---
title: ‘That may be,’ said the Bull; so they rushed at each other, and foug… — The Red Fairy Book · tree and pragmatics
description: ‘That may be,’ said the Bull; so they rushed at each other, and fought, and it was such a dreadful sight that the King’s daughter very nearly swooned. Who acts: people, tussle. A sentence of «The Red Fairy Book» by Andrew Lang, Kari Woodengown, part 1, with its dependency tree and the pragmatics of 
---

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# The Red Fairy Book, Kari Woodengown, part 1, sentence 80

<!-- .ven lang=en -->
‘That may be,’ said the Bull; so they rushed at each other, and fought, and it was such a dreadful sight that the King’s daughter very nearly swooned.

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**Who acts:** people, tussle · **What happens:** be, say, rush, fight, swoon · **To what, where:** Bull, each, dreadful sight · **Speech:** someone speaks here

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This is a sentence of «The Red Fairy Book» by Andrew Lang, Kari Woodengown, part 1. The page gives its syntax tree — a dependency tree in the style of Universal Dependencies — and its pragmatics clause by clause: who acts (people, tussle), 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:pg540:29:80
# text = ‘That may be,’ said the Bull; so they rushed at each other, and fought, and it was such a dreadful sight that the King’s daughter very nearly swooned.
1	‘	'	PUNCT	``	_	7	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
2	That	that	PRON	DT	Number=Sing|PronType=Dem	7	ccomp	_	_
3	may	may	AUX	MD	VerbForm=Fin	4	aux	_	_
4	be	be	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	2	conj	_	SpaceAfter=No
5	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	2	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
6	’	'	PUNCT	''	_	2	punct	_	_
7	said	say	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=1|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	0	root	_	_
8	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	9	det	_	_
9	Bull	bull	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	7	obj	_	SpaceAfter=No
10	;	;	PUNCT	,	_	13	punct	_	_
11	so	so	ADV	RB	_	13	advmod	_	_
12	they	they	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Number=Plur|Person=3|PronType=Prs	13	nsubj	_	_
13	rushed	rush	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Plur|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	7	conj	_	_
14	at	at	ADP	IN	_	15	case	_	_
15	each	each	DET	DT	ExtPos=PRON|PronType=Rcp	13	obl	_	_
16	other	other	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	15	fixed	_	SpaceAfter=No
17	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	19	punct	_	_
18	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	19	cc	_	_
19	fought	fight	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=1|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	7	conj	_	SpaceAfter=No
20	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	27	punct	_	_
21	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	27	cc	_	_
22	it	it	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Gender=Neut|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	27	nsubj	_	_
23	was	be	AUX	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	27	cop	_	_
24	such	such	DET	PDT	PronType=Ind	27	det:predet	_	_
25	a	a	DET	DT	Definite=Ind|PronType=Art	27	det	_	_
26	dreadful	dreadful	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	27	amod	_	_
27	sight	sight	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	19	obj	_	_
28	that	that	SCONJ	IN	_	32	mark	_	_
29	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	30	det	_	_
30	King	King	PROPN	NNP	Number=Sing	32	nmod:poss	_	SpaceAfter=No
31	’s	's	PART	POS	_	30	case	_	_
32	daughter	daughter	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	27	advcl	_	_
33	very	very	ADV	RB	_	34	advmod	_	_
34	nearly	nearly	ADV	RB	_	35	advmod	_	_
35	swooned	swoon	VERB	VBN	Tense=Past|VerbForm=Part|Voice=Pass	19	advcl	_	SpaceAfter=No
36	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	7	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

<!-- .fr -->
| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **be** | may |  |  |  |  |  |  | vn exist-47.1 «NP V»: agent=Theme |
| 2 | **say** *speech: assert* | past |  | the Bull |  |  |  |  | vn say-37.7-1-1 «NP V NP.topic»: agent=Agent bull=Topic |
| 3 | **rush** | past | people |  |  | each |  |  | vn run-51.3.2-2-1 «NP V PP.location»: agent=Theme at each=Trajectory |
| 4 | **fight** | past |  |  |  |  |  |  | vn battle-36.4-1 «NP V»: agent=Agent |
| 5 | **is a** | past | tussle | such dreadful sight |  |  |  |  | tree rules |
| 6 | **swoon** | participle |  |  |  |  |  | nearly *property* | vn change\_bodily\_state-40.8.4 «NP V»: agent=Experiencer |

<!-- .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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