---
title: And at his braying the animals came running, numerous as the stars i… — The Lilac Fairy Book · tree and pragmatics
description: And at his braying the animals came running, numerous as the stars in the sky, so that scarce was I able to stand among them. Who acts: power, scarce. A sentence of «The Lilac Fairy Book» by Andrew Lang, The Lilac Fairy Book, part 30, with its dependency tree and the pragmatics of every clause.
---

<!-- md -->
[Mova](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/) · [this page in HTML](https://mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg3454/30/32/)

<!-- 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 30](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg3454/30/) / 32

# The Lilac Fairy Book, The Lilac Fairy Book, part 30, sentence 32

<!-- .ven lang=en -->
And at his braying the animals came running, numerous as the stars in the sky, so that scarce was I able to stand among them.

<!-- .vintro -->
**Who acts:** power, scarce · **What happens:** bray, come, run, be, stand · **To what, where:** animals

<!-- .vabout -->
This is a sentence of «The Lilac Fairy Book» by Andrew Lang, The Lilac Fairy Book, part 30. The page gives its syntax tree — a dependency tree in the style of Universal Dependencies — and its pragmatics clause by clause: who acts (power, scarce), 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:pg3454:30:32
# text = And at his braying the animals came running, numerous as the stars in the sky, so that scarce was I able to stand among them.
1	And	and	CCONJ	CC	_	7	cc	_	_
2	at	at	SCONJ	IN	_	4	mark	_	_
3	his	his	PRON	PRP$	Gender=Masc|Poss=Yes|PronType=Prs	4	nsubj	_	_
4	braying	bray	VERB	VBG	Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Part	7	advcl	_	_
5	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	6	det	_	_
6	animals	animal	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	4	obj	_	_
7	came	come	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	0	root	_	_
8	running	run	VERB	VBG	Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Part	7	advcl	_	SpaceAfter=No
9	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	10	punct	_	_
10	numerous	numerous	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	8	conj	_	_
11	as	as	ADP	IN	_	13	case	_	_
12	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	13	det	_	_
13	stars	star	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	10	obl	_	_
14	in	in	ADP	IN	_	16	case	_	_
15	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	16	det	_	_
16	sky	sky	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	13	nmod	_	SpaceAfter=No
17	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	23	punct	_	_
18	so	so	SCONJ	IN	ExtPos=SCONJ	23	mark	_	_
19	that	that	SCONJ	IN	_	18	fixed	_	_
20	scarce	scarce	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	23	nsubj	_	_
21	was	be	AUX	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	23	cop	_	_
22	I	I	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Number=Sing|Person=1|PronType=Prs	23	nsubj	_	_
23	able	able	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	7	conj	_	_
24	to	to	PART	TO	_	25	mark	_	_
25	stand	stand	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	23	xcomp	_	_
26	among	among	ADP	IN	_	27	case	_	_
27	them	they	PRON	PRP	Case=Acc|Number=Plur|Person=3|PronType=Prs	25	obl	_	SpaceAfter=No
28	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	7	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

<!-- .fr -->
| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **bray** | gerund | power | the animals |  |  |  |  | vn manner\_speaking-37.3 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent animal=Topic |
| 2 | **come** | past |  |  |  |  |  |  | vn escape-51.1-1 «NP V»: agent=Theme |
| 3 | **run** | gerund |  |  |  |  |  |  | vn run-51.3.2-2-1 «NP V»: agent=Theme |
| 4 | **is** | past | scarce |  |  |  |  | able *property* | tree rules |
| 5 | **stand** | to-infinitive | scarce *not said here* |  |  |  |  | among stars *= star* | vn assuming\_position-50 «NP V PP.location»: agent=Agent among they=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.

<!-- 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 31](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg3454/30/31/)
- next →: [sentence 33](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg3454/30/33/)
- ↑ back to [The Lilac Fairy Book, part 30](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg3454/30/)