---
title: At first he nearly frightened the life out of her, but he talked to… — The Pink Fairy Book · tree and pragmatics
description: At first he nearly frightened the life out of her, but he talked to her so kindly and explained how he had come down there that she soon recovered from her alarm, and was very pleased to have some company to relieve the terrible solitude that she lived in. Who acts: troll, girl, company. A sentence 
---

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# The Pink Fairy Book, The Pink Fairy Book, part 27, sentence 20

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At first he nearly frightened the life out of her, but he talked to her so kindly and explained how he had come down there that she soon recovered from her alarm, and was very pleased to have some company to relieve the terrible solitude that she lived in.

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**Who acts:** troll, girl, company · **What happens:** frighten, talk, explain, come down, recover, be · **To what, where:** life, girl, alarm, company, terrible solitude · **Speech:** someone speaks here

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This is a sentence of «The Pink Fairy Book» by Andrew Lang, The Pink Fairy Book, part 27. The page gives its syntax tree — a dependency tree in the style of Universal Dependencies — and its pragmatics clause by clause: who acts (troll, girl, company), 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:pg5615:27:20
# text = At first he nearly frightened the life out of her, but he talked to her so kindly and explained how he had come down there that she soon recovered from her alarm, and was very pleased to have some company to relieve the terrible solitude that she lived in.
1	At	at	ADP	IN	_	2	case	_	_
2	first	first	ADV	RB	NumForm=Word|NumType=Ord	5	obl	_	_
3	he	he	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	5	nsubj	_	_
4	nearly	nearly	ADV	RB	_	5	advmod	_	_
5	frightened	frighten	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	0	root	_	_
6	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	7	det	_	_
7	life	life	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	5	obj	_	_
8	out	out	ADP	IN	_	10	case	_	_
9	of	of	ADP	IN	_	10	case	_	_
10	her	she	PRON	PRP	Case=Acc|Gender=Fem|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	7	nmod	_	SpaceAfter=No
11	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	14	punct	_	_
12	but	but	CCONJ	CC	_	14	cc	_	_
13	he	he	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	14	nsubj	_	_
14	talked	talk	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	5	conj	_	_
15	to	to	ADP	IN	_	16	case	_	_
16	her	she	PRON	PRP	Case=Acc|Gender=Fem|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	14	obl	_	_
17	so	so	ADV	RB	_	18	advmod	_	_
18	kindly	kindly	ADV	RB	_	14	advmod	_	_
19	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	20	cc	_	_
20	explained	explain	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	14	conj	_	_
21	how	how	ADV	WRB	PronType=Int	24	advmod	_	_
22	he	he	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	24	nsubj	_	_
23	had	have	AUX	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	24	aux	_	_
24	come	come	VERB	VBN	Tense=Past|VerbForm=Part	20	ccomp	_	_
25	down	down	ADV	RB	_	26	advmod	_	_
26	there	there	ADV	RB	PronType=Dem	24	advmod	_	_
27	that	that	SCONJ	IN	_	30	mark	_	_
28	she	she	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Gender=Fem|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	30	nsubj	_	_
29	soon	soon	ADV	RB	Degree=Pos	30	advmod	_	_
30	recovered	recover	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	24	advcl	_	_
31	from	from	ADP	IN	_	33	case	_	_
32	her	her	PRON	PRP$	Case=Gen|Gender=Fem|Number=Sing|Person=3|Poss=Yes|PronType=Prs	33	nmod:poss	_	_
33	alarm	alarm	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	30	obl	_	SpaceAfter=No
34	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	38	punct	_	_
35	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	38	cc	_	_
36	was	be	AUX	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	38	cop	_	_
37	very	very	ADV	RB	_	38	advmod	_	_
38	pleased	pleased	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	5	conj	_	_
39	to	to	PART	TO	_	40	mark	_	_
40	have	have	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	38	xcomp	_	_
41	some	some	DET	DT	PronType=Ind	42	det	_	_
42	company	company	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	40	obj	_	_
43	to	to	PART	TO	_	44	mark	_	_
44	relieve	relieve	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	40	xcomp	_	_
45	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	47	det	_	_
46	terrible	terrible	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	47	amod	_	_
47	solitude	solitude	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	44	obj	_	_
48	that	that	SCONJ	IN	_	50	mark	_	_
49	she	she	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Gender=Fem|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	50	nsubj	_	_
50	lived	live	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	44	advcl	_	_
51	in	in	ADV	RB	_	50	advmod	_	SpaceAfter=No
52	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	5	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

<!-- .fr -->
| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **frighten** | past | troll | the life |  |  |  | out girl; nearly *property* | vn amuse-31.1 «NP V NP»: agent=Stimulus life=Experiencer |
| 2 | **talk** | past | troll |  | girl |  |  | kindly *property* | vn talk-37.5 «NP V PP.co-agent»: agent=Agent to she=Co-Agent |
| 3 | **explain** *speech: assert* | past | troll *not said here* |  |  |  |  |  | vn transfer\_mesg-37.1.1 «NP V how S»: agent=Agent clause=Topic |
| 4 | **come down** | past · perfect | troll |  |  | there |  |  | vn escape-51.1-1 «NP V»: agent=Theme |
| 5 | **recover** | past | girl |  |  | girl's alarm |  | soon *property* | vn obtain-13.5.2 «NP V NP PP.source»: agent=Agent from alarm=Source |
| 6 | **is** | past | troll *not said here* |  |  |  |  | pleased *property* | tree rules |
| 7 | **have** | to-infinitive | troll *not said here* | some company |  |  |  |  | tree rules |
| 8 | **relieve** | to-infinitive | some company *not said here* | the terrible solitude |  |  |  |  | vn amuse-31.1 «NP V NP»: agent=Stimulus solitude=Experiencer |
| 9 | **live in** | past | girl |  |  |  |  |  | vn exist-47.1-1 «NP V»: agent=Theme |
| 10 | **alarm** |  | girl |  |  |  |  |  | nom alarm «feeling transitive»: poss=agent |

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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 Pink Fairy Book» by Andrew Lang, Project Gutenberg book 5615 (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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