---
title: Then he saw a large turtle coming towards him, and above the howling… — The Pink Fairy Book · tree and pragmatics
description: Then he saw a large turtle coming towards him, and above the howling of the storm he heard what it said: ‘I am the turtle whose life you once saved. Who acts: couple, large turtle, storm, I. A sentence of «The Pink Fairy Book» by Andrew Lang, The Pink Fairy Book, part 3, with its dependency tree and
---

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# The Pink Fairy Book, The Pink Fairy Book, part 3, sentence 66

<!-- .ven lang=en -->
Then he saw a large turtle coming towards him, and above the howling of the storm he heard what it said: ‘I am the turtle whose life you once saved.

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**Who acts:** couple, large turtle, storm, I, you · **What happens:** see, come, hear, say, be, save · **To what, where:** large turtle, howling, turtle, life · **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 3. The page gives its syntax tree — a dependency tree in the style of Universal Dependencies — and its pragmatics clause by clause: who acts (couple, large turtle, storm, I), 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:pg5615:3:66
# text = Then he saw a large turtle coming towards him, and above the howling of the storm he heard what it said: ‘I am the turtle whose life you once saved.
1	Then	then	ADV	RB	PronType=Dem	3	advmod	_	_
2	he	he	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	3	nsubj	_	_
3	saw	see	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	0	root	_	_
4	a	a	DET	DT	Definite=Ind|PronType=Art	6	det	_	_
5	large	large	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	6	amod	_	_
6	turtle	turtle	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	3	obj	_	_
7	coming	come	VERB	VBG	VerbForm=Ger	6	acl	_	_
8	towards	towards	ADP	IN	_	9	case	_	_
9	him	he	PRON	PRP	Case=Acc|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	7	obl	_	SpaceAfter=No
10	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	19	punct	_	_
11	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	19	cc	_	_
12	above	above	ADP	IN	_	14	case	_	_
13	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	14	det	_	_
14	howling	howling	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	19	obl	_	_
15	of	of	ADP	IN	_	17	case	_	_
16	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	17	det	_	_
17	storm	storm	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	14	nmod	_	_
18	he	he	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	19	nsubj	_	_
19	heard	hear	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	3	parataxis	_	_
20	what	what	PRON	WP	PronType=Int	22	obj	_	_
21	it	it	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Gender=Neut|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	22	nsubj	_	_
22	said	say	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	19	conj	_	SpaceAfter=No
23	:	:	PUNCT	:	_	28	punct	_	_
24	‘	'	PUNCT	``	_	28	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
25	I	I	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Number=Sing|Person=1|PronType=Prs	28	nsubj	_	_
26	am	be	AUX	VBP	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=1|Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Fin	28	cop	_	_
27	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	28	det	_	_
28	turtle	turtle	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	22	ccomp	_	_
29	whose	whose	PRON	WP$	Poss=Yes|PronType=Rel	30	nmod:poss	_	_
30	life	life	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	28	conj	_	_
31	you	you	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Person=2|PronType=Prs	33	nsubj	_	_
32	once	once	ADV	RB	NumForm=Word|NumType=Mult	33	advmod	_	_
33	saved	save	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=2|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	30	acl:relcl	_	SpaceAfter=No
34	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	3	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

<!-- .fr -->
| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **see** | past | couple | a large turtle |  |  | then |  | vn comprehend-87.2-1-1 «NP V NP»: agent=Experiencer turtle=Stimulus |
| 2 | **come** | gerund | a large turtle *not said here* |  |  |  |  | towards couple | vn escape-51.1-1 «NP V PP.initial\_location»: agent=Theme towards he=Initial\_Location |
| 3 | **hear** | past | couple |  |  | the howling of the storm |  |  | vn see-30.1-1-1 «NP V PP.stimulus»: agent=Experiencer |
| 4 | **say** *speech: assert* | past | storm |  |  |  |  |  | vn say-37.7-1-1 «NP V NP.topic»: agent=Agent what=Topic |
| 5 | **is a** | present | I | the turtle and the turtle and the turtle's life's life |  |  |  |  | tree rules |
| 6 | **save** | past | you | the turtle and the turtle and life's life's life *not said here* |  |  |  | once *property* | vn get-13.5.1-1 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent life=Theme |
| 7 | **howl** |  | the storm |  |  |  |  |  | nom howling «communication intransitive»: of=agent |

<!-- .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 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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