---
title: So, making himself very small and thin, he hid himself behind a pile… — The Brown Fairy Book · tree and pragmatics
description: So, making himself very small and thin, he hid himself behind a pile of buffalo skins in the corner, first tearing a slit through one of them, so that he could see what was going on. Who acts: door. A sentence of «The Brown Fairy Book» by Andrew Lang, The Brown Fairy Book, part 7, with its dependenc
---

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# The Brown Fairy Book, The Brown Fairy Book, part 7, sentence 27

<!-- .ven lang=en -->
So, making himself very small and thin, he hid himself behind a pile of buffalo skins in the corner, first tearing a slit through one of them, so that he could see what was going on.

<!-- .vintro -->
**Who acts:** door · **What happens:** make, hide, tear, see, go on · **To what, where:** door, pile, slit · **Speech:** someone speaks here

<!-- .vabout -->
This is a sentence of «The Brown Fairy Book» by Andrew Lang, The Brown Fairy Book, part 7. The page gives its syntax tree — a dependency tree in the style of Universal Dependencies — and its pragmatics clause by clause: who acts (door), 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:pg3282:7:27
# text = So, making himself very small and thin, he hid himself behind a pile of buffalo skins in the corner, first tearing a slit through one of them, so that he could see what was going on.
1	So	so	ADV	RB	_	11	advmod	_	SpaceAfter=No
2	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	1	punct	_	_
3	making	make	VERB	VBG	Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Part	11	advcl	_	_
4	himself	himself	PRON	PRP	Case=Acc|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs|Reflex=Yes	3	obj	_	_
5	very	very	ADV	RB	_	6	advmod	_	_
6	small	small	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	3	xcomp	_	_
7	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	8	cc	_	_
8	thin	thin	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	6	conj	_	SpaceAfter=No
9	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	3	punct	_	_
10	he	he	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	11	nsubj	_	_
11	hid	hide	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	0	root	_	_
12	himself	himself	PRON	PRP	Case=Acc|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs|Reflex=Yes	11	obj	_	_
13	behind	behind	ADP	IN	_	15	case	_	_
14	a	a	DET	DT	Definite=Ind|PronType=Art	15	det	_	_
15	pile	pile	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	11	obl	_	_
16	of	of	ADP	IN	_	18	case	_	_
17	buffalo	buffalo	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	18	compound	_	_
18	skins	skin	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	15	nmod	_	_
19	in	in	ADP	IN	_	21	case	_	_
20	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	21	det	_	_
21	corner	corner	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	18	nmod	_	SpaceAfter=No
22	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	24	punct	_	_
23	first	first	ADV	RB	NumForm=Word|NumType=Ord	24	advmod	_	_
24	tearing	tear	VERB	VBG	Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Part	11	advcl	_	_
25	a	a	DET	DT	Definite=Ind|PronType=Art	26	det	_	_
26	slit	slit	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	24	obj	_	_
27	through	through	ADP	IN	_	28	case	_	_
28	one	one	NUM	CD	NumForm=Word|NumType=Card	24	obl	_	_
29	of	of	ADP	IN	_	30	case	_	_
30	them	they	PRON	PRP	Case=Acc|Number=Plur|Person=3|PronType=Prs	28	nmod	_	SpaceAfter=No
31	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	36	punct	_	_
32	so	so	SCONJ	IN	ExtPos=SCONJ	36	mark	_	_
33	that	that	SCONJ	IN	_	32	fixed	_	_
34	he	he	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	36	nsubj	_	_
35	could	could	AUX	MD	VerbForm=Fin	36	aux	_	_
36	see	see	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	24	advcl	_	_
37	what	what	PRON	WP	PronType=Int	39	nsubj	_	_
38	was	be	AUX	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	39	aux	_	_
39	going	go	VERB	VBG	Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Part	36	ccomp	_	_
40	on	on	ADP	RP	_	39	compound:prt	_	SpaceAfter=No
41	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	11	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

<!-- .fr -->
| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **make** | gerund | door *not said here* | door |  |  |  | small *property* | vn build-26.1-1 «NP.asset V NP»: agent=Asset himself=Product |
| 2 | **hide** | past | door | door |  | a pile of buffalo skins in the corner |  |  | vn concealment-16-1 «NP V NP PP.location»: agent=Agent himself=Patient behind pile=Location |
| 3 | **tear** | gerund | door *not said here* | a slit |  |  |  | through one of skins; first *property* | vn run-51.3.2 «PP.location V NP»: agent=Initial\_Location slit=Theme |
| 4 | **see** | could | door |  |  |  |  |  | vn comprehend-87.2-1-1 «NP V how S\_INF»: agent=Experiencer clause=Stimulus |
| 5 | **go on** | past · progressive |  |  |  |  |  |  | vn function-105.2.1 «NP V»: agent=Theme |

<!-- .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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