---
title: Guiding his boat till he was beside them, he stooped down and snippe… — The Brown Fairy Book · tree and pragmatics
description: Guiding his boat till he was beside them, he stooped down and snipped off the ends of the tongues, and then rowed back to the other bank. Who acts: head. A sentence of «The Brown Fairy Book» by Andrew Lang, The Brown Fairy Book, part 24, with its dependency tree and the pragmatics of every clause.
---

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# The Brown Fairy Book, The Brown Fairy Book, part 24, sentence 36

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Guiding his boat till he was beside them, he stooped down and snipped off the ends of the tongues, and then rowed back to the other bank.

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**Who acts:** head · **What happens:** guide, be, stoop down, snip, row back · **To what, where:** boat, other bank

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This is a sentence of «The Brown Fairy Book» by Andrew Lang, The Brown Fairy Book, part 24. The page gives its syntax tree — a dependency tree in the style of Universal Dependencies — and its pragmatics clause by clause: who acts (head), 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:pg3282:24:36
# text = Guiding his boat till he was beside them, he stooped down and snipped off the ends of the tongues, and then rowed back to the other bank.
1	Guiding	guide	VERB	VBG	Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Part	11	advcl	_	_
2	his	his	PRON	PRP$	Case=Gen|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|Poss=Yes|PronType=Prs	3	nmod:poss	_	_
3	boat	boat	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	1	obj	_	_
4	till	till	SCONJ	IN	_	8	mark	_	_
5	he	he	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	8	nsubj	_	_
6	was	be	AUX	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	8	cop	_	_
7	beside	beside	ADP	IN	_	8	case	_	_
8	them	they	PRON	PRP	Case=Acc|Number=Plur|Person=3|PronType=Prs	1	ccomp	_	SpaceAfter=No
9	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	1	punct	_	_
10	he	he	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	11	nsubj	_	_
11	stooped	stoop	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	0	root	_	_
12	down	down	ADP	RP	_	11	compound:prt	_	_
13	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	14	cc	_	_
14	snipped	snip	VERB	VBN	Tense=Past|VerbForm=Part|Voice=Pass	11	conj	_	_
15	off	off	ADP	IN	_	17	case	_	_
16	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	17	det	_	_
17	ends	end	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	14	obl	_	_
18	of	of	ADP	IN	_	20	case	_	_
19	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	20	det	_	_
20	tongues	tongue	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	17	nmod	_	SpaceAfter=No
21	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	24	punct	_	_
22	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	24	cc	_	_
23	then	then	ADV	RB	PronType=Dem	24	advmod	_	_
24	rowed	row	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	11	conj	_	_
25	back	back	ADV	RB	_	24	advmod	_	_
26	to	to	ADP	IN	_	29	case	_	_
27	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	29	det	_	_
28	other	other	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	29	amod	_	_
29	bank	bank	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	24	obl	_	SpaceAfter=No
30	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	11	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

<!-- .fr -->
| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **guide** | gerund | head *not said here* | head's boat |  |  |  |  | vn accompany-51.7 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent boat=Theme |
| 2 | **is** | past | head |  |  |  |  | beside chips *= chip* | tree rules |
| 3 | **stoop down** | past | head |  |  |  |  |  | vn assuming\_position-50 «NP V»: agent=Agent |
| 4 | **snip** | participle | head *not said here* |  |  |  | off the ends of the tongues |  | vn cut-21.1-1 «NP V ADVP-Middle»: agent=Patient |
| 5 | **row back** | past | head *not said here* |  |  | the other bank | then |  | vn nonvehicle-51.4.2 «NP V PP.location»: agent=Agent to bank=Trajectory |

<!-- .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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