---
title: And plucking a leaf she held it safe in her hand while she turned, a… — The Brown Fairy Book · tree and pragmatics
description: And plucking a leaf she held it safe in her hand while she turned, almost stunned by the wind, to go down the rock. Who acts: four. A sentence of «The Brown Fairy Book» by Andrew Lang, The Brown Fairy Book, part 26, with its dependency tree and the pragmatics of every clause.
---

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# The Brown Fairy Book, The Brown Fairy Book, part 26, sentence 27

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And plucking a leaf she held it safe in her hand while she turned, almost stunned by the wind, to go down the rock.

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**Who acts:** four · **What happens:** pluck, hold, turn, stun, go down · **To what, where:** leaf, wind, rock

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This is a sentence of «The Brown Fairy Book» by Andrew Lang, The Brown Fairy Book, part 26. The page gives its syntax tree — a dependency tree in the style of Universal Dependencies — and its pragmatics clause by clause: who acts (four), 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:pg3282:26:27
# text = And plucking a leaf she held it safe in her hand while she turned, almost stunned by the wind, to go down the rock.
1	And	and	CCONJ	CC	_	2	cc	_	_
2	plucking	pluck	VERB	VBG	Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Part	14	advcl	_	_
3	a	a	DET	DT	Definite=Ind|PronType=Art	4	det	_	_
4	leaf	leaf	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	2	obj	_	_
5	she	she	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Gender=Fem|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	6	nsubj	_	_
6	held	hold	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	4	acl:relcl	_	_
7	it	it	PRON	PRP	Case=Acc|Gender=Neut|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	6	obj	_	_
8	safe	safe	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	2	xcomp	_	_
9	in	in	ADP	IN	_	11	case	_	_
10	her	her	PRON	PRP$	Case=Gen|Gender=Fem|Number=Sing|Person=3|Poss=Yes|PronType=Prs	11	nmod:poss	_	_
11	hand	hand	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	8	obl	_	_
12	while	while	SCONJ	IN	_	14	mark	_	_
13	she	she	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Gender=Fem|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	14	nsubj	_	_
14	turned	turn	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	0	root	_	SpaceAfter=No
15	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	17	punct	_	_
16	almost	almost	ADV	RB	_	17	advmod	_	_
17	stunned	stun	VERB	VBN	Tense=Past|VerbForm=Part|Voice=Pass	14	ccomp	_	_
18	by	by	ADP	IN	_	20	case	_	_
19	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	20	det	_	_
20	wind	wind	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	17	obl	_	SpaceAfter=No
21	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	23	punct	_	_
22	to	to	PART	TO	_	23	mark	_	_
23	go	go	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	17	conj	_	_
24	down	down	ADP	IN	_	26	case	_	_
25	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	26	det	_	_
26	rock	rock	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	23	obl	_	SpaceAfter=No
27	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	14	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

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| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **pluck** | gerund | four *not said here* | a leaf |  |  |  | safe *property* | vn braid-41.2.2 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent leaf=Patient |
| 2 | **hold** | past | four | wind |  |  |  |  | vn keep-15.2 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent it=Theme |
| 3 | **turn** | past | four |  |  |  |  |  | tree rules |
| 4 | **stun** | participle | four *not said here* |  |  |  |  | by the wind; almost *property* | vn amuse-31.1 «NP V ADV-Middle»: agent=Experiencer |
| 5 | **go down** | to-infinitive | four *not said here* | the rock |  |  |  |  | vn calibratable\_cos-45.6.1-1 «NP.patient V NP.extent PP.source PP.goal»: agent=Patient rock=Extent |

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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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