---
title: Late in the afternoon the boy fancied he saw a vast heap of stones a… — The Brown Fairy Book · tree and pragmatics
description: Late in the afternoon the boy fancied he saw a vast heap of stones a long way off, and he flew straight towards it. Who acts: boy. A sentence of «The Brown Fairy Book» by Andrew Lang, The Brown Fairy Book, part 18, with its dependency tree and the pragmatics of every clause.
---

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# The Brown Fairy Book, The Brown Fairy Book, part 18, sentence 43

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Late in the afternoon the boy fancied he saw a vast heap of stones a long way off, and he flew straight towards it.

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**Who acts:** boy · **What happens:** fancy, see, fly · **To what, where:** vast heap, way

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This is a sentence of «The Brown Fairy Book» by Andrew Lang, The Brown Fairy Book, part 18. The page gives its syntax tree — a dependency tree in the style of Universal Dependencies — and its pragmatics clause by clause: who acts (boy), 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:pg3282:18:43
# text = Late in the afternoon the boy fancied he saw a vast heap of stones a long way off, and he flew straight towards it.
1	Late	late	ADV	RB	Degree=Pos	7	advmod	_	_
2	in	in	ADP	IN	_	4	case	_	_
3	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	4	det	_	_
4	afternoon	afternoon	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	1	obl	_	_
5	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	6	det	_	_
6	boy	boy	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	7	nsubj	_	_
7	fancied	fancy	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	0	root	_	_
8	he	he	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	9	nsubj	_	_
9	saw	see	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	7	ccomp	_	_
10	a	a	DET	DT	Definite=Ind|PronType=Art	12	det	_	_
11	vast	vast	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	12	amod	_	_
12	heap	heap	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	9	obj	_	_
13	of	of	ADP	IN	_	14	case	_	_
14	stones	stone	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	12	nmod	_	_
15	a	a	DET	DT	Definite=Ind|PronType=Art	17	det	_	_
16	long	long	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	17	amod	_	_
17	way	way	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	14	nmod:unmarked	_	_
18	off	off	ADV	RB	_	17	advmod	_	SpaceAfter=No
19	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	22	punct	_	_
20	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	22	cc	_	_
21	he	he	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	22	nsubj	_	_
22	flew	fly	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	7	conj	_	_
23	straight	straight	ADV	RB	_	25	advmod	_	_
24	towards	towards	ADP	IN	_	25	case	_	_
25	it	it	PRON	PRP	Case=Acc|Gender=Neut|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	22	obl	_	SpaceAfter=No
26	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	7	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

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| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **fancy** | past | the boy |  |  |  |  | late *property* | vn admire-31.2 «NP V that S»: agent=Experiencer clause=Stimulus |
| 2 | **see** | past | boy | a vast heap of stones  a long way |  |  |  |  | vn comprehend-87.2-1-1 «NP V NP»: agent=Experiencer heap=Stimulus |
| 3 | **fly** | past | boy |  |  | way |  |  | vn run-51.3.2-2-1 «NP V PP.location»: agent=Theme towards it=Destination |

<!-- .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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