---
title: He realised at once that this could be none other than the nixy of t… — The Yellow Fairy Book · tree and pragmatics
description: He realised at once that this could be none other than the nixy of the mill-pond, and in his terror he didn’t know if he should fly away or remain where he was. Who acts: miller, this. A sentence of «The Yellow Fairy Book» by Andrew Lang, How Six Men Travelled Through the Wide World, part 2, with it
---

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# The Yellow Fairy Book, How Six Men Travelled Through the Wide World, part 2, sentence 78

<!-- .ven lang=en -->
He realised at once that this could be none other than the nixy of the mill-pond, and in his terror he didn’t know if he should fly away or remain where he was.

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**Who acts:** miller, this · **What happens:** realise, be, not know, fly away, remain · **To what, where:** none, terror · **Speech:** someone speaks here

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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 (miller, this), 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:pg640:20:78
# text = He realised at once that this could be none other than the nixy of the mill-pond, and in his terror he didn’t know if he should fly away or remain where he was.
1	He	he	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	2	nsubj	_	_
2	realised	realise	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	0	root	_	_
3	at	at	ADP	IN	_	4	case	_	_
4	once	once	ADV	RB	NumForm=Word|NumType=Mult	2	obl	_	_
5	that	that	SCONJ	IN	_	9	mark	_	_
6	this	this	PRON	DT	Number=Sing|PronType=Dem	9	nsubj	_	_
7	could	could	AUX	MD	VerbForm=Fin	9	aux	_	_
8	be	be	AUX	VB	VerbForm=Inf	9	cop	_	_
9	none	none	PRON	NN	PronType=Neg	2	ccomp	_	_
10	other	other	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	9	amod	_	_
11	than	than	ADP	IN	_	13	case	_	_
12	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	13	det	_	_
13	nixy	nixy	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	10	obl	_	_
14	of	of	ADP	IN	_	18	case	_	_
15	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	18	det	_	_
16	mill	mill	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	18	compound	_	SpaceAfter=No
17	-	-	PUNCT	HYPH	_	16	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
18	pond	pond	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	13	nmod	_	SpaceAfter=No
19	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	23	punct	_	_
20	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	23	cc	_	_
21	in	in	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	terror	terror	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	13	appos	_	_
24	he	he	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	27	nsubj	_	_
25	did	do	AUX	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	27	aux	_	SpaceAfter=No
26	n’t	not	PART	RB	Polarity=Neg	27	advmod	_	_
27	know	know	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	23	acl:relcl	_	_
28	if	if	SCONJ	IN	_	31	mark	_	_
29	he	he	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	31	nsubj	_	_
30	should	should	AUX	MD	VerbForm=Fin	31	aux	_	_
31	fly	fly	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	27	ccomp	_	_
32	away	away	ADV	RB	_	31	advmod	_	_
33	or	or	CCONJ	CC	_	34	cc	_	_
34	remain	remain	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	31	conj	_	_
35	where	where	ADV	WRB	PronType=Rel	37	advmod	_	_
36	he	he	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	37	nsubj	_	_
37	was	be	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	34	ccomp	_	SpaceAfter=No
38	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	2	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

<!-- .fr -->
| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **realise** | past | miller |  |  |  |  |  | tree rules |
| 2 | **is a** | could | this | none |  |  |  |  | tree rules |
| 3 | **not** **know** | past · do-support | miller | miller's terror *not said here* |  |  |  |  | tree rules |
| 4 | **fly away** *a condition, not said to happen* | should | miller |  |  |  |  | away *property* | vn spatial\_configuration-47.6-1 «NP V»: agent=Theme |
| 5 | **remain** | infinitive | miller *not said here* |  |  |  |  |  | tree rules |
| 6 | **be** | past | miller |  |  |  |  |  | vn exist-47.1 «NP V»: agent=Theme |

<!-- .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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