---
title: At this sight his gun almost dropped from his hand in surprise, but… — The Lilac Fairy Book · tree and pragmatics
description: At this sight his gun almost dropped from his hand in surprise, but as he looked, there was the deer eating the corn again. Who acts: gun, hair, deer. A sentence of «The Lilac Fairy Book» by Andrew Lang, The Lilac Fairy Book, part 16, with its dependency tree and the pragmatics of every clause.
---

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# The Lilac Fairy Book, The Lilac Fairy Book, part 16, sentence 73

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At this sight his gun almost dropped from his hand in surprise, but as he looked, there was the deer eating the corn again.

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**Who acts:** gun, hair, deer · **What happens:** drop, look, be, eat · **To what, where:** sight, corn

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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 (gun, hair, deer), 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:pg3454:16:73
# text = At this sight his gun almost dropped from his hand in surprise, but as he looked, there was the deer eating the corn again.
1	At	at	ADP	IN	_	3	case	_	_
2	this	this	DET	DT	Number=Sing|PronType=Dem	3	det	_	_
3	sight	sight	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	7	obl	_	_
4	his	his	PRON	PRP$	Case=Gen|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|Poss=Yes|PronType=Prs	5	nmod:poss	_	_
5	gun	gun	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	7	nsubj	_	_
6	almost	almost	ADV	RB	_	7	advmod	_	_
7	dropped	drop	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	0	root	_	_
8	from	from	ADP	IN	_	10	case	_	_
9	his	his	PRON	PRP$	Case=Gen|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|Poss=Yes|PronType=Prs	10	nmod:poss	_	_
10	hand	hand	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	7	obl	_	_
11	in	in	ADP	IN	_	12	case	_	_
12	surprise	surprise	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	7	obl	_	SpaceAfter=No
13	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	20	punct	_	_
14	but	but	CCONJ	CC	_	20	cc	_	_
15	as	as	SCONJ	IN	_	17	mark	_	_
16	he	he	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	17	nsubj	_	_
17	looked	look	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	20	advcl	_	SpaceAfter=No
18	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	17	punct	_	_
19	there	there	PRON	EX	PronType=Dem	20	expl	_	_
20	was	be	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Plur|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	7	conj	_	_
21	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	22	det	_	_
22	deer	deer	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	20	nsubj	_	_
23	eating	eat	VERB	VBG	VerbForm=Ger	22	acl	_	_
24	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	25	det	_	_
25	corn	corn	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	23	obj	_	_
26	again	again	ADV	RB	_	23	advmod	_	SpaceAfter=No
27	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	7	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

<!-- .fr -->
| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **drop** | past | sight's gun |  |  | this sight |  | from sight's hand; in surprise; almost *property* | vn roll-51.3.1 «NP.theme V PP.source PP.trajectory PP.destination»: agent=Theme at sight=Source from hand=Trajectory in surprise=Destination |
| 2 | **look** | past | hair |  |  |  |  |  | vn stimulus\_subject-30.4 «NP V PP.attribute»: agent=Stimulus |
| 3 | **be** | past | the deer |  |  | there |  |  | vn exist-47.1 «NP V»: agent=Theme |
| 4 | **eat** | gerund | the deer *not said here* | the corn |  |  | again |  | vn eat-39.1-1 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent corn=Patient |

<!-- .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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