---
title: The fox made himself as small as he could, but a scrap of his tail p… — The Brown Fairy Book · tree and pragmatics
description: The fox made himself as small as he could, but a scrap of his tail peeped out, and the bear seized it and held it tight. Who acts: fox, scrap, bear. 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 93

<!-- .ven lang=en -->
The fox made himself as small as he could, but a scrap of his tail peeped out, and the bear seized it and held it tight.

<!-- .vintro -->
**Who acts:** fox, scrap, bear · **What happens:** make, peep out, seize, hold · **To what, where:** bear, scrap

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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 (fox, scrap, bear), 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:pg3282:26:93
# text = The fox made himself as small as he could, but a scrap of his tail peeped out, and the bear seized it and held it tight.
1	The	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	2	det	_	_
2	fox	fox	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	3	nsubj	_	_
3	made	make	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	0	root	_	_
4	himself	himself	PRON	PRP	Case=Acc|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs|Reflex=Yes	3	obj	_	_
5	as	as	ADV	RB	_	6	advmod	_	_
6	small	small	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	3	xcomp	_	_
7	as	as	SCONJ	IN	_	9	mark	_	_
8	he	he	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	9	nsubj	_	_
9	could	could	AUX	MD	VerbForm=Fin	6	advcl	_	SpaceAfter=No
10	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	17	punct	_	_
11	but	but	CCONJ	CC	_	17	cc	_	_
12	a	a	DET	DT	Definite=Ind|PronType=Art	13	det	_	_
13	scrap	scrap	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	17	nsubj	_	_
14	of	of	ADP	IN	_	16	case	_	_
15	his	his	PRON	PRP$	Case=Gen|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|Poss=Yes|PronType=Prs	16	nmod:poss	_	_
16	tail	tail	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	13	nmod	_	_
17	peeped	peep	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	3	conj	_	_
18	out	out	ADP	RP	_	17	compound:prt	_	SpaceAfter=No
19	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	23	punct	_	_
20	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	23	cc	_	_
21	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	22	det	_	_
22	bear	bear	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	23	nsubj	_	_
23	seized	seize	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	3	parataxis	_	_
24	it	it	PRON	PRP	Case=Acc|Gender=Neut|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	23	obj	_	_
25	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	26	cc	_	_
26	held	hold	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	23	conj	_	_
27	it	it	PRON	PRP	Case=Acc|Gender=Neut|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	26	obj	_	_
28	tight	tight	ADV	RB	_	26	advmod	_	SpaceAfter=No
29	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	3	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

<!-- .fr -->
| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **make** | past | the fox | bear |  |  |  | small *property* | vn build-26.1-1 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent himself=Product |
| 2 | **peep out** | past | a scrap of bear's tail |  |  |  |  |  | vn animal\_sounds-38 «NP V»: agent=Agent |
| 3 | **seize** | past | the bear | scrap |  |  |  |  | vn obtain-13.5.2 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent it=Theme |
| 4 | **hold** | past | the bear *not said here* | scrap |  |  |  | tight *property* | vn keep-15.2 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent it=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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