---
title: In the left there was a sort of engine, from the back of which exten… — The Blue Fairy Book · tree and pragmatics
description: In the left there was a sort of engine, from the back of which extended twenty long poles, with which, we conjecture, the Man-Mountain combs his head. Who acts: sort, back, twenty long poles, Mountain. A sentence of «The Blue Fairy Book» by Andrew Lang, Chapter II, with its dependency tree and the p
---

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# The Blue Fairy Book, Chapter II, sentence 18

<!-- .ven lang=en -->
In the left there was a sort of engine, from the back of which extended twenty long poles, with which, we conjecture, the Man-Mountain combs his head.

<!-- .vintro -->
**Who acts:** sort, back, twenty long poles, Mountain · **What happens:** be, extend, conjecture, comb, sort · **To what, where:** left, twenty long poles, head, engine

<!-- .vabout -->
This is a sentence of «The Blue Fairy Book» by Andrew Lang, Chapter II. The page gives its syntax tree — a dependency tree in the style of Universal Dependencies — and its pragmatics clause by clause: who acts (sort, back, twenty long poles, Mountain), 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:pg503:44:18
# text = In the left there was a sort of engine, from the back of which extended twenty long poles, with which, we conjecture, the Man-Mountain combs his head.
1	In	in	ADP	IN	_	3	case	_	_
2	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	3	det	_	_
3	left	left	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	5	obl	_	_
4	there	there	PRON	EX	PronType=Dem	5	expl	_	_
5	was	be	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	0	root	_	_
6	a	a	DET	DT	Definite=Ind|PronType=Art	7	det	_	_
7	sort	sort	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	5	nsubj	_	_
8	of	of	ADP	IN	_	9	case	_	_
9	engine	engine	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	7	nmod	_	SpaceAfter=No
10	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	13	punct	_	_
11	from	from	ADP	IN	_	13	case	_	_
12	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	13	det	_	_
13	back	back	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	5	obl	_	_
14	of	of	ADP	IN	_	15	case	_	_
15	which	which	PRON	WDT	PronType=Rel	16	nsubj	_	_
16	extended	extend	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	13	acl:relcl	_	_
17	twenty	twenty	NUM	CD	NumForm=Word|NumType=Card	19	nummod	_	_
18	long	long	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	19	amod	_	_
19	poles	pole	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	16	obj	_	SpaceAfter=No
20	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	25	punct	_	_
21	with	with	ADP	IN	_	22	case	_	_
22	which	which	PRON	WDT	PronType=Rel	25	nsubj	_	SpaceAfter=No
23	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	22	punct	_	_
24	we	we	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Number=Plur|Person=1|PronType=Prs	25	nsubj	_	_
25	conjecture	conjecture	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	19	conj	_	SpaceAfter=No
26	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	28	punct	_	_
27	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	28	det	_	_
28	Man	man	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	25	conj	_	SpaceAfter=No
29	-	-	PUNCT	,	_	31	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
30	Mountain	Mountain	PROPN	NNP	Number=Sing	31	nsubj	_	_
31	combs	comb	VERB	VBZ	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Fin	25	parataxis	_	_
32	his	his	PRON	PRP$	Case=Gen|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|Poss=Yes|PronType=Prs	33	nmod:poss	_	_
33	head	head	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	31	obj	_	SpaceAfter=No
34	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	5	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

<!-- .fr -->
| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **be** | past | a sort of engine |  |  | the left; there |  | from the back | vn exist-47.1 «NP V PP.location»: agent=Theme in left=Location |
| 2 | **extend** | past | the back | twenty long poles and conjecture and the Man |  |  |  |  | vn body\_motion-49.2-1 «NP V NP ADV»: agent=Agent pole=Theme |
| 3 | **conjecture** |  | twenty long poles and conjecture and the Man |  |  |  |  |  | tree rules |
| 4 | **comb** | present | Mountain | man's head |  |  |  |  | vn braid-41.2.2 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent head=Patient |
| 5 | **sort** |  |  | engine |  |  |  |  | nom sort «cognition transitive»: of=patient |

<!-- .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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