---
title: And as he spoke two huge black cats sprang fiercely forward and sat… — The Blue Fairy Book · tree and pragmatics
description: And as he spoke two huge black cats sprang fiercely forward and sat down, one on each side of him, and gazed wildly at him with their fiery eyes. Who acts: King. A sentence of «The Blue Fairy Book» by Andrew Lang, The Tale of a Youth Who Set Out to Learn What Fear Was, with its dependency tree and t
---

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# The Blue Fairy Book, The Tale of a Youth Who Set Out to Learn What Fear Was, sentence 93

<!-- .ven lang=en -->
And as he spoke two huge black cats sprang fiercely forward and sat down, one on each side of him, and gazed wildly at him with their fiery eyes.

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**Who acts:** King · **What happens:** speak, spring, sit down, gaze · **To what, where:** two huge black cats · **Speech:** someone speaks here

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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 (King), 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:pg503:13:93
# text = And as he spoke two huge black cats sprang fiercely forward and sat down, one on each side of him, and gazed wildly at him with their fiery eyes.
1	And	and	CCONJ	CC	_	9	cc	_	_
2	as	as	SCONJ	IN	_	4	mark	_	_
3	he	he	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	4	nsubj	_	_
4	spoke	speak	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	9	advcl	_	_
5	two	two	NUM	CD	NumForm=Word|NumType=Card	8	nummod	_	_
6	huge	huge	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	8	amod	_	_
7	black	black	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	8	amod	_	_
8	cats	cat	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	4	obj	_	_
9	sprang	spring	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=1|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	0	root	_	_
10	fiercely	fiercely	ADV	RB	_	11	advmod	_	_
11	forward	forward	ADV	RB	_	9	advmod	_	_
12	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	13	cc	_	_
13	sat	sit	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=1|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	9	conj	_	_
14	down	down	ADP	RP	_	13	compound:prt	_	SpaceAfter=No
15	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	16	punct	_	_
16	one	one	NUM	CD	NumForm=Word|NumType=Card	13	conj	_	_
17	on	on	ADP	IN	_	19	case	_	_
18	each	each	DET	DT	PronType=Tot	19	det	_	_
19	side	side	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	16	nmod	_	_
20	of	of	ADP	IN	_	21	case	_	_
21	him	he	PRON	PRP	Case=Acc|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	19	nmod	_	SpaceAfter=No
22	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	24	punct	_	_
23	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	24	cc	_	_
24	gazed	gaze	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=1|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	9	conj	_	_
25	wildly	wildly	ADV	RB	_	24	advmod	_	_
26	at	at	ADP	IN	_	27	case	_	_
27	him	he	PRON	PRP	Case=Acc|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	24	obl	_	_
28	with	with	ADP	IN	_	31	case	_	_
29	their	their	PRON	PRP$	Case=Gen|Number=Plur|Person=3|Poss=Yes|PronType=Prs	31	nmod:poss	_	_
30	fiery	fiery	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	31	amod	_	_
31	eyes	eye	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	24	obl	_	SpaceAfter=No
32	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	9	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

<!-- .fr -->
| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **speak** *speech: other* | past | King | two huge black cats |  |  |  |  | tree rules |
| 2 | **spring** | past |  |  |  |  |  | forward *property* | vn run-51.3.2 «NP V»: agent=Theme |
| 3 | **sit down** | past |  |  |  |  |  |  | vn assuming\_position-50 «NP V»: agent=Agent |
| 4 | **gaze** | past |  |  |  |  |  | at King; with cats's fiery eyes; wildly *property* | vn peer-30.3 «NP V PP.theme»: agent=Agent at he=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 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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