---
title: He staggered back as if he had been struck, then a curious feeling t… — The Brown Fairy Book · tree and pragmatics
description: He staggered back as if he had been struck, then a curious feeling took hold of him, which he had never felt before, and falling on his knees before the Sister of the Sun, he implored her to give up all thought of the peasant boy, and to share his throne. Who acts: boy, curious feeling. A sentence o
---

<!-- md -->
[Mova](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/) · [this page in HTML](https://mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg3282/23/94/)

<!-- crumbs -->
[home](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/) / [corpora](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/) / [tales](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/) / [The Brown Fairy Book](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg3282/) / [The Brown Fairy Book, part 23](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg3282/23/) / 94

# The Brown Fairy Book, The Brown Fairy Book, part 23, sentence 94

<!-- .ven lang=en -->
He staggered back as if he had been struck, then a curious feeling took hold of him, which he had never felt before, and falling on his knees before the Sister of the Sun, he implored her to give up all thought of the peasant boy, and to share his throne.

<!-- .vintro -->
**Who acts:** boy, curious feeling · **What happens:** stagger back, strike, take, not feel, fall, implore · **To what, where:** boy, hold, knees, feeling, thought, throne

<!-- .vabout -->
This is a sentence of «The Brown Fairy Book» by Andrew Lang, The Brown Fairy Book, part 23. The page gives its syntax tree — a dependency tree in the style of Universal Dependencies — and its pragmatics clause by clause: who acts (boy, curious feeling), 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:pg3282:23:94
# text = He staggered back as if he had been struck, then a curious feeling took hold of him, which he had never felt before, and falling on his knees before the Sister of the Sun, he implored her to give up all thought of the peasant boy, and to share his throne.
1	He	he	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	2	nsubj	_	_
2	staggered	stagger	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	0	root	_	_
3	back	back	ADV	RB	_	2	advmod	_	_
4	as	as	SCONJ	IN	_	9	mark	_	_
5	if	if	SCONJ	IN	_	9	mark	_	_
6	he	he	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	9	nsubj	_	_
7	had	have	AUX	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	9	aux	_	_
8	been	be	AUX	VBN	Tense=Past|VerbForm=Part	9	aux:pass	_	_
9	struck	strike	VERB	VBN	Tense=Past|VerbForm=Part|Voice=Pass	2	advcl	_	SpaceAfter=No
10	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	15	punct	_	_
11	then	then	ADV	RB	PronType=Dem	15	advmod	_	_
12	a	a	DET	DT	Definite=Ind|PronType=Art	14	det	_	_
13	curious	curious	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	14	amod	_	_
14	feeling	feeling	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	15	nsubj	_	_
15	took	take	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	2	conj	_	_
16	hold	hold	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	15	obj	_	_
17	of	of	ADP	IN	_	18	case	_	_
18	him	he	PRON	PRP	Case=Acc|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	16	nmod	_	SpaceAfter=No
19	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	24	punct	_	_
20	which	which	PRON	WDT	PronType=Rel	24	nsubj:pass	_	_
21	he	he	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	24	nsubj	_	_
22	had	have	AUX	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Plur|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	24	aux	_	_
23	never	never	ADV	RB	PronType=Neg	24	advmod	_	_
24	felt	feel	VERB	VBN	Tense=Past|VerbForm=Part|Voice=Pass	16	acl	_	_
25	before	before	ADV	RB	_	24	advmod	_	SpaceAfter=No
26	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	28	punct	_	_
27	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	28	cc	_	_
28	falling	fall	VERB	VBG	Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Part	15	advcl	_	_
29	on	on	ADP	IN	_	31	case	_	_
30	his	his	PRON	PRP$	Case=Gen|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|Poss=Yes|PronType=Prs	31	nmod:poss	_	_
31	knees	knee	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	28	obl	_	_
32	before	before	ADP	IN	_	34	case	_	_
33	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	34	det	_	_
34	Sister	sister	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	28	obl	_	_
35	of	of	ADP	IN	_	37	case	_	_
36	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	37	det	_	_
37	Sun	Sun	PROPN	NNP	Number=Sing	34	nmod	_	SpaceAfter=No
38	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	40	punct	_	_
39	he	he	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	40	nsubj	_	_
40	implored	implore	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	2	parataxis	_	_
41	her	she	PRON	PRP	Case=Acc|Gender=Fem|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	40	obj	_	_
42	to	to	PART	TO	_	43	mark	_	_
43	give	give	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	40	xcomp	_	_
44	up	up	ADP	RP	_	43	compound:prt	_	_
45	all	all	DET	DT	PronType=Tot	46	det	_	_
46	thought	thought	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	43	obj	_	_
47	of	of	ADP	IN	_	50	case	_	_
48	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	50	det	_	_
49	peasant	peasant	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	50	amod	_	_
50	boy	boy	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	46	nmod	_	SpaceAfter=No
51	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	54	punct	_	_
52	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	54	cc	_	_
53	to	to	PART	TO	_	54	mark	_	_
54	share	share	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	40	conj	_	_
55	his	his	PRON	PRP$	Case=Gen|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|Poss=Yes|PronType=Prs	56	nmod:poss	_	_
56	throne	throne	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	54	obj	_	SpaceAfter=No
57	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	2	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

<!-- .fr -->
| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **stagger back** | past | boy |  |  |  |  |  | vn amuse-31.1 «NP V ADV-Middle»: agent=Experiencer |
| 2 | **strike** | past · perfect · passive |  | boy |  |  |  |  | vn hit-18.1-1 «NP V NP PP»: subject=Instrument |
| 3 | **take** | past | a curious feeling | hold of boy |  |  | then |  | vn bring-11.3 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent hold=Theme |
| 4 | **not** **feel** | past · perfect · passive |  | hold of boy |  |  |  | before *property* | vn hunt-35.1 «NP V NP»: subject=Theme |
| 5 | **fall** | gerund | a curious feeling *not said here* |  |  | boy's knees | before the Sister of the Sun |  | vn occur-48.3 «NP V PP»: agent=Theme on knee=Location |
| 6 | **implore** | past | boy | feeling |  |  |  |  | vn urge-58.1-1-1 «NP V NP S\_ING»: agent=Agent she=Recipient clause=Topic |
| 7 | **give up** | to-infinitive | boy *not said here* | all thought of the peasant boy |  |  |  |  | vn resign-10.11-2 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent thought=Source |
| 8 | **share** | to-infinitive | boy *not said here* | boy's throne |  |  |  |  | tree rules |
| 9 | **hold** |  |  | boy |  |  |  |  | nom hold «act transitive»: of=patient |
| 10 | **think** |  |  | the peasant boy |  |  |  |  | nom thought «cognition 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.

<!-- div src -->

**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.

<!-- /div -->

<!-- pn -->
- ← previous: [sentence 93](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg3282/23/93/)
- next →: [sentence 95](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg3282/23/95/)
- ↑ back to [The Brown Fairy Book, part 23](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg3282/23/)