---
title: The waves, instead of beating on the rocks, seemed to die gently on… — The Yellow Fairy Book · tree and pragmatics
description: The waves, instead of beating on the rocks, seemed to die gently on the shore; clusters of golden bushes covered the land, and the vines were bent low with grapes. Who acts: waves, clusters. A sentence of «The Yellow Fairy Book» by Andrew Lang, The Grateful Beasts(11), part 3, with its dependency tr
---

<!-- md -->
[Mova](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/) · [this page in HTML](https://mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg640/16/11/)

<!-- 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 Yellow Fairy Book](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg640/) / [The Grateful Beasts(11), part 3](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg640/16/) / 11

# The Yellow Fairy Book, The Grateful Beasts(11), part 3, sentence 11

<!-- .ven lang=en -->
The waves, instead of beating on the rocks, seemed to die gently on the shore; clusters of golden bushes covered the land, and the vines were bent low with grapes.

<!-- .vintro -->
**Who acts:** waves, clusters · **What happens:** beat, seem, die, cover, bend · **To what, where:** rocks, shore, land, vines

<!-- .vabout -->
This is a sentence of «The Yellow Fairy Book» by Andrew Lang, The Grateful Beasts(11), 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 (waves, clusters), 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:pg640:16:11
# text = The waves, instead of beating on the rocks, seemed to die gently on the shore; clusters of golden bushes covered the land, and the vines were bent low with grapes.
1	The	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	2	det	_	_
2	waves	wave	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	11	nsubj	_	SpaceAfter=No
3	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	6	punct	_	_
4	instead	instead	ADV	RB	ExtPos=SCONJ	6	mark	_	_
5	of	of	ADP	IN	_	4	fixed	_	_
6	beating	beat	VERB	VBG	VerbForm=Ger	2	acl	_	_
7	on	on	ADP	IN	_	9	case	_	_
8	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	9	det	_	_
9	rocks	rock	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	6	obl	_	SpaceAfter=No
10	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	2	punct	_	_
11	seemed	seem	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Plur|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	0	root	_	_
12	to	to	PART	TO	_	13	mark	_	_
13	die	die	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	11	xcomp	_	_
14	gently	gently	ADV	RB	_	13	advmod	_	_
15	on	on	ADP	IN	_	17	case	_	_
16	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	17	det	_	_
17	shore	shore	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	13	obl	_	SpaceAfter=No
18	;	;	PUNCT	:	_	23	punct	_	_
19	clusters	cluster	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	23	nsubj	_	_
20	of	of	ADP	IN	_	22	case	_	_
21	golden	golden	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	22	amod	_	_
22	bushes	bush	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	19	nmod	_	_
23	covered	cover	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Plur|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	11	parataxis	_	_
24	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	25	det	_	_
25	land	land	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	23	obj	_	SpaceAfter=No
26	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	31	punct	_	_
27	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	31	cc	_	_
28	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	29	det	_	_
29	vines	vine	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	31	nsubj:pass	_	_
30	were	be	AUX	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Plur|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	31	aux:pass	_	_
31	bent	bend	VERB	VBN	Tense=Past|VerbForm=Part|Voice=Pass	23	conj	_	_
32	low	low	ADV	RB	Degree=Pos	31	advmod	_	_
33	with	with	ADP	IN	_	34	case	_	_
34	grapes	grape	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	31	obl	_	SpaceAfter=No
35	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	11	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

<!-- .fr -->
| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **beat** | gerund | the waves *not said here* |  |  | the rocks |  |  | vn sound\_emission-43.2 «NP V PP.location»: agent=Theme on rock=Location |
| 2 | **seem** | past | the waves |  |  |  |  |  | vn seem-109-1-1-1 «NP V S\_INF»: agent=Theme clause=Attribute |
| 3 | **die** | to-infinitive | the waves *not said here* |  |  | the shore |  | gently *property* | vn calibratable\_cos-45.6.1 «NP.attribute V»: agent=Attribute |
| 4 | **cover** | past | clusters of golden bushes | the land |  |  |  |  | vn fill-9.8-1 «NP V NP»: agent=Theme land=Destination |
| 5 | **bend** | past · passive |  | the vines |  |  |  | with grapes; low *property* | vn bend-45.2 «NP V NP PP.instrument»: subject=Patient with grape=Instrument |

<!-- .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 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.

<!-- /div -->

<!-- pn -->
- ← previous: [sentence 10](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg640/16/10/)
- next →: [sentence 12](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg640/16/12/)
- ↑ back to [The Grateful Beasts(11), part 3](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg640/16/)