---
title: But he nearly fell into the water from surprise, when the fish began… — The Brown Fairy Book · tree and pragmatics
description: But he nearly fell into the water from surprise, when the fish began to speak to him, in a small, squeaky voice: Who acts: cobbler, fish. A sentence of «The Brown Fairy Book» by Andrew Lang, Story of Wali Dâd the Simple-Hearted, part 4, with its dependency tree and the pragmatics of every clause.
---

<!-- md -->
[Mova](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/) · [this page in HTML](https://mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg3282/37/75/)

<!-- crumbs -->
[home](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/) / [corpora](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/) / [tales](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/) / [The Brown Fairy Book](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg3282/) / [Story of Wali Dâd the Simple-Hearted,…](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg3282/37/) / 75

# The Brown Fairy Book, Story of Wali Dâd the Simple-Hearted, part 4, sentence 75

<!-- .ven lang=en -->
But he nearly fell into the water from surprise, when the fish began to speak to him, in a small, squeaky voice:

<!-- .vintro -->
**Who acts:** cobbler, fish · **What happens:** fall, begin, speak · **To what, where:** water, small squeaky voice, cobbler · **Speech:** someone speaks here

<!-- .vabout -->
This is a sentence of «The Brown Fairy Book» by Andrew Lang, Story of Wali Dâd the Simple-Hearted, part 4. The page gives its syntax tree — a dependency tree in the style of Universal Dependencies — and its pragmatics clause by clause: who acts (cobbler, fish), 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:pg3282:37:75
# text = But he nearly fell into the water from surprise, when the fish began to speak to him, in a small, squeaky voice:
1	But	but	CCONJ	CC	_	4	cc	_	_
2	he	he	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	4	nsubj	_	_
3	nearly	nearly	ADV	RB	_	4	advmod	_	_
4	fell	fall	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	0	root	_	_
5	into	into	ADP	IN	_	7	case	_	_
6	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	7	det	_	_
7	water	water	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	4	obl	_	_
8	from	from	ADP	IN	_	9	case	_	_
9	surprise	surprise	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	4	obl	_	SpaceAfter=No
10	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	14	punct	_	_
11	when	when	ADV	WRB	PronType=Int	14	advmod	_	_
12	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	13	det	_	_
13	fish	fish	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	14	nsubj	_	_
14	began	begin	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	4	conj	_	_
15	to	to	PART	TO	_	16	mark	_	_
16	speak	speak	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	14	xcomp	_	_
17	to	to	ADP	IN	_	18	case	_	_
18	him	he	PRON	PRP	Case=Acc|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	16	obl	_	SpaceAfter=No
19	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	25	punct	_	_
20	in	in	ADP	IN	_	25	case	_	_
21	a	a	DET	DT	Definite=Ind|PronType=Art	25	det	_	_
22	small	small	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	25	amod	_	SpaceAfter=No
23	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	22	punct	_	_
24	squeaky	squeaky	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	25	amod	_	_
25	voice	voice	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	14	obl	_	SpaceAfter=No
26	:	:	PUNCT	:	_	4	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

<!-- .fr -->
| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **fall** | past | cobbler |  |  | the water |  | from surprise; nearly *property* | vn escape-51.1-1 «NP V PP.initial\_location PP.destination»: agent=Theme into water=Initial\_Location from surprise=Destination |
| 2 | **begin** | past | the fish |  |  | a small squeaky voice |  |  | vn begin-55.1-1-1 «NP V S\_INF»: agent=Agent clause=Eventuality |
| 3 | **speak** *speech: other* | to-infinitive | the fish *not said here* |  | cobbler |  |  |  | vn talk-37.5 «NP V PP.co-agent»: agent=Agent to he=Co-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.

<!-- div src -->

**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.

<!-- /div -->

<!-- pn -->
- ← previous: [sentence 74](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg3282/37/74/)
- next →: [sentence 76](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg3282/37/76/)
- ↑ back to [Story of Wali Dâd the Simple-Hearted, part 4](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg3282/37/)