---
title: The bear asked the children to beat the snow a little out of his fur… — The Blue Fairy Book · tree and pragmatics
description: The bear asked the children to beat the snow a little out of his fur, and they fetched a brush and scrubbed him till he was dry. Who acts: bear, children, lamb. A sentence of «The Blue Fairy Book» by Andrew Lang, Snow-white and Rose-red, with its dependency tree and the pragmatics of every clause.
---

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# The Blue Fairy Book, Snow-white and Rose-red, sentence 25

<!-- .ven lang=en -->
The bear asked the children to beat the snow a little out of his fur, and they fetched a brush and scrubbed him till he was dry.

<!-- .vintro -->
**Who acts:** bear, children, lamb · **What happens:** ask, beat, fetch, scrub, be · **To what, where:** children, snow, fur, brush, lamb

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This is a sentence of «The Blue Fairy Book» by Andrew Lang, Snow-white and Rose-red. The page gives its syntax tree — a dependency tree in the style of Universal Dependencies — and its pragmatics clause by clause: who acts (bear, children, lamb), 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:pg503:36:25
# text = The bear asked the children to beat the snow a little out of his fur, and they fetched a brush and scrubbed him till he was dry.
1	The	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	2	det	_	_
2	bear	bear	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	3	nsubj	_	_
3	asked	ask	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	0	root	_	_
4	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	5	det	_	_
5	children	child	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	3	obj	_	_
6	to	to	PART	TO	_	7	mark	_	_
7	beat	beat	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	3	xcomp	_	_
8	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	9	det	_	_
9	snow	snow	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	7	obj	_	_
10	a	a	DET	DT	Definite=Ind|PronType=Art	11	det	_	_
11	little	little	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	7	obl:unmarked	_	_
12	out	out	ADP	IN	_	15	case	_	_
13	of	of	ADP	IN	_	15	case	_	_
14	his	his	PRON	PRP$	Case=Gen|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|Poss=Yes|PronType=Prs	15	nmod:poss	_	_
15	fur	fur	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	7	obl	_	SpaceAfter=No
16	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	19	punct	_	_
17	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	19	cc	_	_
18	they	they	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Number=Plur|Person=3|PronType=Prs	19	nsubj	_	_
19	fetched	fetch	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Plur|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	3	parataxis	_	_
20	a	a	DET	DT	Definite=Ind|PronType=Art	21	det	_	_
21	brush	brush	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	19	obj	_	_
22	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	23	cc	_	_
23	scrubbed	scrub	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Plur|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	19	conj	_	_
24	him	he	PRON	PRP	Case=Acc|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	23	obj	_	_
25	till	till	SCONJ	IN	_	28	mark	_	_
26	he	he	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	28	nsubj	_	_
27	was	be	AUX	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	28	cop	_	_
28	dry	dry	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	23	advcl	_	SpaceAfter=No
29	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	3	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

<!-- .fr -->
| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **ask** *speech: ask* | past | the bear |  | the children |  |  |  | vn inquire-37.1.2 «NP V NP whether S\_INF»: agent=Agent child=Recipient clause=Topic |
| 2 | **beat** *not said to happen* | to-infinitive | the bear *not said here* | the snow |  | lamb's fur |  | a little *obl:unmarked* | vn sound\_emission-43.2 «PP.location V NP»: agent=Location snow=Theme |
| 3 | **fetch** | past | children *= child* | a brush |  |  |  |  | vn get-13.5.1-1 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent brush=Theme |
| 4 | **scrub** | past | children *= child* *not said here* | lamb |  |  |  |  | vn wipe\_manner-10.4.1-1 «NP V NP.source»: agent=Agent he=Source |
| 5 | **is** | past | lamb |  |  |  |  | dry *property* | tree rules |

<!-- .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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