--- title: At length not fear but labour began to overcome him; his breath grew… — Oriental tales, for the entertainment of youth · tree and pragmatics description: At length not fear but labour began to overcome him; his breath grew short, and his knees trembled, and he was on the point of lying down in resignation to his fate, when he beheld through the branches the glimmer of a taper. Who acts: breath, knees, Work, point. A sentence of «Oriental tales, for t --- [Mova](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/) · [this page in HTML](https://mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg62868/21/23/) [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/) / [Oriental tales, for the entertainment…](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg62868/) / [The Story of Obidah.](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg62868/21/) / 23 # Oriental tales, for the entertainment of youth, The Story of Obidah., sentence 23 At length not fear but labour began to overcome him; his breath grew short, and his knees trembled, and he was on the point of lying down in resignation to his fate, when he beheld through the branches the glimmer of a taper. **Who acts:** breath, knees, Work, point, taper · **What happens:** begin, overcome, grow, tremble, be, lie down · **To what, where:** length, Work, point, resignation, glimmer, branches This is a sentence of «Oriental tales, for the entertainment of youth» by Anonymous, The Story of Obidah.. The page gives its syntax tree — a dependency tree in the style of Universal Dependencies — and its pragmatics clause by clause: who acts (breath, knees, Work, point), what happens, when and where, as Mova's frames read it from the tree. **Mova's own parse.** This tree may be wrong. ## The tree {#tree} ```conllu # sent_id = book:pg62868:21:23 # text = At length not fear but labour began to overcome him; his breath grew short, and his knees trembled, and he was on the point of lying down in resignation to his fate, when he beheld through the branches the glimmer of a taper. 1 At at ADP IN _ 2 case _ _ 2 length length NOUN NN Number=Sing 7 obl _ _ 3 not not PART RB Polarity=Neg 4 advmod _ _ 4 fear fear NOUN NN Number=Sing 2 nmod _ _ 5 but but CCONJ CC _ 6 cc _ _ 6 labour labour NOUN NN Number=Sing 4 conj _ _ 7 began begin VERB VBD Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=1|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin 0 root _ _ 8 to to PART TO _ 9 mark _ _ 9 overcome overcome VERB VB VerbForm=Inf 7 xcomp _ _ 10 him he PRON PRP Case=Acc|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs 9 obj _ SpaceAfter=No 11 ; ; PUNCT , _ 14 punct _ _ 12 his his PRON PRP$ Case=Gen|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|Poss=Yes|PronType=Prs 13 nmod:poss _ _ 13 breath breath NOUN NN Number=Sing 14 nsubj _ _ 14 grew grow VERB VBD Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin 7 conj _ _ 15 short short ADJ JJ Degree=Pos 14 xcomp _ SpaceAfter=No 16 , , PUNCT , _ 20 punct _ _ 17 and and CCONJ CC _ 20 cc _ _ 18 his his PRON PRP$ Case=Gen|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|Poss=Yes|PronType=Prs 19 nmod:poss _ _ 19 knees knee NOUN NNS Number=Plur 20 nsubj _ _ 20 trembled tremble VERB VBD Mood=Ind|Number=Plur|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin 7 parataxis _ SpaceAfter=No 21 , , PUNCT , _ 27 punct _ _ 22 and and CCONJ CC _ 27 cc _ _ 23 he he PRON PRP Case=Nom|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs 27 nsubj _ _ 24 was be AUX VBD Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin 27 cop _ _ 25 on on ADP IN _ 27 case _ _ 26 the the DET DT Definite=Def|PronType=Art 27 det _ _ 27 point point NOUN NN Number=Sing 20 conj _ _ 28 of of SCONJ IN _ 29 mark _ _ 29 lying lie VERB VBG VerbForm=Ger 27 acl _ _ 30 down down ADV RB _ 29 advmod _ _ 31 in in ADP IN _ 32 case _ _ 32 resignation resignation NOUN NN Number=Sing 29 obl _ _ 33 to to ADP IN _ 35 case _ _ 34 his his PRON PRP$ Case=Gen|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|Poss=Yes|PronType=Prs 35 nmod:poss _ _ 35 fate fate NOUN NN Number=Sing 29 obl _ SpaceAfter=No 36 , , PUNCT , _ 39 punct _ _ 37 when when ADV WRB PronType=Int 39 advmod _ _ 38 he he PRON PRP Case=Nom|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs 39 nsubj _ _ 39 beheld behold VERB VBD Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin 20 conj _ _ 40 through through ADP IN _ 42 case _ _ 41 the the DET DT Definite=Def|PronType=Art 42 det _ _ 42 branches branch NOUN NNS Number=Plur 39 obl _ _ 43 the the DET DT Definite=Def|PronType=Art 44 det _ _ 44 glimmer glimmer NOUN NN Number=Sing 39 obj _ _ 45 of of ADP IN _ 47 case _ _ 46 a a DET DT Definite=Ind|PronType=Art 47 det _ _ 47 taper taper NOUN NN Number=Sing 44 nmod _ SpaceAfter=No 48 . . PUNCT . _ 7 punct _ _ ``` ## Pragmatics {#pragmatics} | # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by | | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | | 1 | **begin** | past | | | | length fear but labour | | | vn begin-55.1-1-1 «NP V S\_INF»: agent=Agent clause=Eventuality | | 2 | **overcome** | to-infinitive | | Work | | | | | vn exceed-90 «NP V NP»: agent=Pivot he=Theme | | 3 | **grow** | past | Work's breath | | | | | short *property* | vn appear-48.1.1 «NP V»: agent=Theme | | 4 | **tremble** | past | Work's knees | | | | | | vn modes\_of\_being\_with\_motion-47.3 «NP V»: agent=Theme | | 5 | **is** | past | Work | | | the point | | | tree rules | | 6 | **lie down** | gerund | the point *not said here* | | | resignation | | to Work's fate; down *property* | vn assuming\_position-50 «NP V PP.location»: agent=Agent in resignation=Location | | 7 | **behold** | past | Work | the glimmer of a taper | | the branches | | | vn sight-30.2 «NP V NP»: agent=Experiencer glimmer=Stimulus | | 8 | **fate** | | Work | | | | | | nom fate «event transitive»: poss=agent | | 9 | **glimmer** | | a taper | | | | | | nom glimmer «event intransitive»: of=agent | 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. **Text:** «Oriental tales, for the entertainment of youth» by Anonymous, Project Gutenberg book 62868 (public domain in the USA). **Tree:** Mova's own parse, Elamur Cosmic License. **Frames:** Mova's frames reader (`prag`), the chapter read in order. - ← previous: [sentence 22](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg62868/21/22/) - next →: [sentence 24](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg62868/21/24/) - ↑ back to [The Story of Obidah.](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg62868/21/)