---
title: But they had hardly finished their meal when the noise of the Beast’… — The Blue Fairy Book · tree and pragmatics
description: But they had hardly finished their meal when the noise of the Beast’s footsteps was heard approaching, and Beauty clung to her father in terror, which became all the greater when she saw how frightened he was. Who acts: steps, noise, Beauty, terror. A sentence of «The Blue Fairy Book» by Andrew Lang
---

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# The Blue Fairy Book, Beauty and the Beast, part 2, sentence 16

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But they had hardly finished their meal when the noise of the Beast’s footsteps was heard approaching, and Beauty clung to her father in terror, which became all the greater when she saw how frightened he was.

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**Who acts:** steps, noise, Beauty, terror, footsteps · **What happens:** finish, hear, approach, cling, become, see · **To what, where:** meal, noise, terror

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This is a sentence of «The Blue Fairy Book» by Andrew Lang, Beauty and the Beast, part 2. The page gives its syntax tree — a dependency tree in the style of Universal Dependencies — and its pragmatics clause by clause: who acts (steps, noise, Beauty, terror), 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:pg503:15:16
# text = But they had hardly finished their meal when the noise of the Beast’s footsteps was heard approaching, and Beauty clung to her father in terror, which became all the greater when she saw how frightened he was.
1	But	but	CCONJ	CC	_	5	cc	_	_
2	they	they	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Number=Plur|Person=3|PronType=Prs	5	nsubj	_	_
3	had	have	AUX	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Plur|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	5	aux	_	_
4	hardly	hardly	ADV	RB	_	5	advmod	_	_
5	finished	finish	VERB	VBN	Tense=Past|VerbForm=Part	0	root	_	_
6	their	their	PRON	PRP$	Case=Gen|Number=Plur|Person=3|Poss=Yes|PronType=Prs	7	nmod:poss	_	_
7	meal	meal	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	5	obj	_	_
8	when	when	ADV	WRB	PronType=Int	17	advmod	_	_
9	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	10	det	_	_
10	noise	noise	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	17	nsubj	_	_
11	of	of	ADP	IN	_	15	case	_	_
12	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	13	det	_	_
13	Beast	Beast	PROPN	NNP	Number=Sing	15	nmod:poss	_	SpaceAfter=No
14	’s	's	PART	POS	_	13	case	_	_
15	footsteps	footstep	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	10	nmod	_	_
16	was	be	AUX	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	17	aux:pass	_	_
17	heard	hear	VERB	VBN	Tense=Past|VerbForm=Part|Voice=Pass	5	advcl	_	_
18	approaching	approach	VERB	VBG	VerbForm=Ger	17	xcomp	_	SpaceAfter=No
19	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	22	punct	_	_
20	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	22	cc	_	_
21	Beauty	Beauty	PROPN	NNP	Number=Sing	22	nsubj	_	_
22	clung	cling	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	5	advcl	_	_
23	to	to	ADP	IN	_	25	case	_	_
24	her	her	PRON	PRP$	Case=Gen|Gender=Fem|Number=Sing|Person=3|Poss=Yes|PronType=Prs	25	nmod:poss	_	_
25	father	father	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	22	obl	_	_
26	in	in	ADP	IN	_	27	case	_	_
27	terror	terror	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	22	obl	_	SpaceAfter=No
28	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	30	punct	_	_
29	which	which	PRON	WDT	PronType=Rel	30	nsubj	_	_
30	became	become	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	27	parataxis	_	_
31	all	all	DET	PDT	PronType=Tot	33	det:predet	_	_
32	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	33	det	_	_
33	greater	great	ADJ	JJR	Degree=Cmp	30	xcomp	_	_
34	when	when	ADV	WRB	PronType=Int	36	advmod	_	_
35	she	she	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Gender=Fem|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	36	nsubj	_	_
36	saw	see	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	30	advcl	_	_
37	how	how	ADV	WRB	PronType=Int	38	advmod	_	_
38	frightened	frighten	VERB	VBN	Tense=Past|VerbForm=Part|Voice=Pass	36	xcomp	_	_
39	he	he	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	40	nsubj	_	_
40	was	be	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	38	ccomp	_	SpaceAfter=No
41	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	5	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

<!-- .fr -->
| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **finish** | past · perfect | steps *= step* | steps's meal |  |  |  | hardly *property* | vn stop-55.4-1-1 «NP V NP.eventuality»: agent=Subeventuality meal=Eventuality |
| 2 | **hear** | past · passive |  | the noise of the Beast's footsteps |  |  |  |  | tree rules |
| 3 | **approach** | gerund | the noise of the Beast's footsteps *not said here* |  |  |  |  |  | vn escape-51.1-1 «NP V»: agent=Theme |
| 4 | **cling** | past | Beauty |  |  | terror |  | to Beauty's father | vn cling-22.5 «NP V PP.co-theme»: agent=Theme to father=Co-Theme |
| 5 | **become** | past | terror |  |  |  |  | great *property* | vn become-109.1-1-1 «NP V PP.attribute»: agent=Patient |
| 6 | **see** | past | Beauty |  |  |  |  |  | vn comprehend-87.2-1-1 «NP V how S\_INF»: agent=Experiencer clause=Stimulus |
| 7 | **frighten** | participle | Beauty *not said here* |  |  |  |  |  | tree rules |
| 8 | **be** | past | noise |  |  |  |  |  | vn exist-47.1 «NP V»: agent=Theme |
| 9 | **noise** |  | the Beast's footsteps |  |  |  |  |  | nom noise «event intransitive»: of=agent |

<!-- .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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