---
title: In a little valley he saw the heather burning and the fire spreading… — The Lilac Fairy Book · tree and pragmatics
description: In a little valley he saw the heather burning and the fire spreading fast towards the anthill, and all the ants were hurrying to and fro, not knowing whither to go. Who acts: Gwythyr, fire, ants. A sentence of «The Lilac Fairy Book» by Andrew Lang, The Lilac Fairy Book, part 40, with its dependency 
---

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# The Lilac Fairy Book, The Lilac Fairy Book, part 40, sentence 2

<!-- .ven lang=en -->
In a little valley he saw the heather burning and the fire spreading fast towards the anthill, and all the ants were hurrying to and fro, not knowing whither to go.

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**Who acts:** Gwythyr, fire, ants · **What happens:** see, spread, hurry, fro, not know, go · **To what, where:** heather burning, little valley, anthill

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This is a sentence of «The Lilac Fairy Book» by Andrew Lang, The Lilac Fairy Book, part 40. The page gives its syntax tree — a dependency tree in the style of Universal Dependencies — and its pragmatics clause by clause: who acts (Gwythyr, fire, ants), 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:pg3454:40:2
# text = In a little valley he saw the heather burning and the fire spreading fast towards the anthill, and all the ants were hurrying to and fro, not knowing whither to go.
1	In	in	ADP	IN	_	4	case	_	_
2	a	a	DET	DT	Definite=Ind|PronType=Art	4	det	_	_
3	little	little	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	4	amod	_	_
4	valley	valley	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	6	obl	_	_
5	he	he	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	6	nsubj	_	_
6	saw	see	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	0	root	_	_
7	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	9	det	_	_
8	heather	heather	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	9	amod	_	_
9	burning	burning	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	6	obj	_	_
10	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	12	cc	_	_
11	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	12	det	_	_
12	fire	fire	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	9	conj	_	_
13	spreading	spread	VERB	VBG	VerbForm=Ger	12	acl	_	_
14	fast	fast	ADV	RB	Degree=Pos	13	advmod	_	_
15	towards	towards	ADP	IN	_	17	case	_	_
16	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	17	det	_	_
17	anthill	anthill	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	13	obl	_	SpaceAfter=No
18	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	24	punct	_	_
19	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	24	cc	_	_
20	all	all	DET	PDT	PronType=Tot	22	det:predet	_	_
21	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	22	det	_	_
22	ants	ant	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	24	nsubj	_	_
23	were	be	AUX	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Plur|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	24	aux	_	_
24	hurrying	hurry	VERB	VBG	VerbForm=Ger	6	conj	_	_
25	to	to	ADP	IN	_	24	fixed	_	_
26	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	27	cc	_	_
27	fro	fro	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	24	conj	_	SpaceAfter=No
28	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	30	punct	_	_
29	not	not	PART	RB	Polarity=Neg	30	advmod	_	_
30	knowing	know	VERB	VBG	Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Part	24	advcl	_	_
31	whither	whither	ADV	WRB	PronType=Int	33	advmod	_	_
32	to	to	PART	TO	_	33	mark	_	_
33	go	go	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	30	xcomp	_	SpaceAfter=No
34	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	6	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

<!-- .fr -->
| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **see** | past | Gwythyr | the heather burning and the fire |  | a little valley |  |  | vn comprehend-87.2-1-1 «NP V NP»: agent=Experiencer burning=Stimulus |
| 2 | **spread** | gerund | the fire *not said here* |  |  | the anthill |  | fast *property* | vn spray-9.7-1 «NP V PP.destination»: agent=Theme towards anthill=Destination |
| 3 | **hurry** | past · progressive | all ants |  |  |  |  |  | vn run-51.3.2-2 «NP V»: agent=Theme |
| 4 | **fro** | infinitive | all ants *not said here* |  |  |  |  |  | tree rules |
| 5 | **not** **know** | gerund | all ants *not said here* |  |  |  |  |  | vn comprehend-87.2-1-1-1 «NP V how S\_INF»: agent=Experiencer clause=Stimulus |
| 6 | **go** | to-infinitive | all ants *not said here* |  |  |  |  | whither *property* | vn disappearance-48.2-1 «NP V»: agent=Theme |

<!-- .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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