---
title: At length, when he thought they had reached a safe distance, he bega… — The Yellow Fairy Book · tree and pragmatics
description: At length, when he thought they had reached a safe distance, he began to lower his flight, and gradually descending to earth, deposited his burden in a flowery meadow. Who acts: eagle, shrieks. A sentence of «The Yellow Fairy Book» by Andrew Lang, How Six Men Travelled Through the Wide World, part 2
---

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# The Yellow Fairy Book, How Six Men Travelled Through the Wide World, part 2, sentence 4

<!-- .ven lang=en -->
At length, when he thought they had reached a safe distance, he began to lower his flight, and gradually descending to earth, deposited his burden in a flowery meadow.

<!-- .vintro -->
**Who acts:** eagle, shrieks · **What happens:** think, reach, begin, lower, descend, deposit · **To what, where:** length, safe distance, flight, earth, burden, flowery meadow · **Speech:** someone speaks here

<!-- .vabout -->
This is a sentence of «The Yellow Fairy Book» by Andrew Lang, How Six Men Travelled Through the Wide World, 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 (eagle, shrieks), 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:pg640:20:4
# text = At length, when he thought they had reached a safe distance, he began to lower his flight, and gradually descending to earth, deposited his burden in a flowery meadow.
1	At	at	ADP	IN	_	2	case	_	_
2	length	length	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	6	obl	_	SpaceAfter=No
3	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	2	punct	_	_
4	when	when	ADV	WRB	PronType=Int	6	advmod	_	_
5	he	he	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	6	nsubj	_	_
6	thought	think	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	0	root	_	_
7	they	they	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Number=Plur|Person=3|PronType=Prs	9	nsubj	_	_
8	had	have	AUX	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Plur|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	9	aux	_	_
9	reached	reach	VERB	VBN	Tense=Past|VerbForm=Part	6	ccomp	_	_
10	a	a	DET	DT	Definite=Ind|PronType=Art	12	det	_	_
11	safe	safe	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	12	amod	_	_
12	distance	distance	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	9	obj	_	SpaceAfter=No
13	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	15	punct	_	_
14	he	he	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	15	nsubj	_	_
15	began	begin	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	6	conj	_	_
16	to	to	PART	TO	_	17	mark	_	_
17	lower	lower	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	15	xcomp	_	_
18	his	his	PRON	PRP$	Case=Gen|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|Poss=Yes|PronType=Prs	19	nmod:poss	_	_
19	flight	flight	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	17	obj	_	SpaceAfter=No
20	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	23	punct	_	_
21	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	23	cc	_	_
22	gradually	gradually	ADV	RB	_	23	advmod	_	_
23	descending	descend	VERB	VBG	Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Part	15	advcl	_	_
24	to	to	ADP	IN	_	25	case	_	_
25	earth	earth	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	23	obl	_	SpaceAfter=No
26	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	27	punct	_	_
27	deposited	deposit	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	6	conj	_	_
28	his	his	PRON	PRP$	Case=Gen|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|Poss=Yes|PronType=Prs	29	nmod:poss	_	_
29	burden	burden	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	27	obj	_	_
30	in	in	ADP	IN	_	33	case	_	_
31	a	a	DET	DT	Definite=Ind|PronType=Art	33	det	_	_
32	flowery	flowery	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	33	amod	_	_
33	meadow	meadow	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	27	obl	_	SpaceAfter=No
34	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	6	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

<!-- .fr -->
| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **think** *speech: other* | past | eagle |  |  | length |  |  | vn consider-29.9-2 «NP V how S»: agent=Agent clause=Theme |
| 2 | **reach** | past · perfect | shrieks *= shriek* | a safe distance |  |  |  |  | vn body\_motion-49.2-1-1 «NP V NP ADV»: agent=Agent distance=Theme |
| 3 | **begin** | past | eagle |  |  |  |  |  | vn begin-55.1-1-1 «NP V S\_INF»: agent=Agent clause=Eventuality |
| 4 | **lower** | to-infinitive | eagle *not said here* | eagle's flight |  |  |  |  | vn put\_direction-9.4 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent flight=Theme |
| 5 | **descend** | gerund | eagle *not said here* |  |  | earth |  | gradually *property* | vn meander-47.7-1 «NP V PP.location»: agent=Theme to earth=Location |
| 6 | **deposit** | past | eagle *not said here* | eagle's burden |  | a flowery meadow |  |  | vn put-9.1-1 «NP V NP PP.destination»: agent=Agent burden=Theme in meadow=Destination |
| 7 | **burden** |  | eagle |  |  |  |  |  | nom burden «cognition transitive»: poss=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 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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