---
title: At the bush, the dogs shrank away as if frightened, and returned to… — The Lilac Fairy Book · tree and pragmatics
description: At the bush, the dogs shrank away as if frightened, and returned to their masters, their hair brisling on their backs. Who acts: dogs. A sentence of «The Lilac Fairy Book» by Andrew Lang, The Lilac Fairy Book, part 35, with its dependency tree and the pragmatics of every clause.
---

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[Mova](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/) · [this page in HTML](https://mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg3454/35/35/)

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# The Lilac Fairy Book, The Lilac Fairy Book, part 35, sentence 35

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At the bush, the dogs shrank away as if frightened, and returned to their masters, their hair brisling on their backs.

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**Who acts:** dogs · **What happens:** shrink away, frighten, return

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This is a sentence of «The Lilac Fairy Book» by Andrew Lang, The Lilac Fairy Book, part 35. The page gives its syntax tree — a dependency tree in the style of Universal Dependencies — and its pragmatics clause by clause: who acts (dogs), 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:pg3454:35:35
# text = At the bush, the dogs shrank away as if frightened, and returned to their masters, their hair brisling on their backs.
1	At	at	ADP	IN	_	3	case	_	_
2	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	3	det	_	_
3	bush	bush	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	7	obl	_	SpaceAfter=No
4	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	3	punct	_	_
5	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	6	det	_	_
6	dogs	dog	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	7	nsubj	_	_
7	shrank	shrink	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Plur|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	0	root	_	_
8	away	away	ADV	RB	_	7	advmod	_	_
9	as	as	SCONJ	IN	_	11	mark	_	_
10	if	if	SCONJ	IN	_	9	fixed	_	_
11	frightened	frighten	VERB	VBN	Tense=Past|VerbForm=Part|Voice=Pass	7	advcl	_	SpaceAfter=No
12	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	14	punct	_	_
13	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	14	cc	_	_
14	returned	return	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Plur|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	7	conj	_	_
15	to	to	ADP	IN	_	17	case	_	_
16	their	their	PRON	PRP$	Case=Gen|Number=Plur|Person=3|Poss=Yes|PronType=Prs	17	nmod:poss	_	_
17	masters	master	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	14	obl	_	SpaceAfter=No
18	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	21	punct	_	_
19	their	their	PRON	PRP$	Case=Gen|Number=Plur|Person=3|Poss=Yes|PronType=Prs	21	nmod:poss	_	_
20	hair	hair	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	21	compound	_	_
21	brisling	brisling	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	17	appos	_	_
22	on	on	ADP	IN	_	24	case	_	_
23	their	their	PRON	PRP$	Case=Gen|Number=Plur|Person=3|Poss=Yes|PronType=Prs	24	nmod:poss	_	_
24	backs	back	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	21	nmod	_	SpaceAfter=No
25	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	7	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

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| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **shrink away** | past | the dogs |  |  |  |  | at the bush; away *property* | vn flinch-40.5 «NP V PP.stimulus»: agent=Experiencer at bush=Stimulus |
| 2 | **frighten** | participle | the dogs *not said here* |  |  |  |  |  | vn amuse-31.1 «NP V ADV-Middle»: agent=Experiencer |
| 3 | **return** | past | the dogs *not said here* |  |  |  |  | to dogs's masters *result* | vn convert-26.6.2-1 «NP V S\_ING»: agent=Patient to master=Result |

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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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