---
title: The donkey brayed joyfully at the sight of her, and set off home at… — The Brown Fairy Book · tree and pragmatics
description: The donkey brayed joyfully at the sight of her, and set off home at his best speed, never seeming to know that the earth under his feet was nearly as hot as the sun above him. Who acts: donkey, earth. A sentence of «The Brown Fairy Book» by Andrew Lang, The Brown Fairy Book, part 26, with its depend
---

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# The Brown Fairy Book, The Brown Fairy Book, part 26, sentence 30

<!-- .ven lang=en -->
The donkey brayed joyfully at the sight of her, and set off home at his best speed, never seeming to know that the earth under his feet was nearly as hot as the sun above him.

<!-- .vintro -->
**Who acts:** donkey, earth · **What happens:** bray, set off, not seem, know, be, sight · **To what, where:** best speed, four · **Speech:** someone speaks here

<!-- .vabout -->
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 (donkey, earth), 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:pg3282:26:30
# text = The donkey brayed joyfully at the sight of her, and set off home at his best speed, never seeming to know that the earth under his feet was nearly as hot as the sun above him.
1	The	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	2	det	_	_
2	donkey	donkey	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	3	nsubj	_	_
3	brayed	bray	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	0	root	_	_
4	joyfully	joyfully	ADV	RB	_	3	advmod	_	_
5	at	at	ADP	IN	_	7	case	_	_
6	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	7	det	_	_
7	sight	sight	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	3	obl	_	_
8	of	of	ADP	IN	_	9	case	_	_
9	her	she	PRON	PRP	Case=Acc|Gender=Fem|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	7	nmod	_	SpaceAfter=No
10	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	12	punct	_	_
11	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	12	cc	_	_
12	set	set	VERB	VBN	Tense=Past|VerbForm=Part|Voice=Pass	3	conj	_	_
13	off	off	ADP	RP	_	12	compound:prt	_	_
14	home	home	ADV	RB	_	12	advmod	_	_
15	at	at	ADP	IN	_	18	case	_	_
16	his	his	PRON	PRP$	Case=Gen|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|Poss=Yes|PronType=Prs	18	nmod:poss	_	_
17	best	good	ADJ	JJS	Degree=Sup	18	amod	_	_
18	speed	speed	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	12	obl	_	SpaceAfter=No
19	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	21	punct	_	_
20	never	never	ADV	RB	PronType=Neg	21	advmod	_	_
21	seeming	seem	VERB	VBG	Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Part	3	advcl	_	_
22	to	to	PART	TO	_	23	mark	_	_
23	know	know	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	21	xcomp	_	_
24	that	that	SCONJ	IN	_	33	mark	_	_
25	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	26	det	_	_
26	earth	earth	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	33	nsubj	_	_
27	under	under	ADP	IN	_	29	case	_	_
28	his	his	PRON	PRP$	Case=Gen|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|Poss=Yes|PronType=Prs	29	nmod:poss	_	_
29	feet	foot	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	26	nmod	_	_
30	was	be	AUX	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	33	cop	_	_
31	nearly	nearly	ADV	RB	_	33	advmod	_	_
32	as	as	ADV	RB	_	33	advmod	_	_
33	hot	hot	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	23	ccomp	_	_
34	as	as	ADP	IN	_	36	case	_	_
35	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	36	det	_	_
36	sun	sun	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	33	obl	_	_
37	above	above	ADP	IN	_	38	case	_	_
38	him	he	PRON	PRP	Case=Acc|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	36	nmod	_	SpaceAfter=No
39	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	3	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

<!-- .fr -->
| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **bray** | past | the donkey |  |  |  |  | at the sight of four; joyfully *property* | vn animal\_sounds-38 «NP V PP.stimulus»: agent=Agent at sight=Stimulus |
| 2 | **set off** | participle | the donkey *not said here* |  |  | herb's best speed |  | home *property* | vn escape-51.1-1 «NP V»: agent=Theme |
| 3 | **not** **seem** | gerund | the donkey *not said here* |  |  |  |  |  | vn seem-109-1-1-1 «NP V S\_INF»: agent=Theme clause=Attribute |
| 4 | **know** | to-infinitive | the donkey *not said here* |  |  |  |  |  | vn comprehend-87.2-1-1-1 «NP V»: agent=Experiencer |
| 5 | **is** | past | the earth under herb's feet |  |  |  |  | as the sun above sun; hot, nearly *property* | tree rules |
| 6 | **sight** |  |  | four |  |  |  |  | nom sight «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.

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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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