---
title: The valley guarded by the black man now lay before him, and from afa… — The Lilac Fairy Book · tree and pragmatics
description: The valley guarded by the black man now lay before him, and from afar Peronnik beheld him, chained by one foot to a rock at the entrance, and holding the iron ball which never missed its mark and always returned to its master’s hand. Who acts: valley, iron ball. A sentence of «The Lilac Fairy Book» 
---

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# The Lilac Fairy Book, The Lilac Fairy Book, part 27, sentence 63

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The valley guarded by the black man now lay before him, and from afar Peronnik beheld him, chained by one foot to a rock at the entrance, and holding the iron ball which never missed its mark and always returned to its master’s hand.

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**Who acts:** valley, iron ball · **What happens:** guard, lie, behold, chain, hold, not miss · **To what, where:** valley, Peronnik, afar Peronnik, entrance, iron ball, mark

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This is a sentence of «The Lilac Fairy Book» by Andrew Lang, The Lilac Fairy Book, part 27. The page gives its syntax tree — a dependency tree in the style of Universal Dependencies — and its pragmatics clause by clause: who acts (valley, iron ball), 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:pg3454:27:63
# text = The valley guarded by the black man now lay before him, and from afar Peronnik beheld him, chained by one foot to a rock at the entrance, and holding the iron ball which never missed its mark and always returned to its master’s hand.
1	The	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	2	det	_	_
2	valley	valley	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	9	nsubj	_	_
3	guarded	guard	VERB	VBN	Tense=Past|VerbForm=Part|Voice=Pass	2	acl	_	_
4	by	by	ADP	IN	_	7	case	_	_
5	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	7	det	_	_
6	black	black	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	7	amod	_	_
7	man	man	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	3	obl	_	_
8	now	now	ADV	RB	PronType=Dem	9	advmod	_	_
9	lay	lie	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	0	root	_	_
10	before	before	ADP	IN	_	11	case	_	_
11	him	he	PRON	PRP	Case=Acc|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	9	obl	_	SpaceAfter=No
12	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	17	punct	_	_
13	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	17	cc	_	_
14	from	from	ADP	IN	_	16	case	_	_
15	afar	afar	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	16	amod	_	_
16	Peronnik	Peronnik	PROPN	NNP	Number=Sing	17	obl	_	_
17	beheld	behold	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	9	conj	_	_
18	him	he	PRON	PRP	Case=Acc|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	17	obj	_	SpaceAfter=No
19	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	20	punct	_	_
20	chained	chain	VERB	VBN	Tense=Past|VerbForm=Part|Voice=Pass	17	xcomp	_	_
21	by	by	ADP	IN	_	23	case	_	_
22	one	one	NUM	CD	NumForm=Word|NumType=Card	23	nummod	_	_
23	foot	foot	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	20	obl	_	_
24	to	to	ADP	IN	_	26	case	_	_
25	a	a	DET	DT	Definite=Ind|PronType=Art	26	det	_	_
26	rock	rock	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	20	obl	_	_
27	at	at	ADP	IN	_	29	case	_	_
28	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	29	det	_	_
29	entrance	entrance	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	20	obl	_	SpaceAfter=No
30	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	32	punct	_	_
31	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	32	cc	_	_
32	holding	hold	VERB	VBG	Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Part	9	advcl	_	_
33	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	35	det	_	_
34	iron	iron	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	35	compound	_	_
35	ball	ball	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	32	obj	_	_
36	which	which	PRON	WDT	PronType=Rel	38	nsubj	_	_
37	never	never	ADV	RB	PronType=Neg	38	advmod	_	_
38	missed	miss	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	35	acl:relcl	_	_
39	its	its	PRON	PRP$	Case=Gen|Gender=Neut|Number=Sing|Person=3|Poss=Yes|PronType=Prs	40	nmod:poss	_	_
40	mark	mark	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	38	obj	_	_
41	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	43	cc	_	_
42	always	always	ADV	RB	PronType=Tot	43	advmod	_	_
43	returned	return	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	38	conj	_	_
44	to	to	ADP	IN	_	48	case	_	_
45	its	its	PRON	PRP$	Case=Gen|Gender=Neut|Number=Sing|Person=3|Poss=Yes|PronType=Prs	46	nmod:poss	_	_
46	master	master	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	48	nmod:poss	_	SpaceAfter=No
47	’s	's	PART	POS	_	46	case	_	_
48	hand	hand	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	43	obl	_	SpaceAfter=No
49	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	9	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

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| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **guard** | participle |  | the valley *not said here* |  |  |  | by the black man | vn defend-72.3 «NP V S\_ING»: agent=Agent |
| 2 | **lie** | past | the valley |  |  |  | before Peronnik; now |  | vn assuming\_position-50 «NP V PP.location»: agent=Agent before he=Location |
| 3 | **behold** | past | the valley *not said here* | Peronnik |  | afar Peronnik |  |  | tree rules |
| 4 | **chain** | participle | the valley *not said here* |  |  | the entrance |  | by one foot; to a rock | vn tape-22.4 «NP V ADV-Middle PP»: agent=Patient to rock=Co-Patient |
| 5 | **hold** | gerund | the valley *not said here* | the iron ball |  |  |  |  | vn keep-15.2 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent ball=Theme |
| 6 | **not** **miss** | past | the iron ball | valley's mark |  |  |  |  | vn admire-31.2 «NP V NP»: agent=Experiencer mark=Stimulus |
| 7 | **return** | past | the iron ball *not said here* |  |  |  |  | to valley's master's hand *result*; always *property* | vn convert-26.6.2-1 «NP V S\_ING»: agent=Patient to hand=Result |
| 8 | **mark** |  | valley |  |  |  |  |  | nom mark «cognition transitive»: poss=agent |

<!-- .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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