---
title: There were three earthquakes, each worse than the other, and the las… — The Blue Fairy Book · tree and pragmatics
description: There were three earthquakes, each worse than the other, and the last flung the boy from one wall of the barn to the other, but then everything suddenly became still as death. Who acts: three earthquakes, last, everything. A sentence of «The Blue Fairy Book» by Andrew Lang, The Princess on the Glass
---

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# The Blue Fairy Book, The Princess on the Glass Hill, sentence 38

<!-- .ven lang=en -->
There were three earthquakes, each worse than the other, and the last flung the boy from one wall of the barn to the other, but then everything suddenly became still as death.

<!-- .vintro -->
**Who acts:** three earthquakes, last, everything · **What happens:** be, fling, become · **To what, where:** boy, one wall

<!-- .vabout -->
This is a sentence of «The Blue Fairy Book» by Andrew Lang, The Princess on the Glass Hill. The page gives its syntax tree — a dependency tree in the style of Universal Dependencies — and its pragmatics clause by clause: who acts (three earthquakes, last, everything), 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:pg503:48:38
# text = There were three earthquakes, each worse than the other, and the last flung the boy from one wall of the barn to the other, but then everything suddenly became still as death.
1	There	there	PRON	EX	PronType=Dem	2	expl	_	_
2	were	be	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Plur|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	0	root	_	_
3	three	three	NUM	CD	NumForm=Word|NumType=Card	4	nummod	_	_
4	earthquakes	earthquake	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	2	nsubj	_	SpaceAfter=No
5	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	7	punct	_	_
6	each	each	DET	DT	PronType=Tot	7	det	_	_
7	worse	bad	ADJ	JJR	Degree=Cmp	4	acl:relcl	_	_
8	than	than	ADP	IN	_	10	case	_	_
9	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	10	det	_	_
10	other	other	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	7	obl	_	SpaceAfter=No
11	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	15	punct	_	_
12	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	15	cc	_	_
13	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	14	det	_	_
14	last	last	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	15	nsubj	_	_
15	flung	fling	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	2	conj	_	_
16	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	17	det	_	_
17	boy	boy	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	15	obj	_	_
18	from	from	ADP	IN	_	20	case	_	_
19	one	one	NUM	CD	NumForm=Word|NumType=Card	20	nummod	_	_
20	wall	wall	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	15	obl	_	_
21	of	of	ADP	IN	_	23	case	_	_
22	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	23	det	_	_
23	barn	barn	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	20	nmod	_	_
24	to	to	ADP	IN	_	26	case	_	_
25	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	26	det	_	_
26	other	other	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	23	nmod	_	SpaceAfter=No
27	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	32	punct	_	_
28	but	but	CCONJ	CC	_	32	cc	_	_
29	then	then	ADV	RB	PronType=Dem	32	advmod	_	_
30	everything	everything	PRON	NN	Number=Sing|PronType=Tot	32	nsubj	_	_
31	suddenly	suddenly	ADV	RB	_	32	advmod	_	_
32	became	become	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	2	conj	_	_
33	still	still	ADV	RB	_	32	advmod	_	_
34	as	as	ADP	IN	_	35	case	_	_
35	death	death	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	32	obl	_	SpaceAfter=No
36	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	2	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

<!-- .fr -->
| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **be** | past | three earthquakes |  |  | there |  |  | vn exist-47.1 «NP V»: agent=Theme |
| 2 | **fling** | past | the last | the boy |  | one wall of the barn to the other |  |  | vn throw-17.1-1 «NP V NP PP.initial\_location»: agent=Agent boy=Theme from wall=Initial\_Location |
| 3 | **become** | past | everything |  |  |  | then; still | as death; suddenly *property* | vn become-109.1-1-1 «NP V PP.attribute»: agent=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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