---
title: She said nothing, but let her arms fall backwards, and suddenly bend… — The Red Fairy Book · tree and pragmatics
description: She said nothing, but let her arms fall backwards, and suddenly bending herself forward, she slipped out of the coat, leaving it in her husband’s hands. Who acts: wife, arms. A sentence of «The Red Fairy Book» by Andrew Lang, The Voice of Death, with its dependency tree and the pragmatics of every c
---

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# The Red Fairy Book, The Voice of Death, sentence 33

<!-- .ven lang=en -->
She said nothing, but let her arms fall backwards, and suddenly bending herself forward, she slipped out of the coat, leaving it in her husband’s hands.

<!-- .vintro -->
**Who acts:** wife, arms · **What happens:** say, let, fall, bend, slip out, leave · **To what, where:** nothing, wife, coat, hands · **Speech:** someone speaks here

<!-- .vabout -->
This is a sentence of «The Red Fairy Book» by Andrew Lang, The Voice of Death. The page gives its syntax tree — a dependency tree in the style of Universal Dependencies — and its pragmatics clause by clause: who acts (wife, arms), 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:pg540:27:33
# text = She said nothing, but let her arms fall backwards, and suddenly bending herself forward, she slipped out of the coat, leaving it in her husband’s hands.
1	She	she	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Gender=Fem|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	2	nsubj	_	_
2	said	say	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	0	root	_	_
3	nothing	nothing	PRON	NN	Number=Sing|PronType=Neg	2	obj	_	SpaceAfter=No
4	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	6	punct	_	_
5	but	but	CCONJ	CC	_	6	cc	_	_
6	let	let	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	2	ccomp	_	_
7	her	she	PRON	PRP	Case=Acc|Gender=Fem|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	6	obj	_	_
8	arms	arm	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	9	nsubj	_	_
9	fall	fall	VERB	VBP	Mood=Ind|Number=Plur|Person=3|Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Fin	6	parataxis	_	_
10	backwards	backwards	ADV	RB	_	9	advmod	_	SpaceAfter=No
11	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	14	punct	_	_
12	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	14	cc	_	_
13	suddenly	suddenly	ADV	RB	_	14	advmod	_	_
14	bending	bend	VERB	VBG	Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Part	2	advcl	_	_
15	herself	herself	PRON	PRP	Case=Acc|Gender=Fem|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs|Reflex=Yes	14	obj	_	_
16	forward	forward	ADV	RB	_	14	advmod	_	SpaceAfter=No
17	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	19	punct	_	_
18	she	she	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Gender=Fem|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	19	nsubj	_	_
19	slipped	slip	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	2	parataxis	_	_
20	out	out	ADP	IN	_	23	case	_	_
21	of	of	ADP	IN	_	23	case	_	_
22	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	23	det	_	_
23	coat	coat	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	19	obl	_	SpaceAfter=No
24	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	25	punct	_	_
25	leaving	leave	VERB	VBG	Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Part	19	advcl	_	_
26	it	it	PRON	PRP	Case=Acc|Gender=Neut|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	25	obj	_	_
27	in	in	ADP	IN	_	31	case	_	_
28	her	her	PRON	PRP$	Case=Gen|Gender=Fem|Number=Sing|Person=3|Poss=Yes|PronType=Prs	29	nmod:poss	_	_
29	husband	husband	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	31	nmod:poss	_	SpaceAfter=No
30	’s	's	PART	POS	_	29	case	_	_
31	hands	hand	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	25	obl	_	SpaceAfter=No
32	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	2	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

<!-- .fr -->
| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **say** *speech: assert* | past | wife | nothing |  |  |  |  | tree rules |
| 2 | **let** | infinitive |  | wife |  |  |  |  | vn give-13.1-1 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent she=Theme |
| 3 | **fall** | present | arms |  |  |  |  | backwards *property* | vn occur-48.3 «NP V»: agent=Theme |
| 4 | **bend** | gerund | wife *not said here* | wife |  |  |  | forward, suddenly *property* | vn knead-26.5 «NP V NP.material»: agent=Agent herself=Material |
| 5 | **slip out** | past | wife | the coat |  |  |  |  | vn split-23.2 «NP V NP apart»: agent=Agent coat=Patient |
| 6 | **leave** | gerund | wife *not said here* | coat |  | wife's husband's hands |  |  | vn keep-15.2 «NP V NP PP.location»: agent=Agent it=Theme in hand=Location |

<!-- .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 Red Fairy Book» by Andrew Lang, Project Gutenberg book 540 (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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