---
title: Just then out of a cloud of dust in the distance the king saw Moti a… — The Lilac Fairy Book · tree and pragmatics
description: Just then out of a cloud of dust in the distance the king saw Moti approaching at a hard gallop, looking indeed like a giant compared with the little beast he rode, whirling his castor-oil plant, which in the distance might have been an oak tree, and the sound of his revilings and shoutings came dow
---

<!-- md -->
[Mova](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/) · [this page in HTML](https://mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg3454/16/36/)

<!-- 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/) / 36

# The Lilac Fairy Book, The Lilac Fairy Book, part 16, sentence 36

<!-- .ven lang=en -->
Just then out of a cloud of dust in the distance the king saw Moti approaching at a hard gallop, looking indeed like a giant compared with the little beast he rode, whirling his castor-oil plant, which in the distance might have been an oak tree, and the sound of his revilings and shoutings came down upon the breeze!

<!-- .vintro -->
**Who acts:** king, Moti, castor oil plant, sound · **What happens:** see, approach, look, compare, ride, whirl · **To what, where:** Moti, cloud, hard gallop, giant compared little beast, castor oil plant, oak tree

<!-- .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 (king, Moti, castor oil plant, sound), 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:pg3454:16:36
# text = Just then out of a cloud of dust in the distance the king saw Moti approaching at a hard gallop, looking indeed like a giant compared with the little beast he rode, whirling his castor-oil plant, which in the distance might have been an oak tree, and the sound of his revilings and shoutings came down upon the breeze!
1	Just	just	ADV	RB	_	2	advmod	_	_
2	then	then	ADV	RB	PronType=Dem	14	advmod	_	_
3	out	out	ADP	IN	_	6	case	_	_
4	of	of	ADP	IN	_	6	case	_	_
5	a	a	DET	DT	Definite=Ind|PronType=Art	6	det	_	_
6	cloud	cloud	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	14	obl	_	_
7	of	of	ADP	IN	_	8	case	_	_
8	dust	dust	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	6	nmod	_	_
9	in	in	ADP	IN	_	11	case	_	_
10	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	11	det	_	_
11	distance	distance	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	6	nmod	_	_
12	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	13	det	_	_
13	king	king	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	14	nsubj	_	_
14	saw	see	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	0	root	_	_
15	Moti	Moti	PROPN	NNP	Number=Sing	14	obj	_	_
16	approaching	approach	VERB	VBG	VerbForm=Ger	14	xcomp	_	_
17	at	at	ADP	IN	_	20	case	_	_
18	a	a	DET	DT	Definite=Ind|PronType=Art	20	det	_	_
19	hard	hard	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	20	amod	_	_
20	gallop	gallop	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	16	obl	_	SpaceAfter=No
21	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	22	punct	_	_
22	looking	look	VERB	VBG	VerbForm=Ger	16	conj	_	_
23	indeed	indeed	ADV	RB	_	22	advmod	_	_
24	like	like	SCONJ	IN	_	31	mark	_	_
25	a	a	DET	DT	Definite=Ind|PronType=Art	31	det	_	_
26	giant	giant	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	31	amod	_	_
27	compared	compare	VERB	VBN	Tense=Past|VerbForm=Part|Voice=Pass	31	amod	_	_
28	with	with	ADP	IN	_	31	case	_	_
29	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	31	det	_	_
30	little	little	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	31	amod	_	_
31	beast	beast	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	22	xcomp	_	_
32	he	he	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	33	nsubj	_	_
33	rode	ride	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	31	acl:relcl	_	SpaceAfter=No
34	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	35	punct	_	_
35	whirling	whirl	VERB	VBG	VerbForm=Ger	16	conj	_	_
36	his	his	PRON	PRP$	Case=Gen|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|Poss=Yes|PronType=Prs	40	nmod:poss	_	_
37	castor	castor	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	40	compound	_	SpaceAfter=No
38	-	-	PUNCT	HYPH	_	37	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
39	oil	oil	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	40	compound	_	_
40	plant	plant	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	35	obj	_	SpaceAfter=No
41	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	51	punct	_	_
42	which	which	PRON	WDT	PronType=Rel	51	nsubj	_	_
43	in	in	ADP	IN	_	45	case	_	_
44	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	45	det	_	_
45	distance	distance	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	51	obl	_	_
46	might	might	AUX	MD	VerbForm=Fin	51	aux	_	_
47	have	have	AUX	VB	VerbForm=Inf	51	aux	_	_
48	been	be	AUX	VBN	Tense=Past|VerbForm=Part	51	cop	_	_
49	an	a	DET	DT	Definite=Ind|PronType=Art	51	det	_	_
50	oak	oak	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	51	compound	_	_
51	tree	tree	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	40	appos	_	SpaceAfter=No
52	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	61	punct	_	_
53	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	61	cc	_	_
54	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	55	det	_	_
55	sound	sound	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	61	nsubj	_	_
56	of	of	ADP	IN	_	58	case	_	_
57	his	his	PRON	PRP$	Case=Gen|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|Poss=Yes|PronType=Prs	58	nmod:poss	_	_
58	revilings	reviling	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	55	nmod	_	_
59	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	60	cc	_	_
60	shoutings	shouting	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	58	conj	_	_
61	came	come	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	14	conj	_	_
62	down	down	ADV	RB	_	61	advmod	_	_
63	upon	upon	ADP	IN	_	65	case	_	_
64	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	65	det	_	_
65	breeze	breeze	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	61	obl	_	SpaceAfter=No
66	!	!	PUNCT	.	_	14	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

<!-- .fr -->
| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **see** | past | the king | Moti |  | a cloud of dust in the distance | then |  | tree rules |
| 2 | **approach** | gerund | Moti *not said here* |  |  | a hard gallop |  |  | vn escape-51.1-1 «NP V»: agent=Theme |
| 3 | **look** | gerund | Moti *not said here* | a giant compared little beast |  |  |  | indeed *property* | vn stimulus\_subject-30.4 «NP V PP.attribute»: agent=Stimulus |
| 4 | **compare** | participle |  |  |  |  |  |  | vn amalgamate-22.2-2 «NP V ADVP-Middle»: agent=Patient |
| 5 | **ride** | past | king | a giant compared little beast *not said here* |  |  |  |  | vn nonvehicle-51.4.2 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent beast=Theme |
| 6 | **whirl** | gerund | Moti *not said here* | king's castor oil plant |  |  |  |  | vn roll-51.3.1 «NP V NP.theme»: agent=Agent plant=Theme |
| 7 | **is a** | might · perfect | king's castor oil plant | a oak tree |  |  |  | in the distance | tree rules |
| 8 | **come down** | past | the sound of king's revilings and shoutings |  |  | the breeze |  | down *property* | vn appear-48.1.1 «NP V PP.location»: agent=Theme upon breeze=Location |
| 9 | **cloud** |  |  | dust |  |  |  | in the distance | nom cloud «phenomenon transitive»: of=patient in=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 35](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg3454/16/35/)
- next →: [sentence 37](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg3454/16/37/)
- ↑ back to [The Lilac Fairy Book, part 16](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg3454/16/)