---
title: Evening closed in, and he strained his eyes to see if he could behol… — The Yellow Fairy Book · tree and pragmatics
description: Evening closed in, and he strained his eyes to see if he could behold the top of the mountain. Who acts: youth. A sentence of «The Yellow Fairy Book» by Andrew Lang, The Glass Mountain(16), part 1, with its dependency tree and the pragmatics of every clause.
---

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# The Yellow Fairy Book, The Glass Mountain(16), part 1, sentence 32

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Evening closed in, and he strained his eyes to see if he could behold the top of the mountain.

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**Who acts:** youth · **What happens:** even, close in, strain, see, behold · **To what, where:** eyes, top

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This is a sentence of «The Yellow Fairy Book» by Andrew Lang, The Glass Mountain(16), part 1. The page gives its syntax tree — a dependency tree in the style of Universal Dependencies — and its pragmatics clause by clause: who acts (youth), 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:pg640:22:32
# text = Evening closed in, and he strained his eyes to see if he could behold the top of the mountain.
1	Evening	even	VERB	VBG	VerbForm=Ger	7	csubj	_	_
2	closed	close	VERB	VBN	Tense=Past|VerbForm=Part|Voice=Pass	1	xcomp	_	_
3	in	in	ADP	RP	_	2	compound:prt	_	SpaceAfter=No
4	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	7	punct	_	_
5	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	7	cc	_	_
6	he	he	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	7	nsubj	_	_
7	strained	strain	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	0	root	_	_
8	his	his	PRON	PRP$	Case=Gen|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|Poss=Yes|PronType=Prs	9	nmod:poss	_	_
9	eyes	eye	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	7	obj	_	_
10	to	to	PART	TO	_	11	mark	_	_
11	see	see	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	7	advcl	_	_
12	if	if	SCONJ	IN	_	15	mark	_	_
13	he	he	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	15	nsubj	_	_
14	could	could	AUX	MD	VerbForm=Fin	15	aux	_	_
15	behold	behold	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	11	ccomp	_	_
16	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	17	det	_	_
17	top	top	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	15	obj	_	_
18	of	of	ADP	IN	_	20	case	_	_
19	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	20	det	_	_
20	mountain	mountain	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	17	nmod	_	SpaceAfter=No
21	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	7	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

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| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **even** | gerund |  |  |  |  |  |  | tree rules |
| 2 | **close in** | participle |  |  |  |  |  |  | vn other\_cos-45.4 «NP.patient V»: agent=Patient |
| 3 | **strain** | past | youth | youth's eyes |  |  |  |  | vn wipe\_manner-10.4.1 «NP V NP.source»: agent=Agent eye=Source |
| 4 | **see** | to-infinitive | youth *not said here* |  |  |  |  |  | vn comprehend-87.2-1-1 «NP V how S\_INF»: agent=Experiencer clause=Stimulus |
| 5 | **behold** *a condition, not said to happen* | could | youth | the top of the mountain |  |  |  |  | vn sight-30.2 «NP V NP»: agent=Experiencer top=Stimulus |

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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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