---
title: They rode across the desert on tall camels; the lions roared with th… — The Lilac Fairy Book · tree and pragmatics
description: They rode across the desert on tall camels; the lions roared with thirst, and the great crocodiles with their grey lizard heads and sharp white teeth gaped up out of the river. Who acts: people, lions, great crocodiles. A sentence of «The Lilac Fairy Book» by Andrew Lang, The Lilac Fairy Book, part 
---

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# The Lilac Fairy Book, The Lilac Fairy Book, part 14, sentence 126

<!-- .ven lang=en -->
They rode across the desert on tall camels; the lions roared with thirst, and the great crocodiles with their grey lizard heads and sharp white teeth gaped up out of the river.

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**Who acts:** people, lions, great crocodiles · **What happens:** ride, roar, gape up · **To what, where:** desert

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This is a sentence of «The Lilac Fairy Book» by Andrew Lang, The Lilac Fairy Book, part 14. The page gives its syntax tree — a dependency tree in the style of Universal Dependencies — and its pragmatics clause by clause: who acts (people, lions, great crocodiles), 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:pg3454:14:126
# text = They rode across the desert on tall camels; the lions roared with thirst, and the great crocodiles with their grey lizard heads and sharp white teeth gaped up out of the river.
1	They	they	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Number=Plur|Person=3|PronType=Prs	2	nsubj	_	_
2	rode	ride	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Plur|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	0	root	_	_
3	across	across	ADP	IN	_	5	case	_	_
4	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	5	det	_	_
5	desert	desert	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	2	obl	_	_
6	on	on	ADP	IN	_	8	case	_	_
7	tall	tall	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	8	amod	_	_
8	camels	camel	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	2	obl	_	SpaceAfter=No
9	;	;	PUNCT	:	_	12	punct	_	_
10	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	11	det	_	_
11	lions	lion	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	12	nsubj	_	_
12	roared	roar	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Plur|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	2	conj	_	_
13	with	with	ADP	IN	_	14	case	_	_
14	thirst	thirst	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	12	obl	_	SpaceAfter=No
15	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	29	punct	_	_
16	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	29	cc	_	_
17	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	19	det	_	_
18	great	great	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	19	amod	_	_
19	crocodiles	crocodile	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	29	nsubj	_	_
20	with	with	ADP	IN	_	24	case	_	_
21	their	their	PRON	PRP$	Case=Gen|Number=Plur|Person=3|Poss=Yes|PronType=Prs	24	nmod:poss	_	_
22	grey	grey	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	24	amod	_	_
23	lizard	lizard	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	24	compound	_	_
24	heads	head	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	19	nmod	_	_
25	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	28	cc	_	_
26	sharp	sharp	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	28	amod	_	_
27	white	white	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	28	amod	_	_
28	teeth	tooth	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	24	conj	_	_
29	gaped	gape	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Plur|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	2	conj	_	_
30	up	up	ADP	RP	_	29	compound:prt	_	_
31	out	out	ADP	IN	_	34	case	_	_
32	of	of	ADP	IN	_	34	case	_	_
33	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	34	det	_	_
34	river	river	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	29	obl	_	SpaceAfter=No
35	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	2	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

<!-- .fr -->
| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **ride** | past | people |  |  | the desert |  | on tall camels | vn nonvehicle-51.4.2 «NP V PP.location»: agent=Agent across desert=Trajectory |
| 2 | **roar** | past | the lions |  |  |  |  | with thirst | vn sound\_emission-43.2 «NP.location V PP.theme»: agent=Location with thirst=Theme |
| 3 | **gape up** | past | the great crocodiles with people's grey lizard heads and sharp white teeth |  |  |  |  | out the river | vn peer-30.3 «NP V PP.theme»: agent=Agent out river=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 Lilac Fairy Book» by Andrew Lang, Project Gutenberg book 3454 (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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