---
title: In a minute or two he plucked up courage to go a little further into… — The Brown Fairy Book · tree and pragmatics
description: In a minute or two he plucked up courage to go a little further into the river, but again its width frightened him, and a second time he turned back. Who acts: sight, width. A sentence of «The Brown Fairy Book» by Andrew Lang, The Brown Fairy Book, part 7, with its dependency tree and the pragmatics
---

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# The Brown Fairy Book, The Brown Fairy Book, part 7, sentence 8

<!-- .ven lang=en -->
In a minute or two he plucked up courage to go a little further into the river, but again its width frightened him, and a second time he turned back.

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**Who acts:** sight, width · **What happens:** pluck up, go, frighten, turn back · **To what, where:** courage, sight

<!-- .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 (sight, width), 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:pg3282:7:8
# text = In a minute or two he plucked up courage to go a little further into the river, but again its width frightened him, and a second time he turned back.
1	In	in	ADP	IN	_	3	case	_	_
2	a	a	DET	DT	Definite=Ind|PronType=Art	3	det	_	_
3	minute	minute	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	7	obl	_	_
4	or	or	CCONJ	CC	_	5	cc	_	_
5	two	two	NUM	CD	NumForm=Word|NumType=Card	3	conj	_	_
6	he	he	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	7	nsubj	_	_
7	plucked	pluck	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	0	root	_	_
8	up	up	ADP	RP	_	7	compound:prt	_	_
9	courage	courage	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	7	obj	_	_
10	to	to	PART	TO	_	11	mark	_	_
11	go	go	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	9	acl	_	_
12	a	a	DET	DT	Definite=Ind|PronType=Art	13	det	_	_
13	little	little	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	14	obl	_	_
14	further	far	ADV	RBR	Degree=Cmp	11	advmod	_	_
15	into	into	ADP	IN	_	17	case	_	_
16	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	17	det	_	_
17	river	river	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	14	obl	_	SpaceAfter=No
18	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	23	punct	_	_
19	but	but	CCONJ	CC	_	23	cc	_	_
20	again	again	ADV	RB	_	23	advmod	_	_
21	its	its	PRON	PRP$	Case=Gen|Gender=Neut|Number=Sing|Person=3|Poss=Yes|PronType=Prs	22	nmod:poss	_	_
22	width	width	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	23	nsubj	_	_
23	frightened	frighten	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	7	conj	_	_
24	him	he	PRON	PRP	Case=Acc|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	23	obj	_	SpaceAfter=No
25	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	31	punct	_	_
26	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	31	cc	_	_
27	a	a	DET	DT	Definite=Ind|PronType=Art	29	det	_	_
28	second	second	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos|NumForm=Word|NumType=Ord	29	amod	_	_
29	time	time	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	31	obl:unmarked	_	_
30	he	he	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	31	nsubj	_	_
31	turned	turn	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	7	conj	_	_
32	back	back	ADV	RB	_	31	advmod	_	SpaceAfter=No
33	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	7	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

<!-- .fr -->
| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **pluck up** | past | sight | courage |  |  | minute |  | vn braid-41.2.2 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent courage=Patient |
| 2 | **go** | to-infinitive | sight *not said here* | courage *not said here* |  |  |  | far *property* | vn disappearance-48.2-1 «NP V»: agent=Theme |
| 3 | **frighten** | past | river's width | sight |  |  | again |  | vn amuse-31.1 «NP V NP»: agent=Stimulus he=Experiencer |
| 4 | **turn back** | past | sight |  |  |  | time |  | vn banish-10.2 «NP V NP»: agent=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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