---
title: “That is a snake,” he cried, stopping short, for he was much more af… — The Brown Fairy Book · tree and pragmatics
description: “That is a snake,” he cried, stopping short, for he was much more afraid of snakes than of bears. Who acts: That, snake. A sentence of «The Brown Fairy Book» by Andrew Lang, The Brown Fairy Book, part 28, with its dependency tree and the pragmatics of every clause.
---

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[Mova](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/) · [this page in HTML](https://mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg3282/28/86/)

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# The Brown Fairy Book, The Brown Fairy Book, part 28, sentence 86

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“That is a snake,” he cried, stopping short, for he was much more afraid of snakes than of bears.

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**Who acts:** That, snake · **What happens:** be, cry, stop · **To what, where:** snake · **Speech:** someone speaks here

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This is a sentence of «The Brown Fairy Book» by Andrew Lang, The Brown Fairy Book, part 28. The page gives its syntax tree — a dependency tree in the style of Universal Dependencies — and its pragmatics clause by clause: who acts (That, snake), 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:pg3282:28:86
# text = “That is a snake,” he cried, stopping short, for he was much more afraid of snakes than of bears.
1	“	"	PUNCT	``	_	5	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
2	That	that	PRON	DT	Number=Sing|PronType=Dem	5	nsubj	_	_
3	is	be	AUX	VBZ	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Fin	5	cop	_	_
4	a	a	DET	DT	Definite=Ind|PronType=Art	5	det	_	_
5	snake	snake	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	9	obl	_	SpaceAfter=No
6	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	5	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
7	”	"	PUNCT	''	_	5	punct	_	_
8	he	he	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	9	nsubj	_	_
9	cried	cry	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	0	root	_	SpaceAfter=No
10	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	11	punct	_	_
11	stopping	stop	VERB	VBG	Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Part	9	advcl	_	_
12	short	short	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	11	xcomp	_	SpaceAfter=No
13	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	19	punct	_	_
14	for	for	SCONJ	IN	_	19	mark	_	_
15	he	he	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	19	nsubj	_	_
16	was	be	AUX	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	19	cop	_	_
17	much	much	ADV	RB	_	18	advmod	_	_
18	more	more	ADV	RBR	Degree=Cmp	19	advmod	_	_
19	afraid	afraid	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	9	advcl	_	_
20	of	of	ADP	IN	_	21	case	_	_
21	snakes	snake	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	19	obl	_	_
22	than	than	ADP	IN	_	24	case	_	_
23	of	of	ADP	IN	_	22	fixed	_	_
24	bears	bear	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	19	obl	_	SpaceAfter=No
25	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	9	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

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| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **is a** *in a quote* | present | That | a snake |  |  |  |  | tree rules |
| 2 | **cry** *speech: express* | past | snake |  |  |  |  |  | vn manner\_speaking-37.3 «NP V»: agent=Agent |
| 3 | **stop** | gerund | snake *not said here* |  |  |  |  | short *property* | vn stop-55.4-1-1 «NP.eventuality V»: agent=Eventuality |
| 4 | **is** | past | snake |  |  |  |  | of snakes; than bears; afraid *property* | tree rules |

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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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