---
title: Their sharp eyes soon discovered the form of a man crouching behind… — The Brown Fairy Book · tree and pragmatics
description: Their sharp eyes soon discovered the form of a man crouching behind the bundles of sticks, and at first they felt a little frightened, and started as if they would run away. Who acts: sharp eyes, man, eyes. A sentence of «The Brown Fairy Book» by Andrew Lang, The Brown Fairy Book, part 20, with its 
---

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# The Brown Fairy Book, The Brown Fairy Book, part 20, sentence 30

<!-- .ven lang=en -->
Their sharp eyes soon discovered the form of a man crouching behind the bundles of sticks, and at first they felt a little frightened, and started as if they would run away.

<!-- .vintro -->
**Who acts:** sharp eyes, man, eyes · **What happens:** discover, crouch, feel, frighten, start, run away · **To what, where:** form, bundles, little, man

<!-- .vabout -->
This is a sentence of «The Brown Fairy Book» by Andrew Lang, The Brown Fairy Book, part 20. The page gives its syntax tree — a dependency tree in the style of Universal Dependencies — and its pragmatics clause by clause: who acts (sharp eyes, man, eyes), 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:pg3282:20:30
# text = Their sharp eyes soon discovered the form of a man crouching behind the bundles of sticks, and at first they felt a little frightened, and started as if they would run away.
1	Their	their	PRON	PRP$	Case=Gen|Number=Plur|Person=3|Poss=Yes|PronType=Prs	3	nmod:poss	_	_
2	sharp	sharp	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	3	amod	_	_
3	eyes	eye	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	5	nsubj	_	_
4	soon	soon	ADV	RB	Degree=Pos	5	advmod	_	_
5	discovered	discover	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Plur|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	0	root	_	_
6	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	7	det	_	_
7	form	form	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	5	obj	_	_
8	of	of	ADP	IN	_	10	case	_	_
9	a	a	DET	DT	Definite=Ind|PronType=Art	10	det	_	_
10	man	man	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	7	nmod	_	_
11	crouching	crouch	VERB	VBG	VerbForm=Ger	10	acl	_	_
12	behind	behind	ADP	IN	_	14	case	_	_
13	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	14	det	_	_
14	bundles	bundle	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	11	obl	_	_
15	of	of	ADP	IN	_	16	case	_	_
16	sticks	stick	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	14	nmod	_	SpaceAfter=No
17	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	22	punct	_	_
18	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	22	cc	_	_
19	at	at	ADP	IN	_	20	case	_	_
20	first	first	ADV	RB	NumForm=Word|NumType=Ord	22	obl	_	_
21	they	they	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Number=Plur|Person=3|PronType=Prs	22	nsubj	_	_
22	felt	feel	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Plur|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	5	conj	_	_
23	a	a	DET	DT	Definite=Ind|PronType=Art	24	det	_	_
24	little	little	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	25	obl:unmarked	_	_
25	frightened	frighten	VERB	VBN	Tense=Past|VerbForm=Part|Voice=Pass	22	xcomp	_	SpaceAfter=No
26	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	28	punct	_	_
27	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	28	cc	_	_
28	started	start	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Plur|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	5	conj	_	_
29	as	as	SCONJ	IN	_	33	mark	_	_
30	if	if	SCONJ	IN	_	33	mark	_	_
31	they	they	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Number=Plur|Person=3|PronType=Prs	33	nsubj	_	_
32	would	would	AUX	MD	VerbForm=Fin	33	aux	_	_
33	run	run	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	28	advcl	_	_
34	away	away	ADV	RB	_	33	advmod	_	SpaceAfter=No
35	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	5	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

<!-- .fr -->
| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **discover** | past | men's sharp eyes | the form of a man |  |  |  | soon *property* | vn discover-84-1 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent form=Topic |
| 2 | **crouch** | gerund | a man *not said here* |  |  | the bundles of sticks |  |  | vn spatial\_configuration-47.6 «NP V PP.location»: agent=Theme behind bundle=Location |
| 3 | **feel** | past | eyes *= eye* |  |  |  |  |  | vn conjecture-29.5-2 «NP V that S»: agent=Agent clause=Theme |
| 4 | **frighten** | participle | eyes *= eye* *not said here* | a little |  |  |  |  | vn amuse-31.1 «NP V ADV-Middle»: agent=Experiencer |
| 5 | **start** | past | men's sharp eyes *not said here* |  |  |  |  |  | vn begin-55.1-1-1 «NP.eventuality V»: agent=Eventuality |
| 6 | **run away** | would | eyes *= eye* |  |  |  |  | away *property* | vn run-51.3.2-2-1 «NP V»: agent=Theme |
| 7 | **form** |  |  | a man |  |  |  |  | nom form «communication transitive»: of=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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