairy Book, part 17, sentence 108

<!-- .ven lang=en -->
At length he reached a soft mossy bank under a tree, and was just about to stretch himself out on it, when a fearful roar made him start and tremble all over.

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**Who acts:** least, fearful roar · **What happens:** reach, be, make, start, tremble · **To what, where:** soft mossy bank, length, tree, least

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This is a sentence of «The Brown Fairy Book» by Andrew Lang, The Brown Fairy Book, part 17. The page gives its syntax tree — a dependency tree in the style of Universal Dependencies — and its pragmatics clause by clause: who acts (least, fearful roar), 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:pg3282:17:108
# text = At length he reached a soft mossy bank under a tree, and was just about to stretch himself out on it, when a fearful roar made him start and tremble all over.
1	At	at	ADP	IN	_	2	case	_	_
2	length	length	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	4	obl	_	_
3	he	he	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	4	nsubj	_	_
4	reached	reach	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	0	root	_	_
5	a	a	DET	DT	Definite=Ind|PronType=Art	8	det	_	_
6	soft	soft	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	8	amod	_	_
7	mossy	mossy	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	8	amod	_	_
8	bank	bank	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	4	obj	_	_
9	under	under	ADP	IN	_	11	case	_	_
10	a	a	DET	DT	Definite=Ind|PronType=Art	11	det	_	_
11	tree	tree	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	4	obl	_	SpaceAfter=No
12	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	18	punct	_	_
13	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	18	cc	_	_
14	was	be	AUX	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	18	cop	_	_
15	just	just	ADV	RB	_	16	advmod	_	_
16	about	about	ADV	RB	_	18	advmod	_	_
17	to	to	PART	TO	_	18	mark	_	_
18	stretch	stretch	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	4	conj	_	_
19	himself	himself	PRON	PRP	Case=Acc|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs|Reflex=Yes	18	obj	_	_
20	out	out	ADP	RP	_	18	compound:prt	_	_
21	on	on	ADP	IN	_	22	case	_	_
22	it	it	PRON	PRP	Case=Acc|Gender=Neut|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	18	obl	_	SpaceAfter=No
23	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	28	punct	_	_
24	when	when	SCONJ	WRB	_	28	mark	_	_
25	a	a	DET	DT	Definite=Ind|PronType=Art	27	det	_	_
26	fearful	fearful	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	27	amod	_	_
27	roar	roar	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	28	nsubj	_	_
28	made	make	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	4	conj	_	_
29	him	he	PRON	PRP	Case=Acc|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	28	obj	_	_
30	start	start	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	28	xcomp	_	_
31	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	32	cc	_	_
32	tremble	tremble	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	30	conj	_	_
33	all	all	ADV	RB	_	34	advmod	_	_
34	over	over	ADV	RB	_	32	advmod	_	SpaceAfter=No
35	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	4	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

<!-- .fr -->
| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **reach** | past | least | a soft mossy bank |  | length |  | under a tree | vn get-13.5.1 «NP V NP PP.source NP.asset»: agent=Agent bank=Theme at length=Asset |
| 2 | **is** | past | least *not said here* |  |  | tree |  | about, stretch *property* | tree rules |
| 3 | **make** | past | a fearful roar | least |  |  |  |  | tree rules |
| 4 | **start** | infinitive | least *not said here* |  |  |  |  |  | vn begin-55.1-1-1 «NP.eventuality V»: agent=Eventuality |
| 5 | **tremble** | infinitive | least *not said here* |  |  |  |  | over *property* | vn modes\_of\_being\_with\_motion-47.3 «NP V»: agent=Theme |

<!-- .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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