---
title: Some built strong barriers to hold back the fiery rivers in the eart… — The Brown Fairy Book · tree and pragmatics
description: Some built strong barriers to hold back the fiery rivers in the earth’s heart, and some had scalding vapours to change dull stones to precious metal, or were hard at work filling every cranny of the rocks with diamonds and rubies; for Rübezahl loved all pretty things. Who acts: Some, scalding vapour
---

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# The Brown Fairy Book, The Brown Fairy Book, part 30, sentence 94

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Some built strong barriers to hold back the fiery rivers in the earth’s heart, and some had scalding vapours to change dull stones to precious metal, or were hard at work filling every cranny of the rocks with diamonds and rubies; for Rübezahl loved all pretty things.

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**Who acts:** Some, scalding vapours · **What happens:** build, hold back, have, change, be, fill · **To what, where:** strong barriers, fiery rivers, heart, scalding vapours, dull stones, work

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This is a sentence of «The Brown Fairy Book» by Andrew Lang, The Brown Fairy Book, part 30. The page gives its syntax tree — a dependency tree in the style of Universal Dependencies — and its pragmatics clause by clause: who acts (Some, scalding vapours), 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:pg3282:30:94
# text = Some built strong barriers to hold back the fiery rivers in the earth’s heart, and some had scalding vapours to change dull stones to precious metal, or were hard at work filling every cranny of the rocks with diamonds and rubies; for Rübezahl loved all pretty things.
1	Some	some	DET	DT	PronType=Ind	2	nsubj	_	_
2	built	build	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Plur|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	0	root	_	_
3	strong	strong	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	4	amod	_	_
4	barriers	barrier	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	2	obj	_	_
5	to	to	PART	TO	_	6	mark	_	_
6	hold	hold	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	2	advcl	_	_
7	back	back	ADV	RB	_	6	advmod	_	_
8	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	10	det	_	_
9	fiery	fiery	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	10	amod	_	_
10	rivers	river	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	6	obj	_	_
11	in	in	ADP	IN	_	15	case	_	_
12	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	13	det	_	_
13	earth	earth	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	15	nmod:poss	_	SpaceAfter=No
14	’s	's	PART	POS	_	13	case	_	_
15	heart	heart	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	6	obl	_	SpaceAfter=No
16	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	19	punct	_	_
17	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	19	cc	_	_
18	some	some	DET	DT	PronType=Ind	19	nsubj	_	_
19	had	have	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	2	parataxis	_	_
20	scalding	scalding	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	21	compound	_	_
21	vapours	vapour	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	19	obj	_	_
22	to	to	PART	TO	_	23	mark	_	_
23	change	change	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	19	xcomp	_	_
24	dull	dull	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	25	amod	_	_
25	stones	stone	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	23	obj	_	_
26	to	to	ADP	IN	_	28	case	_	_
27	precious	precious	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	28	amod	_	_
28	metal	metal	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	23	obl	_	SpaceAfter=No
29	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	32	punct	_	_
30	or	or	CCONJ	CC	_	32	cc	_	_
31	were	be	AUX	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Plur|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	32	cop	_	_
32	hard	hard	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	19	conj	_	_
33	at	at	ADP	IN	_	34	case	_	_
34	work	work	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	32	obl	_	_
35	filling	fill	VERB	VBG	Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Part	32	advcl	_	_
36	every	every	DET	DT	PronType=Tot	37	det	_	_
37	cranny	cranny	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	35	obj	_	_
38	of	of	ADP	IN	_	40	case	_	_
39	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	40	det	_	_
40	rocks	rock	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	37	nmod	_	_
41	with	with	ADP	IN	_	42	case	_	_
42	diamonds	diamond	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	40	nmod	_	_
43	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	44	cc	_	_
44	rubies	ruby	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	42	conj	_	SpaceAfter=No
45	;	;	PUNCT	:	_	48	punct	_	_
46	for	for	ADP	IN	_	47	case	_	_
47	Rübezahl	Rübezahl	PROPN	NNP	Number=Sing	48	obl	_	_
48	loved	love	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	2	conj	_	_
49	all	all	ADV	RB	_	50	advmod	_	_
50	pretty	pretty	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	51	amod	_	_
51	things	thing	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	48	obj	_	SpaceAfter=No
52	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	2	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

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| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **build** | past | Some | strong barriers |  |  |  |  | vn build-26.1-1 «NP.asset V NP»: agent=Asset barrier=Product |
| 2 | **hold back** | to-infinitive | Some *not said here* | the fiery rivers |  | the earth's heart |  |  | vn keep-15.2 «NP V NP PP.location»: agent=Agent river=Theme in heart=Location |
| 3 | **have** | past | some | scalding vapours |  |  |  |  | tree rules |
| 4 | **change** | to-infinitive | scalding vapours *not said here* | dull stones |  |  |  | to precious metal | vn dress-41.1.1-1-1 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent stone=Patient |
| 5 | **is** | past | some *not said here* |  |  | work |  | hard *property* | tree rules |
| 6 | **fill** | gerund | some *not said here* | every cranny of the rocks with diamonds and rubies |  |  |  |  | vn other\_cos-45.4 «NP V NP.patient»: agent=Agent cranny=Patient |
| 7 | **love** | past | Some *not said here* | pretty things |  |  |  | for Rübezahl | vn admire-31.2-1 «NP V NP PP.attribute»: agent=Experiencer thing=Stimulus for rübezahl=Attribute |

<!-- .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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