---
title: First one stone became untied and rolled away in a cloud of dust to… — The Lilac Fairy Book · tree and pragmatics
description: First one stone became untied and rolled away in a cloud of dust to one side of the road, whilst Moti nearly rolled off too, but clasped his steed valiantly by its ragged mane, and, dropping his staff, held on for dear life. Who acts: Moti. A sentence of «The Lilac Fairy Book» by Andrew Lang, The Li
---

<!-- md -->
[Mova](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/) · [this page in HTML](https://mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg3454/16/14/)

<!-- 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 Lilac Fairy Book](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg3454/) / [The Lilac Fairy Book, part 16](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg3454/16/) / 14

# The Lilac Fairy Book, The Lilac Fairy Book, part 16, sentence 14

<!-- .ven lang=en -->
First one stone became untied and rolled away in a cloud of dust to one side of the road, whilst Moti nearly rolled off too, but clasped his steed valiantly by its ragged mane, and, dropping his staff, held on for dear life.

<!-- .vintro -->
**Who acts:** Moti · **What happens:** untie, roll away, roll off, clasp, drop, hold on · **To what, where:** one stone, cloud, steed, staff, dust

<!-- .vabout -->
This is a sentence of «The Lilac Fairy Book» by Andrew Lang, The Lilac Fairy Book, part 16. The page gives its syntax tree — a dependency tree in the style of Universal Dependencies — and its pragmatics clause by clause: who acts (Moti), 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:pg3454:16:14
# text = First one stone became untied and rolled away in a cloud of dust to one side of the road, whilst Moti nearly rolled off too, but clasped his steed valiantly by its ragged mane, and, dropping his staff, held on for dear life.
1	First	first	ADV	RB	NumForm=Word|NumType=Ord	2	advmod	_	_
2	one	one	NUM	CD	NumForm=Word|NumType=Card	3	nummod	_	_
3	stone	stone	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	5	nsubj:pass	_	_
4	became	become	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	5	aux:pass	_	_
5	untied	untie	VERB	VBN	Tense=Past|VerbForm=Part|Voice=Pass	0	root	_	_
6	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	7	cc	_	_
7	rolled	roll	VERB	VBN	Tense=Past|VerbForm=Part|Voice=Pass	5	conj	_	_
8	away	away	ADV	RB	_	7	advmod	_	_
9	in	in	ADP	IN	_	11	case	_	_
10	a	a	DET	DT	Definite=Ind|PronType=Art	11	det	_	_
11	cloud	cloud	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	7	obl	_	_
12	of	of	ADP	IN	_	13	case	_	_
13	dust	dust	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	11	nmod	_	_
14	to	to	ADP	IN	_	16	case	_	_
15	one	one	NUM	CD	NumForm=Word|NumType=Card	16	nummod	_	_
16	side	side	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	11	nmod	_	_
17	of	of	ADP	IN	_	19	case	_	_
18	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	19	det	_	_
19	road	road	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	16	nmod	_	SpaceAfter=No
20	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	24	punct	_	_
21	whilst	whilst	SCONJ	IN	_	24	mark	_	_
22	Moti	Moti	PROPN	NNP	Number=Sing	24	nsubj	_	_
23	nearly	nearly	ADV	RB	_	24	advmod	_	_
24	rolled	roll	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	5	parataxis	_	_
25	off	off	ADP	RP	_	24	compound:prt	_	_
26	too	too	ADV	RB	_	24	advmod	_	SpaceAfter=No
27	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	29	punct	_	_
28	but	but	CCONJ	CC	_	29	cc	_	_
29	clasped	clasp	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	24	conj	_	_
30	his	his	PRON	PRP$	Case=Gen|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|Poss=Yes|PronType=Prs	31	nmod:poss	_	_
31	steed	steed	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	29	obj	_	_
32	valiantly	valiantly	ADV	RB	_	29	advmod	_	_
33	by	by	ADP	IN	_	36	case	_	_
34	its	its	PRON	PRP$	Case=Gen|Gender=Neut|Number=Sing|Person=3|Poss=Yes|PronType=Prs	36	nmod:poss	_	_
35	ragged	ragged	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	36	amod	_	_
36	mane	mane	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	29	obl	_	SpaceAfter=No
37	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	40	punct	_	_
38	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	40	cc	_	SpaceAfter=No
39	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	40	punct	_	_
40	dropping	drop	VERB	VBG	Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Part	29	advcl	_	_
41	his	his	PRON	PRP$	Case=Gen|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|Poss=Yes|PronType=Prs	42	nmod:poss	_	_
42	staff	staff	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	40	obj	_	SpaceAfter=No
43	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	44	punct	_	_
44	held	hold	VERB	VBN	Tense=Past|VerbForm=Part|Voice=Pass	40	conj	_	_
45	on	on	ADP	RP	_	44	compound:prt	_	_
46	for	for	ADP	IN	_	48	case	_	_
47	dear	dear	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	48	amod	_	_
48	life	life	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	44	obl	_	SpaceAfter=No
49	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	5	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

<!-- .fr -->
| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **untie** | past · passive |  | one stone |  |  |  |  | vn disassemble-23.3 «NP V NP»: subject=Patient |
| 2 | **roll away** | participle |  |  |  | a cloud of dust to one side of the road |  | away *property* | vn run-51.3.2-2 «NP V PP.location»: agent=Theme in cloud=Trajectory |
| 3 | **roll off** | past | Moti |  |  |  |  | nearly *property* | vn run-51.3.2-2 «NP V»: agent=Theme |
| 4 | **clasp** | past | Moti *not said here* | Moti's steed |  |  |  | by stone's ragged mane; valiantly *property* | vn hold-15.1-1 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent steed=Theme |
| 5 | **drop** | gerund | Moti *not said here* | Moti's staff |  |  |  |  | vn put\_direction-9.4 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent staff=Theme |
| 6 | **hold on** | participle | Moti *not said here* |  |  |  |  | for dear life | vn exist-47.1 «NP V»: agent=Theme |
| 7 | **cloud** |  |  | dust |  |  |  | to one side of the road | nom cloud «phenomenon transitive»: of=patient to=obl |

<!-- .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 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.

<!-- /div -->

<!-- pn -->
- ← previous: [sentence 13](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg3454/16/13/)
- next →: [sentence 15](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg3454/16/15/)
- ↑ back to [The Lilac Fairy Book, part 16](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg3454/16/)