---
title: She held her breath as the snake drew near, and watched it throw up… — The Brown Fairy Book · tree and pragmatics
description: She held her breath as the snake drew near, and watched it throw up its head again as if it was smelling something nice, while its forky tongue darted out greedily. Who acts: princess, snake, head, forky tongue. A sentence of «The Brown Fairy Book» by Andrew Lang, The Brown Fairy Book, part 25, with
---

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# The Brown Fairy Book, The Brown Fairy Book, part 25, sentence 79

<!-- .ven lang=en -->
She held her breath as the snake drew near, and watched it throw up its head again as if it was smelling something nice, while its forky tongue darted out greedily.

<!-- .vintro -->
**Who acts:** princess, snake, head, forky tongue · **What happens:** hold, draw, watch, throw up, smell, dart out · **To what, where:** breath, snake, head, something

<!-- .vabout -->
This is a sentence of «The Brown Fairy Book» by Andrew Lang, The Brown Fairy Book, part 25. The page gives its syntax tree — a dependency tree in the style of Universal Dependencies — and its pragmatics clause by clause: who acts (princess, snake, head, forky tongue), 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:pg3282:25:79
# text = She held her breath as the snake drew near, and watched it throw up its head again as if it was smelling something nice, while its forky tongue darted out greedily.
1	She	she	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Gender=Fem|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	2	nsubj	_	_
2	held	hold	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	0	root	_	_
3	her	her	PRON	PRP$	Case=Gen|Gender=Fem|Number=Sing|Person=3|Poss=Yes|PronType=Prs	4	nmod:poss	_	_
4	breath	breath	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	2	obj	_	_
5	as	as	SCONJ	IN	_	8	mark	_	_
6	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	7	det	_	_
7	snake	snake	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	8	nsubj	_	_
8	drew	draw	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	2	advcl	_	_
9	near	near	ADV	RB	_	8	advmod	_	SpaceAfter=No
10	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	12	punct	_	_
11	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	12	cc	_	_
12	watched	watch	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	2	parataxis	_	_
13	it	it	PRON	PRP	Case=Acc|Gender=Neut|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	12	obj	_	_
14	throw	throw	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	12	xcomp	_	_
15	up	up	ADP	RP	_	14	compound:prt	_	_
16	its	its	PRON	PRP$	Case=Gen|Gender=Neut|Number=Sing|Person=3|Poss=Yes|PronType=Prs	17	nmod:poss	_	_
17	head	head	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	14	obj	_	_
18	again	again	ADV	RB	_	14	advmod	_	_
19	as	as	SCONJ	IN	_	23	mark	_	_
20	if	if	SCONJ	IN	_	23	mark	_	_
21	it	it	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Gender=Neut|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	23	nsubj	_	_
22	was	be	AUX	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	23	aux	_	_
23	smelling	smell	VERB	VBG	Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Part	14	advcl	_	_
24	something	something	PRON	NN	Number=Sing|PronType=Ind	23	obj	_	_
25	nice	nice	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	24	amod	_	SpaceAfter=No
26	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	31	punct	_	_
27	while	while	SCONJ	IN	_	31	mark	_	_
28	its	its	PRON	PRP$	Case=Gen|Gender=Neut|Number=Sing|Person=3|Poss=Yes|PronType=Prs	30	nmod:poss	_	_
29	forky	forky	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	30	amod	_	_
30	tongue	tongue	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	31	nsubj	_	_
31	darted	dart	VERB	VBN	Tense=Past|VerbForm=Part|Voice=Pass	12	conj	_	_
32	out	out	ADP	RP	_	31	compound:prt	_	_
33	greedily	greedily	ADV	RB	_	31	advmod	_	SpaceAfter=No
34	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	2	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

<!-- .fr -->
| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **hold** | past | princess | princess's breath |  |  |  |  | vn keep-15.2 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent breath=Theme |
| 2 | **draw** | past | the snake |  |  |  |  | near *property* | vn scribble-25.2-1 «NP V»: agent=Agent |
| 3 | **watch** | past |  | snake |  |  |  |  | tree rules |
| 4 | **throw up** | infinitive | snake *not said here* | snake's head |  |  | again |  | vn breathe-40.1.2 «NP V NP.theme»: agent=Agent head=Theme |
| 5 | **smell** | past · progressive | head | something |  |  |  |  | vn see-30.1 «NP V NP»: agent=Experiencer something=Stimulus |
| 6 | **dart out** | participle | head's forky tongue |  |  |  |  | greedily *property* | vn run-51.3.2-2 «NP V»: agent=Theme |

<!-- .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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