---
title: With the earliest dawn they were on their way, and though the Mice w… — The Red Fairy Book · tree and pragmatics
description: With the earliest dawn they were on their way, and though the Mice were in constant fear of being overtaken or trapped, they reached the Golden Branch in safety. Who acts: earliest dawn, Mice, speeches. A sentence of «The Red Fairy Book» by Andrew Lang, The Golden Branch, part 3, with its dependency
---

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# The Red Fairy Book, The Golden Branch, part 3, sentence 79

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With the earliest dawn they were on their way, and though the Mice were in constant fear of being overtaken or trapped, they reached the Golden Branch in safety.

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**Who acts:** earliest dawn, Mice, speeches · **What happens:** be, overtake, trap, reach · **To what, where:** way, constant fear, Golden Branch, safety

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This is a sentence of «The Red Fairy Book» by Andrew Lang, The Golden Branch, part 3. The page gives its syntax tree — a dependency tree in the style of Universal Dependencies — and its pragmatics clause by clause: who acts (earliest dawn, Mice, speeches), 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:pg540:36:79
# text = With the earliest dawn they were on their way, and though the Mice were in constant fear of being overtaken or trapped, they reached the Golden Branch in safety.
1	With	with	ADP	IN	_	4	case	_	_
2	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	4	det	_	_
3	earliest	early	ADJ	JJS	Degree=Sup	4	amod	_	_
4	dawn	dawn	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	9	nsubj	_	_
5	they	they	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Number=Plur|Person=3|PronType=Prs	9	nsubj	_	_
6	were	be	AUX	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Plur|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	9	cop	_	_
7	on	on	ADP	IN	_	9	case	_	_
8	their	their	PRON	PRP$	Case=Gen|Number=Plur|Person=3|Poss=Yes|PronType=Prs	9	nmod:poss	_	_
9	way	way	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	0	root	_	SpaceAfter=No
10	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	26	punct	_	_
11	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	26	cc	_	_
12	though	though	SCONJ	IN	_	18	mark	_	_
13	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	14	det	_	_
14	Mice	mouse	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	18	nsubj	_	_
15	were	be	AUX	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Plur|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	18	cop	_	_
16	in	in	ADP	IN	_	18	case	_	_
17	constant	constant	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	18	amod	_	_
18	fear	fear	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	26	advcl	_	_
19	of	of	SCONJ	IN	_	21	mark	_	_
20	being	be	AUX	VBG	Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Part	21	aux:pass	_	_
21	overtaken	overtake	VERB	VBN	Tense=Past|VerbForm=Part|Voice=Pass	18	acl	_	_
22	or	or	CCONJ	CC	_	23	cc	_	_
23	trapped	trap	VERB	VBN	Tense=Past|VerbForm=Part|Voice=Pass	21	conj	_	SpaceAfter=No
24	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	18	punct	_	_
25	they	they	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Number=Plur|Person=3|PronType=Prs	26	nsubj	_	_
26	reached	reach	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Plur|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	9	conj	_	_
27	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	29	det	_	_
28	Golden	golden	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	29	amod	_	_
29	Branch	branch	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	26	obj	_	_
30	in	in	ADP	IN	_	31	case	_	_
31	safety	safety	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	26	obl	_	SpaceAfter=No
32	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	9	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

<!-- .fr -->
| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **is** | past | the earliest dawn |  |  | speeches's way |  |  | tree rules |
| 2 | **is** | past | the Mice |  |  | constant fear |  |  | tree rules |
| 3 | **overtake** | gerund · passive |  | constant fear *not said here* |  |  |  |  | tree rules |
| 4 | **trap** | participle |  |  |  |  |  |  | vn trick-59.2 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent |
| 5 | **reach** | past | speeches *= speech* | the Golden Branch |  | safety |  |  | vn body\_motion-49.2-1-1 «NP V NP ADV»: agent=Agent branch=Theme |

<!-- .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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