---
title: Then, tumbling father, mother and daughter down to the earth again,… — The Brown Fairy Book · tree and pragmatics
description: Then, tumbling father, mother and daughter down to the earth again, he paused for a moment beside them, his foot on an old wall. Who acts: father. A sentence of «The Brown Fairy Book» by Andrew Lang, The Brown Fairy Book, part 17, with its dependency tree and the pragmatics of every clause.
---

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# The Brown Fairy Book, The Brown Fairy Book, part 17, sentence 67

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Then, tumbling father, mother and daughter down to the earth again, he paused for a moment beside them, his foot on an old wall.

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**Who acts:** father · **What happens:** tumble, pause · **To what, where:** father, foot

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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 (father), 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:pg3282:17:67
# text = Then, tumbling father, mother and daughter down to the earth again, he paused for a moment beside them, his foot on an old wall.
1	Then	then	ADV	RB	PronType=Dem	16	advmod	_	SpaceAfter=No
2	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	1	punct	_	_
3	tumbling	tumble	VERB	VBG	Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Part	16	advcl	_	_
4	father	father	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	3	obj	_	SpaceAfter=No
5	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	6	punct	_	_
6	mother	mother	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	4	conj	_	_
7	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	8	cc	_	_
8	daughter	daughter	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	4	conj	_	_
9	down	down	ADV	RB	_	3	advmod	_	_
10	to	to	ADP	IN	_	12	case	_	_
11	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	12	det	_	_
12	earth	earth	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	9	obl	_	_
13	again	again	ADV	RB	_	3	advmod	_	SpaceAfter=No
14	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	3	punct	_	_
15	he	he	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	16	nsubj	_	_
16	paused	pause	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	0	root	_	_
17	for	for	ADP	IN	_	19	case	_	_
18	a	a	DET	DT	Definite=Ind|PronType=Art	19	det	_	_
19	moment	moment	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	16	obl	_	_
20	beside	beside	ADP	IN	_	21	case	_	_
21	them	they	PRON	PRP	Case=Acc|Number=Plur|Person=3|PronType=Prs	16	obl	_	SpaceAfter=No
22	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	24	punct	_	_
23	his	his	PRON	PRP$	Case=Gen|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|Poss=Yes|PronType=Prs	24	nmod:poss	_	_
24	foot	foot	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	16	obl	_	_
25	on	on	ADP	IN	_	28	case	_	_
26	an	a	DET	DT	Definite=Ind|PronType=Art	28	det	_	_
27	old	old	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	28	amod	_	_
28	wall	wall	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	24	nmod	_	SpaceAfter=No
29	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	16	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

<!-- .fr -->
| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **tumble** | gerund | father *not said here* | father and mother and daughter |  |  | again | down *property* | vn meander-47.7 «PP.location V NP»: agent=Location father=Theme |
| 2 | **pause** | past | father | father's foot on a old wall |  |  | then; moment | beside faces *= face* | vn linger-53.1 «NP V PP.location»: agent=Agent beside they=Location |

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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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