---
title: But the beast had been too greedy and too hurried, so he missed his… — The Blue Fairy Book · tree and pragmatics
description: But the beast had been too greedy and too hurried, so he missed his aim the first time. Who acts: beast, lot. A sentence of «The Blue Fairy Book» by Andrew Lang, The Terrible Head, with its dependency tree and the pragmatics of every clause.
---

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# The Blue Fairy Book, The Terrible Head, sentence 102

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But the beast had been too greedy and too hurried, so he missed his aim the first time.

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**Who acts:** beast, lot · **What happens:** be, hurry, miss, aim · **To what, where:** aim

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This is a sentence of «The Blue Fairy Book» by Andrew Lang, The Terrible Head. The page gives its syntax tree — a dependency tree in the style of Universal Dependencies — and its pragmatics clause by clause: who acts (beast, lot), 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:pg503:27:102
# text = But the beast had been too greedy and too hurried, so he missed his aim the first time.
1	But	but	CCONJ	CC	_	7	cc	_	_
2	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	3	det	_	_
3	beast	beast	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	7	nsubj	_	_
4	had	have	AUX	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	7	aux	_	_
5	been	be	AUX	VBN	Tense=Past|VerbForm=Part	7	cop	_	_
6	too	too	ADV	RB	_	7	advmod	_	_
7	greedy	greedy	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	0	root	_	_
8	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	10	cc	_	_
9	too	too	ADV	RB	_	10	advmod	_	_
10	hurried	hurry	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	7	conj	_	SpaceAfter=No
11	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	14	punct	_	_
12	so	so	ADV	RB	_	14	advmod	_	_
13	he	he	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	14	nsubj	_	_
14	missed	miss	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	7	conj	_	_
15	his	his	PRON	PRP$	Case=Gen|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|Poss=Yes|PronType=Prs	16	nmod:poss	_	_
16	aim	aim	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	14	obj	_	_
17	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	19	det	_	_
18	first	first	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos|NumForm=Word|NumType=Ord	19	amod	_	_
19	time	time	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	14	obl:unmarked	_	SpaceAfter=No
20	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	7	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

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| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **is** | past · perfect | the beast |  |  |  |  | greedy *property* | tree rules |
| 2 | **hurry** | past | the beast *not said here* |  |  |  |  |  | vn run-51.3.2-2 «NP V»: agent=Theme |
| 3 | **miss** | past | lot | lot's aim |  |  | time |  | vn admire-31.2 «NP V NP»: agent=Experiencer aim=Stimulus |
| 4 | **aim** |  | lot |  |  |  |  |  | nom aim «cognition intransitive»: poss=agent |

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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 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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