---
title: The stag was quite punctual, and as soon as the sun’s rays struck th… — The Brown Fairy Book · tree and pragmatics
description: The stag was quite punctual, and as soon as the sun’s rays struck the trunk of the tree the stag started off, and was soon far out of the sight of the tortoise. Who acts: stag, rays, sun. A sentence of «The Brown Fairy Book» by Andrew Lang, Story of Wali Dâd the Simple-Hearted, part 2, with its depe
---

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# The Brown Fairy Book, Story of Wali Dâd the Simple-Hearted, part 2, sentence 103

<!-- .ven lang=en -->
The stag was quite punctual, and as soon as the sun’s rays struck the trunk of the tree the stag started off, and was soon far out of the sight of the tortoise.

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**Who acts:** stag, rays, sun · **What happens:** be, strike, start off, ray · **To what, where:** trunk, tree, sight

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This is a sentence of «The Brown Fairy Book» by Andrew Lang, Story of Wali Dâd the Simple-Hearted, part 2. The page gives its syntax tree — a dependency tree in the style of Universal Dependencies — and its pragmatics clause by clause: who acts (stag, rays, sun), 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:pg3282:35:103
# text = The stag was quite punctual, and as soon as the sun’s rays struck the trunk of the tree the stag started off, and was soon far out of the sight of the tortoise.
1	The	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	2	det	_	_
2	stag	stag	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	5	nsubj	_	_
3	was	be	AUX	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	5	cop	_	_
4	quite	quite	ADV	RB	_	5	advmod	_	_
5	punctual	punctual	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	0	root	_	SpaceAfter=No
6	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	15	punct	_	_
7	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	15	cc	_	_
8	as	as	ADV	RB	_	9	advmod	_	_
9	soon	soon	ADV	RB	Degree=Pos	15	advmod	_	_
10	as	as	SCONJ	IN	_	15	mark	_	_
11	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	12	det	_	_
12	sun	sun	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	14	nmod:poss	_	SpaceAfter=No
13	’s	's	PART	POS	_	12	case	_	_
14	rays	ray	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	15	nsubj	_	_
15	struck	strike	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Plur|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	5	conj	_	_
16	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	17	det	_	_
17	trunk	trunk	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	15	obj	_	_
18	of	of	ADP	IN	_	20	case	_	_
19	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	20	det	_	_
20	tree	tree	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	17	nmod	_	_
21	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	22	det	_	_
22	stag	stag	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	23	nsubj	_	_
23	started	start	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	20	acl:relcl	_	_
24	off	off	ADP	RP	_	23	compound:prt	_	SpaceAfter=No
25	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	33	punct	_	_
26	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	33	cc	_	_
27	was	be	AUX	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	33	cop	_	_
28	soon	soon	ADV	RB	Degree=Pos	29	advmod	_	_
29	far	far	ADV	RB	Degree=Pos	33	advmod	_	_
30	out	out	ADP	IN	_	33	case	_	_
31	of	of	ADP	IN	_	33	case	_	_
32	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	33	det	_	_
33	sight	sight	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	15	obl	_	_
34	of	of	ADP	IN	_	36	case	_	_
35	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	36	det	_	_
36	tortoise	tortoise	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	33	nmod	_	SpaceAfter=No
37	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	5	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

<!-- .fr -->
| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **is** | past | the stag |  |  |  |  | punctual *property* | tree rules |
| 2 | **strike** | past | the sun's rays | the trunk of the tree |  |  |  | soon *property* | vn hit-18.1-1 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent trunk=Patient |
| 3 | **start off** | past | the stag | the tree *not said here* |  |  |  |  | vn begin-55.1-1-1 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent tree=Eventuality |
| 4 | **is** | past |  |  |  | the sight |  | of the tortoise; far *property* | tree rules |
| 5 | **ray** |  | the sun |  |  |  |  |  | nom ray «phenomenon transitive»: poss=agent |

<!-- .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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