---
title: On they came, bent a little forward, the tallest of them all at thei… — The Lilac Fairy Book · tree and pragmatics
description: On they came, bent a little forward, the tallest of them all at their head, breaking everything that stood in their way. Who acts: wallets. A sentence of «The Lilac Fairy Book» by Andrew Lang, The Lilac Fairy Book, part 26, with its dependency tree and the pragmatics of every clause.
---

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# The Lilac Fairy Book, The Lilac Fairy Book, part 26, sentence 40

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On they came, bent a little forward, the tallest of them all at their head, breaking everything that stood in their way.

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**Who acts:** wallets · **What happens:** come, bend, break, stand · **To what, where:** little, everything, way

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This is a sentence of «The Lilac Fairy Book» by Andrew Lang, The Lilac Fairy Book, part 26. The page gives its syntax tree — a dependency tree in the style of Universal Dependencies — and its pragmatics clause by clause: who acts (wallets), 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:pg3454:26:40
# text = On they came, bent a little forward, the tallest of them all at their head, breaking everything that stood in their way.
1	On	on	SCONJ	IN	_	3	mark	_	_
2	they	they	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Number=Plur|Person=3|PronType=Prs	3	nsubj	_	_
3	came	come	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Plur|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	19	advcl	_	SpaceAfter=No
4	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	5	punct	_	_
5	bent	bend	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Plur|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	3	conj	_	_
6	a	a	DET	DT	Definite=Ind|PronType=Art	7	det	_	_
7	little	little	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	5	obl:unmarked	_	_
8	forward	forward	ADV	RB	_	7	advmod	_	SpaceAfter=No
9	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	11	punct	_	_
10	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	11	det	_	_
11	tallest	tall	ADJ	JJS	Degree=Sup	3	advcl	_	_
12	of	of	ADP	IN	_	13	case	_	_
13	them	they	PRON	PRP	Case=Acc|Number=Plur|Person=3|PronType=Prs	11	nmod	_	_
14	all	all	DET	DT	PronType=Tot	13	nmod:unmarked	_	_
15	at	at	ADP	IN	_	17	case	_	_
16	their	their	PRON	PRP$	Case=Gen|Number=Plur|Person=3|Poss=Yes|PronType=Prs	17	nmod:poss	_	_
17	head	head	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	14	nmod	_	SpaceAfter=No
18	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	19	punct	_	_
19	breaking	break	VERB	VBG	Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Part	0	root	_	_
20	everything	everything	PRON	NN	Number=Sing|PronType=Tot	19	obj	_	_
21	that	that	PRON	WDT	PronType=Rel	22	nsubj	_	_
22	stood	stand	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	20	acl:relcl	_	_
23	in	in	ADP	IN	_	25	case	_	_
24	their	their	PRON	PRP$	Case=Gen|Number=Plur|Person=3|Poss=Yes|PronType=Prs	25	nmod:poss	_	_
25	way	way	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	22	obl	_	SpaceAfter=No
26	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	19	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

<!-- .fr -->
| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **come** | past | wallets *= wallet* |  |  |  |  |  | vn escape-51.1-1 «NP V»: agent=Theme |
| 2 | **bend** | past | wallets *= wallet* *not said here* | a little |  |  |  |  | vn assuming\_position-50 «NP V»: agent=Agent |
| 3 | **break** | gerund |  | everything |  |  |  |  | vn hurt-40.8.3-1-1 «NP V NP»: agent=Experiencer everything=Patient |
| 4 | **stand** | past |  |  |  | wallets's way |  |  | vn assuming\_position-50 «NP V PP.location»: agent=Agent in way=Location |

<!-- .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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