---
title: His curiosity was instantly roused, and he advanced cautiously till… — The Yellow Fairy Book · tree and pragmatics
description: His curiosity was instantly roused, and he advanced cautiously till he saw two huge dragons guarding the gate of a wood. Who acts: sight, two huge dragons. A sentence of «The Yellow Fairy Book» by Andrew Lang, The Grateful Beasts(11), part 3, with its dependency tree and the pragmatics of every clau
---

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# The Yellow Fairy Book, The Grateful Beasts(11), part 3, sentence 93

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His curiosity was instantly roused, and he advanced cautiously till he saw two huge dragons guarding the gate of a wood.

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**Who acts:** sight, two huge dragons · **What happens:** rouse, advance, see, guard · **To what, where:** curiosity, two huge dragons, gate

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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 (sight, two huge dragons), 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:pg640:16:93
# text = His curiosity was instantly roused, and he advanced cautiously till he saw two huge dragons guarding the gate of a wood.
1	His	his	PRON	PRP$	Case=Gen|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|Poss=Yes|PronType=Prs	2	nmod:poss	_	_
2	curiosity	curiosity	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	5	nsubj:pass	_	_
3	was	be	AUX	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	5	aux:pass	_	_
4	instantly	instantly	ADV	RB	_	5	advmod	_	_
5	roused	rouse	VERB	VBN	Tense=Past|VerbForm=Part|Voice=Pass	0	root	_	SpaceAfter=No
6	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	9	punct	_	_
7	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	9	cc	_	_
8	he	he	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	9	nsubj	_	_
9	advanced	advance	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	5	conj	_	_
10	cautiously	cautiously	ADV	RB	_	9	advmod	_	_
11	till	till	SCONJ	IN	_	13	mark	_	_
12	he	he	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	13	nsubj	_	_
13	saw	see	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	9	advcl	_	_
14	two	two	NUM	CD	NumForm=Word|NumType=Card	16	nummod	_	_
15	huge	huge	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	16	amod	_	_
16	dragons	dragon	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	13	obj	_	_
17	guarding	guard	VERB	VBG	VerbForm=Ger	16	acl	_	_
18	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	19	det	_	_
19	gate	gate	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	17	obj	_	_
20	of	of	ADP	IN	_	22	case	_	_
21	a	a	DET	DT	Definite=Ind|PronType=Art	22	det	_	_
22	wood	wood	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	19	nmod	_	SpaceAfter=No
23	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	5	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

<!-- .fr -->
| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **rouse** | past · passive |  | sight's curiosity |  |  |  | instantly *property* | vn stimulate-59.4 «NP V NP»: subject=Patient |
| 2 | **advance** | past | sight |  |  |  |  | cautiously *property* | vn caused\_calibratable\_cos-45.6.2-1 «NP V ADV-Middle»: agent=Patient |
| 3 | **see** | past | sight | two huge dragons |  |  |  |  | vn comprehend-87.2-1-1 «NP V NP»: agent=Experiencer dragon=Stimulus |
| 4 | **guard** | gerund | two huge dragons *not said here* | the gate of a wood |  |  |  |  | vn defend-72.3 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent gate=Beneficiary |

<!-- .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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