---
title: Or, when they sat of an evening around the fire telling stories whic… — The Blue Fairy Book · tree and pragmatics
description: Or, when they sat of an evening around the fire telling stories which made one’s flesh creep, the listeners sometimes said: “Oh! it makes one shudder,” the youngest sat in a corner, heard the exclamation, and could not understand what it meant. Who acts: churchyard, listeners, creep, youngest. A sen
---

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# The Blue Fairy Book, The Tale of a Youth Who Set Out to Learn What Fear Was, sentence 4

<!-- .ven lang=en -->
Or, when they sat of an evening around the fire telling stories which made one’s flesh creep, the listeners sometimes said: “Oh! it makes one shudder,” the youngest sat in a corner, heard the exclamation, and could not understand what it meant.

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**Who acts:** churchyard, listeners, creep, youngest · **What happens:** sit, tell, make, say, hear, not understand · **To what, where:** fire, stories, one flesh creep, one shudder, corner, exclamation · **Speech:** someone speaks here

<!-- .vabout -->
This is a sentence of «The Blue Fairy Book» by Andrew Lang, The Tale of a Youth Who Set Out to Learn What Fear Was. The page gives its syntax tree — a dependency tree in the style of Universal Dependencies — and its pragmatics clause by clause: who acts (churchyard, listeners, creep, youngest), 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:pg503:13:4
# text = Or, when they sat of an evening around the fire telling stories which made one’s flesh creep, the listeners sometimes said: “Oh! it makes one shudder,” the youngest sat in a corner, heard the exclamation, and could not understand what it meant.
1	Or	or	CCONJ	CC	_	15	cc	_	SpaceAfter=No
2	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	1	punct	_	_
3	when	when	ADV	WRB	PronType=Int	5	advmod	_	_
4	they	they	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Number=Plur|Person=3|PronType=Prs	5	nsubj	_	_
5	sat	sit	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Plur|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	15	advcl	_	_
6	of	of	ADP	IN	_	8	case	_	_
7	an	a	DET	DT	Definite=Ind|PronType=Art	8	det	_	_
8	evening	evening	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	5	obl	_	_
9	around	around	ADP	IN	_	11	case	_	_
10	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	11	det	_	_
11	fire	fire	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	5	obl	_	_
12	telling	tell	VERB	VBG	Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Part	5	advcl	_	_
13	stories	story	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	12	obj	_	_
14	which	which	PRON	WDT	PronType=Rel	15	nsubj	_	_
15	made	make	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	0	root	_	_
16	one	one	NUM	CD	NumForm=Word|NumType=Card	19	nummod	_	SpaceAfter=No
17	’s	's	PART	POS	_	16	case	_	_
18	flesh	flesh	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	19	compound	_	_
19	creep	creep	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	15	obj	_	SpaceAfter=No
20	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	24	punct	_	_
21	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	22	det	_	_
22	listeners	listener	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	24	nsubj	_	_
23	sometimes	sometimes	ADV	RB	PronType=Ind	24	advmod	_	_
24	said	say	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Plur|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	15	conj	_	SpaceAfter=No
25	:	:	PUNCT	:	_	30	punct	_	_
26	“	"	PUNCT	``	_	30	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
27	Oh	oh	INTJ	UH	_	30	discourse	_	SpaceAfter=No
28	!	!	PUNCT	.	_	27	punct	_	_
29	it	it	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Gender=Neut|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	30	nsubj	_	_
30	makes	make	VERB	VBZ	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Fin	24	ccomp	_	_
31	one	one	NUM	CD	NumForm=Word|NumType=Card	32	nummod	_	_
32	shudder	shudder	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	30	obj	_	SpaceAfter=No
33	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	30	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
34	”	"	PUNCT	''	_	30	punct	_	_
35	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	36	det	_	_
36	youngest	young	ADJ	JJS	Degree=Sup	37	nsubj	_	_
37	sat	sit	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	30	parataxis	_	_
38	in	in	ADP	IN	_	40	case	_	_
39	a	a	DET	DT	Definite=Ind|PronType=Art	40	det	_	_
40	corner	corner	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	37	obl	_	SpaceAfter=No
41	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	42	punct	_	_
42	heard	hear	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	37	conj	_	_
43	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	44	det	_	_
44	exclamation	exclamation	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	42	obj	_	SpaceAfter=No
45	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	49	punct	_	_
46	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	49	cc	_	_
47	could	could	AUX	MD	VerbForm=Fin	49	aux	_	_
48	not	not	PART	RB	Polarity=Neg	49	advmod	_	_
49	understand	understand	VERB	VB	Mood=Imp|VerbForm=Fin	42	parataxis	_	_
50	what	what	PRON	WP	PronType=Int	52	obj	_	_
51	it	it	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Gender=Neut|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	52	nsubj	_	_
52	meant	mean	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	49	ccomp	_	SpaceAfter=No
53	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	15	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

<!-- .fr -->
| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **sit** | past | churchyard |  |  | the fire | evening |  | vn assuming\_position-50 «NP V PP.location»: agent=Agent around fire=Location |
| 2 | **tell** *speech: assert* | gerund | churchyard *not said here* | stories |  |  |  |  | vn transfer\_mesg-37.1.1-1-1 «NP V NP.recipient»: agent=Agent story=Recipient |
| 3 | **make** | past |  | one flesh creep |  |  |  |  | vn build-26.1-1 «NP.asset V NP»: agent=Asset creep=Product |
| 4 | **say** *speech: express* | past | the listeners |  |  |  |  | sometimes *property* | vn say-37.7-1-1 «NP V that S»: agent=Agent clause=Topic |
| 5 | **make** *in a quote* | present | creep | one shudder |  |  |  |  | tree rules |
| 6 | **sit** | past | the youngest |  |  | a corner |  |  | vn assuming\_position-50 «NP V PP.location»: agent=Agent in corner=Location |
| 7 | **hear** | past | the youngest *not said here* | the exclamation |  |  |  |  | vn see-30.1-1-1 «NP V S»: agent=Experiencer exclamation=Stimulus |
| 8 | **not** **understand** | could |  |  |  |  |  |  | vn comprehend-87.2-1-1-1 «NP V how S\_INF»: agent=Experiencer clause=Stimulus |
| 9 | **mean** | past | creep |  |  |  |  |  | vn intend-61.2-1 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent what=Topic |

<!-- .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 Blue Fairy Book» by Andrew Lang, Project Gutenberg book 503 (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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