---
title: Then in despair he bit the loaf, and what was his astonishment when… — The Yellow Fairy Book · tree and pragmatics
description: Then in despair he bit the loaf, and what was his astonishment when a piece of gold fell out of his mouth and rolled at his feet. Who acts: lad, piece. A sentence of «The Yellow Fairy Book» by Andrew Lang, The Grateful Beasts(11), part 2, with its dependency tree and the pragmatics of every clause.
---

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# The Yellow Fairy Book, The Grateful Beasts(11), part 2, sentence 85

<!-- .ven lang=en -->
Then in despair he bit the loaf, and what was his astonishment when a piece of gold fell out of his mouth and rolled at his feet.

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**Who acts:** lad, piece · **What happens:** bite, be, fall, roll · **To what, where:** loaf, despair, astonishment, mouth, feet

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This is a sentence of «The Yellow Fairy Book» by Andrew Lang, The Grateful Beasts(11), part 2. The page gives its syntax tree — a dependency tree in the style of Universal Dependencies — and its pragmatics clause by clause: who acts (lad, piece), 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:pg640:15:85
# text = Then in despair he bit the loaf, and what was his astonishment when a piece of gold fell out of his mouth and rolled at his feet.
1	Then	then	ADV	RB	PronType=Dem	5	advmod	_	_
2	in	in	ADP	IN	_	3	case	_	_
3	despair	despair	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	5	obl	_	_
4	he	he	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	5	nsubj	_	_
5	bit	bite	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	loaf	loaf	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	5	obj	_	SpaceAfter=No
8	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	13	punct	_	_
9	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	13	cc	_	_
10	what	what	PRON	WP	PronType=Int	13	nsubj	_	_
11	was	be	AUX	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	13	cop	_	_
12	his	his	PRON	PRP$	Case=Gen|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|Poss=Yes|PronType=Prs	13	nmod:poss	_	_
13	astonishment	astonishment	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	5	obl	_	_
14	when	when	ADV	WRB	PronType=Int	19	advmod	_	_
15	a	a	DET	DT	Definite=Ind|PronType=Art	16	det	_	_
16	piece	piece	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	19	nsubj	_	_
17	of	of	ADP	IN	_	18	case	_	_
18	gold	gold	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	16	nmod	_	_
19	fell	fall	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	5	advcl	_	_
20	out	out	ADP	IN	_	23	case	_	_
21	of	of	ADP	IN	_	23	case	_	_
22	his	his	PRON	PRP$	Case=Gen|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|Poss=Yes|PronType=Prs	23	nmod:poss	_	_
23	mouth	mouth	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	19	obl	_	_
24	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	25	cc	_	_
25	rolled	roll	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	19	conj	_	_
26	at	at	ADP	IN	_	28	case	_	_
27	his	his	PRON	PRP$	Case=Gen|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|Poss=Yes|PronType=Prs	28	nmod:poss	_	_
28	feet	foot	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	25	obl	_	SpaceAfter=No
29	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	5	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

<!-- .fr -->
| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **bite** | past | lad | the loaf |  | despair | then |  | vn swat-18.2 «NP V NP PP.location»: agent=Agent loaf=Patient in despair=Location |
| 2 | **is a** | past |  | lad's astonishment |  |  |  |  | tree rules |
| 3 | **fall** | past | a piece of gold |  |  | lad's mouth |  |  | vn occur-48.3 «NP V PP»: agent=Theme out mouth=Location |
| 4 | **roll** | past | a piece of gold *not said here* |  |  | lad's feet |  |  | vn run-51.3.2-2 «NP V PP.location»: agent=Theme at foot=Trajectory |

<!-- .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 Yellow Fairy Book» by Andrew Lang, Project Gutenberg book 640 (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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