---
title: He started backwards with a cry of pain, and sat still for some minu… — The Brown Fairy Book · tree and pragmatics
description: He started backwards with a cry of pain, and sat still for some minutes, rocking himself to and fro. Who acts: salmon, pain. A sentence of «The Brown Fairy Book» by Andrew Lang, The Brown Fairy Book, part 27, with its dependency tree and the pragmatics of every clause.
---

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# The Brown Fairy Book, The Brown Fairy Book, part 27, sentence 82

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He started backwards with a cry of pain, and sat still for some minutes, rocking himself to and fro.

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**Who acts:** salmon, pain · **What happens:** start, sit, rock, fro, cry · **To what, where:** salmon

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This is a sentence of «The Brown Fairy Book» by Andrew Lang, The Brown Fairy Book, part 27. The page gives its syntax tree — a dependency tree in the style of Universal Dependencies — and its pragmatics clause by clause: who acts (salmon, pain), 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:pg3282:27:82
# text = He started backwards with a cry of pain, and sat still for some minutes, rocking himself to and fro.
1	He	he	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	2	nsubj	_	_
2	started	start	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	0	root	_	_
3	backwards	backwards	ADV	RB	_	2	advmod	_	_
4	with	with	ADP	IN	_	6	case	_	_
5	a	a	DET	DT	Definite=Ind|PronType=Art	6	det	_	_
6	cry	cry	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	2	obl	_	_
7	of	of	ADP	IN	_	8	case	_	_
8	pain	pain	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	6	nmod	_	SpaceAfter=No
9	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	11	punct	_	_
10	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	11	cc	_	_
11	sat	sit	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	2	conj	_	_
12	still	still	ADV	RB	_	11	advmod	_	_
13	for	for	ADP	IN	_	15	case	_	_
14	some	some	DET	DT	PronType=Ind	15	det	_	_
15	minutes	minute	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	11	obl	_	SpaceAfter=No
16	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	17	punct	_	_
17	rocking	rock	VERB	VBG	Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Part	11	advcl	_	_
18	himself	himself	PRON	PRP	Case=Acc|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs|Reflex=Yes	17	obj	_	_
19	to	to	ADP	IN	_	21	case	_	_
20	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	21	cc	_	_
21	fro	fro	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	17	xcomp	_	SpaceAfter=No
22	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	2	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

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| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **start** | past | salmon |  |  |  |  | with a cry of pain; backwards *property* | vn begin-55.1-1-1 «NP V PP.subeventuality»: agent=Eventuality with cry=Subeventuality |
| 2 | **sit** | past | salmon *not said here* |  |  |  | still; minute |  | vn assuming\_position-50 «NP V»: agent=Agent |
| 3 | **rock** | gerund | salmon *not said here* | salmon |  |  |  |  | tree rules |
| 4 | **fro** | infinitive | salmon *not said here* |  |  |  |  |  | tree rules |
| 5 | **cry** |  | pain |  |  |  |  |  | nom cry «communication intransitive»: of=agent |

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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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