---
title: He toiled over a steep rocky shoulder of a hill, and there, just bel… — The Brown Fairy Book · tree and pragmatics
description: He toiled over a steep rocky shoulder of a hill, and there, just below him, was a stream dashing down a precipitous glen, and, almost beneath his feet, twinkling and flickering from the level of the torrent, was a dim light as of a lamp. Who acts: king, stream, feet. A sentence of «The Brown Fairy B
---

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# The Brown Fairy Book, Story Of The King Who Would Be Stronger Than Fate, sentence 18

<!-- .ven lang=en -->
He toiled over a steep rocky shoulder of a hill, and there, just below him, was a stream dashing down a precipitous glen, and, almost beneath his feet, twinkling and flickering from the level of the torrent, was a dim light as of a lamp.

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**Who acts:** king, stream, feet · **What happens:** toil, be, dash down, twinkle, flicker · **To what, where:** steep rocky shoulder, stream, precipitous glen, level, dim light

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This is a sentence of «The Brown Fairy Book» by Andrew Lang, Story Of The King Who Would Be Stronger Than Fate. The page gives its syntax tree — a dependency tree in the style of Universal Dependencies — and its pragmatics clause by clause: who acts (king, stream, feet), 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:pg3282:33:18
# text = He toiled over a steep rocky shoulder of a hill, and there, just below him, was a stream dashing down a precipitous glen, and, almost beneath his feet, twinkling and flickering from the level of the torrent, was a dim light as of a lamp.
1	He	he	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	2	nsubj	_	_
2	toiled	toil	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	0	root	_	_
3	over	over	ADP	IN	_	7	case	_	_
4	a	a	DET	DT	Definite=Ind|PronType=Art	7	det	_	_
5	steep	steep	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	7	amod	_	_
6	rocky	rocky	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	7	amod	_	_
7	shoulder	shoulder	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	2	obl	_	_
8	of	of	ADP	IN	_	10	case	_	_
9	a	a	DET	DT	Definite=Ind|PronType=Art	10	det	_	_
10	hill	hill	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	7	nmod	_	SpaceAfter=No
11	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	13	punct	_	_
12	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	13	cc	_	_
13	there	there	ADV	RB	PronType=Dem	2	advmod	_	SpaceAfter=No
14	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	17	punct	_	_
15	just	just	ADV	RB	_	17	advmod	_	_
16	below	below	ADP	IN	_	17	case	_	_
17	him	he	PRON	PRP	Case=Acc|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	2	parataxis	_	SpaceAfter=No
18	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	21	punct	_	_
19	was	be	AUX	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	21	cop	_	_
20	a	a	DET	DT	Definite=Ind|PronType=Art	21	det	_	_
21	stream	stream	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	2	parataxis	_	_
22	dashing	dash	VERB	VBG	VerbForm=Ger	21	acl	_	_
23	down	down	ADP	RP	_	22	compound:prt	_	_
24	a	a	DET	DT	Definite=Ind|PronType=Art	26	det	_	_
25	precipitous	precipitous	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	26	amod	_	_
26	glen	glen	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	22	obj	_	SpaceAfter=No
27	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	35	punct	_	_
28	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	35	cc	_	SpaceAfter=No
29	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	33	punct	_	_
30	almost	almost	ADV	RB	_	33	advmod	_	_
31	beneath	beneath	ADP	IN	_	33	case	_	_
32	his	his	PRON	PRP$	Case=Gen|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|Poss=Yes|PronType=Prs	33	nmod:poss	_	_
33	feet	foot	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	35	nsubj	_	SpaceAfter=No
34	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	35	punct	_	_
35	twinkling	twinkle	VERB	VBG	Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Part	2	advcl	_	_
36	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	37	cc	_	_
37	flickering	flicker	VERB	VBG	Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Part	35	conj	_	_
38	from	from	ADP	IN	_	40	case	_	_
39	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	40	det	_	_
40	level	level	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	37	obl	_	_
41	of	of	ADP	IN	_	43	case	_	_
42	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	43	det	_	_
43	torrent	torrent	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	40	nmod	_	SpaceAfter=No
44	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	48	punct	_	_
45	was	be	AUX	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	48	cop	_	_
46	a	a	DET	DT	Definite=Ind|PronType=Art	48	det	_	_
47	dim	dim	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	48	amod	_	_
48	light	light	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	2	obl	_	_
49	as	as	ADP	IN	ExtPos=ADP	52	case	_	_
50	of	of	ADP	IN	_	49	fixed	_	_
51	a	a	DET	DT	Definite=Ind|PronType=Art	52	det	_	_
52	lamp	lamp	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	48	nmod	_	SpaceAfter=No
53	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	2	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

<!-- .fr -->
| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **toil** | past | king |  |  | a steep rocky shoulder of a hill; there |  |  | vn run-51.3.2 «NP V PP.location»: agent=Theme over shoulder=Trajectory |
| 2 | **is a** | past |  | a stream |  |  |  |  | tree rules |
| 3 | **dash down** | gerund | a stream *not said here* | a precipitous glen |  |  |  |  | vn hit-18.1 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent glen=Patient |
| 4 | **twinkle** | gerund | king's feet |  |  |  |  |  | vn light\_emission-43.1 «NP V»: agent=Theme |
| 5 | **flicker** | gerund | king's feet *not said here* |  |  | the level of the torrent |  |  | vn light\_emission-43.1 «NP V»: agent=Theme |
| 6 | **is a** | past |  | a dim light |  |  |  | as a lamp | tree rules |

<!-- .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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