---
title: But it is fearfully cold!’ said one, and began to beat his arms back… — The Red Fairy Book · tree and pragmatics
description: But it is fearfully cold!’ said one, and began to beat his arms backwards and forwards across his breast. Who acts: notice. A sentence of «The Red Fairy Book» by Andrew Lang, The Master Thief, with its dependency tree and the pragmatics of every clause.
---

<!-- md -->
[Mova](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/) · [this page in HTML](https://mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg540/9/179/)

<!-- crumbs -->
[home](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/) / [corpora](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/) / [tales](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/) / [The Red Fairy Book](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg540/) / [The Master Thief](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg540/9/) / 179

# The Red Fairy Book, The Master Thief, sentence 179

<!-- .ven lang=en -->
But it is fearfully cold!’ said one, and began to beat his arms backwards and forwards across his breast.

<!-- .vintro -->
**Who acts:** notice · **What happens:** be, say, begin, beat · **To what, where:** one, arms, breast · **Speech:** someone speaks here

<!-- .vabout -->
This is a sentence of «The Red Fairy Book» by Andrew Lang, The Master Thief. The page gives its syntax tree — a dependency tree in the style of Universal Dependencies — and its pragmatics clause by clause: who acts (notice), 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:pg540:9:179
# text = But it is fearfully cold!’ said one, and began to beat his arms backwards and forwards across his breast.
1	But	but	CCONJ	CC	_	8	cc	_	_
2	it	it	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Gender=Neut|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	5	nsubj	_	_
3	is	be	AUX	VBZ	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Fin	5	cop	_	_
4	fearfully	fearfully	ADV	RB	_	5	advmod	_	_
5	cold	cold	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	8	parataxis	_	SpaceAfter=No
6	!	!	PUNCT	.	_	5	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
7	’	'	PUNCT	''	_	5	punct	_	_
8	said	say	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=1|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	0	root	_	_
9	one	one	NUM	CD	NumForm=Word|NumType=Card	8	obj	_	SpaceAfter=No
10	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	12	punct	_	_
11	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	12	cc	_	_
12	began	begin	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=1|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	8	conj	_	_
13	to	to	PART	TO	_	14	mark	_	_
14	beat	beat	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	12	xcomp	_	_
15	his	his	PRON	PRP$	Case=Gen|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|Poss=Yes|PronType=Prs	16	nmod:poss	_	_
16	arms	arm	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	14	obj	_	_
17	backwards	backwards	ADV	RB	_	14	advmod	_	_
18	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	19	cc	_	_
19	forwards	forwards	ADV	RB	_	17	conj	_	_
20	across	across	ADP	IN	_	22	case	_	_
21	his	his	PRON	PRP$	Case=Gen|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|Poss=Yes|PronType=Prs	22	nmod:poss	_	_
22	breast	breast	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	14	obl	_	SpaceAfter=No
23	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	8	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

<!-- .fr -->
| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **is** | present | notice |  |  |  |  | cold, fearfully *property* | tree rules |
| 2 | **say** *speech: assert* | past |  | one |  |  |  |  | vn say-37.7-1-1 «NP V NP.topic»: agent=Agent one=Topic |
| 3 | **begin** | past |  |  |  |  |  |  | vn begin-55.1-1-1 «NP V S\_INF»: agent=Agent clause=Eventuality |
| 4 | **beat** | to-infinitive |  | Hutetu's arms |  | Hutetu's breast |  | backwards *property* | vn sound\_emission-43.2 «PP.location V NP»: agent=Location arm=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.

<!-- div src -->

**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.

<!-- /div -->

<!-- pn -->
- ← previous: [sentence 178](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg540/9/178/)
- next →: [sentence 180](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg540/9/180/)
- ↑ back to [The Master Thief](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg540/9/)