---
title: Now, it is not at all an uncommon thing for balls to tumble into riv… — The Brown Fairy Book · tree and pragmatics
description: Now, it is not at all an uncommon thing for balls to tumble into rivers, but in that case they generally either fall to the bottom and stay there, or else bob about on the top of the water close to where they first touched it. Who acts: ball, girls. A sentence of «The Brown Fairy Book» by Andrew Lan
---

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# The Brown Fairy Book, The Brown Fairy Book, part 29, sentence 34

<!-- .ven lang=en -->
Now, it is not at all an uncommon thing for balls to tumble into rivers, but in that case they generally either fall to the bottom and stay there, or else bob about on the top of the water close to where they first touched it.

<!-- .vintro -->
**Who acts:** ball, girls · **What happens:** not be, tumble, fall, stay, bob, touch · **To what, where:** uncommon thing, rivers, case, top, ball

<!-- .vabout -->
This is a sentence of «The Brown Fairy Book» by Andrew Lang, The Brown Fairy Book, part 29. The page gives its syntax tree — a dependency tree in the style of Universal Dependencies — and its pragmatics clause by clause: who acts (ball, girls), 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:pg3282:29:34
# text = Now, it is not at all an uncommon thing for balls to tumble into rivers, but in that case they generally either fall to the bottom and stay there, or else bob about on the top of the water close to where they first touched it.
1	Now	now	ADV	RB	PronType=Dem	10	advmod	_	SpaceAfter=No
2	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	1	punct	_	_
3	it	it	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Gender=Neut|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	10	nsubj	_	_
4	is	be	AUX	VBZ	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Fin	10	cop	_	_
5	not	not	PART	RB	Polarity=Neg	10	advmod	_	_
6	at	at	ADP	IN	_	10	case	_	_
7	all	all	DET	DT	PronType=Tot	10	det	_	_
8	an	a	DET	DT	Definite=Ind|PronType=Art	10	det	_	_
9	uncommon	uncommon	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	10	amod	_	_
10	thing	thing	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	0	root	_	_
11	for	for	ADP	IN	_	12	case	_	_
12	balls	ball	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	10	nmod	_	_
13	to	to	PART	TO	_	14	mark	_	_
14	tumble	tumble	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	10	acl	_	_
15	into	into	ADP	IN	_	16	case	_	_
16	rivers	river	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	14	obl	_	SpaceAfter=No
17	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	25	punct	_	_
18	but	but	CCONJ	CC	_	25	cc	_	_
19	in	in	ADP	IN	_	21	case	_	_
20	that	that	DET	DT	Number=Sing|PronType=Dem	21	det	_	_
21	case	case	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	25	obl	_	_
22	they	they	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Number=Plur|Person=3|PronType=Prs	25	nsubj	_	_
23	generally	generally	ADV	RB	_	25	advmod	_	_
24	either	either	CCONJ	CC	_	25	cc:preconj	_	_
25	fall	fall	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	10	parataxis	_	_
26	to	to	ADP	IN	_	28	case	_	_
27	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	28	det	_	_
28	bottom	bottom	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	25	obl	_	_
29	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	30	cc	_	_
30	stay	stay	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	25	conj	_	_
31	there	there	ADV	RB	PronType=Dem	30	advmod	_	SpaceAfter=No
32	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	35	punct	_	_
33	or	or	CCONJ	CC	_	35	cc	_	_
34	else	else	ADV	RB	_	35	advmod	_	_
35	bob	bob	VERB	VB	Mood=Imp|VerbForm=Fin	30	parataxis	_	_
36	about	about	ADV	RB	_	35	advmod	_	_
37	on	on	ADP	IN	_	39	case	_	_
38	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	39	det	_	_
39	top	top	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	35	obl	_	_
40	of	of	ADP	IN	_	42	case	_	_
41	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	42	det	_	_
42	water	water	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	39	nmod	_	_
43	close	close	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	35	conj	_	_
44	to	to	ADP	IN	_	48	case	_	_
45	where	where	ADV	WRB	PronType=Rel	48	advmod	_	_
46	they	they	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Number=Plur|Person=3|PronType=Prs	48	nsubj	_	_
47	first	first	ADV	RB	NumForm=Word|NumType=Ord	48	advmod	_	_
48	touched	touch	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Plur|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	43	advcl	_	_
49	it	it	PRON	PRP	Case=Acc|Gender=Neut|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	48	obj	_	SpaceAfter=No
50	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	10	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

<!-- .fr -->
| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **not** **is** | present | ball |  |  | all uncommon thing | now | for balls | tree rules |
| 2 | **tumble** | to-infinitive |  |  |  | rivers |  |  | vn escape-51.1-1 «NP V PP.initial\_location»: agent=Theme into river=Initial\_Location |
| 3 | **fall** | infinitive | girls *= girl* |  |  | that case |  | to the bottom; generally *property* | vn occur-48.3 «NP V PP»: agent=Theme in case=Location |
| 4 | **stay** | infinitive | girls *= girl* *not said here* |  |  | there |  |  | vn exist-47.1 «NP V»: agent=Theme |
| 5 | **bob** | infinitive |  |  |  | the top of the water |  | about, else *property* | vn modes\_of\_being\_with\_motion-47.3 «NP V PP.location»: agent=Theme on top=Location |
| 6 | **touch** | past | girls *= girl* | ball |  |  |  | first *property* | vn contiguous\_location-47.8-1 «NP V NP»: agent=Theme it=Co-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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