---
title: When he got to the place he drew back a few paces, took a little run… — The Brown Fairy Book · tree and pragmatics
description: When he got to the place he drew back a few paces, took a little run, and at the very edge of that dreadful black gulf he stopped short! Who acts: Wali. A sentence of «The Brown Fairy Book» by Andrew Lang, Story of Wali Dâd the Simple-Hearted, part 1, with its dependency tree and the pragmatics of e
---

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[Mova](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/) · [this page in HTML](https://mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg3282/34/87/)

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# The Brown Fairy Book, Story of Wali Dâd the Simple-Hearted, part 1, sentence 87

<!-- .ven lang=en -->
When he got to the place he drew back a few paces, took a little run, and at the very edge of that dreadful black gulf he stopped short!

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**Who acts:** Wali · **What happens:** get, draw back, take, stop · **To what, where:** few paces, place, little run, edge

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This is a sentence of «The Brown Fairy Book» by Andrew Lang, Story of Wali Dâd the Simple-Hearted, part 1. The page gives its syntax tree — a dependency tree in the style of Universal Dependencies — and its pragmatics clause by clause: who acts (Wali), 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:pg3282:34:87
# text = When he got to the place he drew back a few paces, took a little run, and at the very edge of that dreadful black gulf he stopped short!
1	When	when	ADV	WRB	PronType=Int	3	advmod	_	_
2	he	he	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	3	nsubj	_	_
3	got	get	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	14	advcl	_	_
4	to	to	ADP	IN	_	6	case	_	_
5	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	6	det	_	_
6	place	place	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	3	obl	_	_
7	he	he	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	8	nsubj	_	_
8	drew	draw	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	6	acl:relcl	_	_
9	back	back	ADV	RB	_	8	advmod	_	_
10	a	a	DET	DT	Definite=Ind|PronType=Art	12	det	_	_
11	few	few	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	12	amod	_	_
12	paces	pace	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	3	obj	_	SpaceAfter=No
13	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	3	punct	_	_
14	took	take	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=1|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	0	root	_	_
15	a	a	DET	DT	Definite=Ind|PronType=Art	17	det	_	_
16	little	little	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	17	amod	_	_
17	run	run	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	14	obj	_	SpaceAfter=No
18	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	30	punct	_	_
19	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	30	cc	_	_
20	at	at	ADP	IN	_	23	case	_	_
21	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	23	det	_	_
22	very	very	ADV	RB	_	23	advmod	_	_
23	edge	edge	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	30	obl	_	_
24	of	of	ADP	IN	_	28	case	_	_
25	that	that	PRON	DT	Number=Sing|PronType=Dem	28	nsubj	_	_
26	dreadful	dreadful	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	28	amod	_	_
27	black	black	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	28	amod	_	_
28	gulf	gulf	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	23	nmod	_	_
29	he	he	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	30	nsubj	_	_
30	stopped	stop	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	14	conj	_	_
31	short	short	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	30	xcomp	_	SpaceAfter=No
32	!	!	PUNCT	.	_	14	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

<!-- .fr -->
| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **get** | past | Wali | a few paces |  |  |  | to the place | vn comprehend-87.2-1 «NP V NP»: agent=Experiencer pace=Stimulus |
| 2 | **draw back** | past | Wali | the place *not said here* |  |  |  |  | vn scribble-25.2-1 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent place=Theme |
| 3 | **take** | past |  | a little run |  |  |  |  | vn bring-11.3 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent run=Theme |
| 4 | **stop** | past | Wali |  |  | the edge of dreadful black gulf |  | short *property* | vn lodge-46 «NP V PP.location»: agent=Theme at edge=Location |

<!-- .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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