--- title: But in vain did the two eldest mount guard in the church with their… — The Yellow Fairy Book · tree and pragmatics description: But in vain did the two eldest mount guard in the church with their guns; as soon as the bird appeared high above their heads, sleep overpowered them, and they only awoke to hear the windows crashing in. Who acts: bird, sleep, BROTHERS, windows. A sentence of «The Yellow Fairy Book» by Andrew Lang, --- [Mova](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/) · [this page in HTML](https://mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg640/24/46/) [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 Glass Mountain(16), part 3](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg640/24/) / 46 # The Yellow Fairy Book, The Glass Mountain(16), part 3, sentence 46 But in vain did the two eldest mount guard in the church with their guns; as soon as the bird appeared high above their heads, sleep overpowered them, and they only awoke to hear the windows crashing in. **Who acts:** bird, sleep, BROTHERS, windows · **What happens:** do, appear, overpower, awake, hear, crash in · **To what, where:** two eldest mount guard, vain, heads, BROTHERS, windows This is a sentence of «The Yellow Fairy Book» by Andrew Lang, The Glass Mountain(16), 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 (bird, sleep, BROTHERS, windows), what happens, when and where, as Mova's frames read it from the tree. **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:pg640:24:46 # text = But in vain did the two eldest mount guard in the church with their guns; as soon as the bird appeared high above their heads, sleep overpowered them, and they only awoke to hear the windows crashing in. 1 But but CCONJ CC _ 4 cc _ _ 2 in in ADP IN _ 3 case _ _ 3 vain vain ADJ JJ Degree=Pos 4 obl _ _ 4 did do VERB VBD Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=1|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin 0 root _ _ 5 the the DET DT Definite=Def|PronType=Art 9 det _ _ 6 two two NUM CD NumForm=Word|NumType=Card 9 nummod _ _ 7 eldest eld ADJ JJS Degree=Sup 9 amod _ _ 8 mount mount NOUN NN Number=Sing 9 compound _ _ 9 guard guard NOUN NN Number=Sing 4 obj _ _ 10 in in ADP IN _ 12 case _ _ 11 the the DET DT Definite=Def|PronType=Art 12 det _ _ 12 church church NOUN NN Number=Sing 4 obl _ _ 13 with with ADP IN _ 15 case _ _ 14 their their PRON PRP$ Case=Gen|Number=Plur|Person=3|Poss=Yes|PronType=Prs 15 nmod:poss _ _ 15 guns gun NOUN NNS Number=Plur 12 nmod _ SpaceAfter=No 16 ; ; PUNCT : _ 22 punct _ _ 17 as as ADV RB _ 18 advmod _ _ 18 soon soon ADV RB Degree=Pos 22 advmod _ _ 19 as as SCONJ IN _ 22 mark _ _ 20 the the DET DT Definite=Def|PronType=Art 21 det _ _ 21 bird bird NOUN NN Number=Sing 22 nsubj _ _ 22 appeared appear VERB VBD Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin 4 parataxis _ _ 23 high high ADV RB Degree=Pos 22 advmod _ _ 24 above above ADP IN _ 26 case _ _ 25 their their PRON PRP$ Case=Gen|Number=Plur|Person=3|Poss=Yes|PronType=Prs 26 nmod:poss _ _ 26 heads head NOUN NNS Number=Plur 22 obl _ SpaceAfter=No 27 , , PUNCT , _ 29 punct _ _ 28 sleep sleep NOUN NN Number=Sing 29 nsubj _ _ 29 overpowered overpower VERB VBD Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin 22 conj _ _ 30 them they PRON PRP Case=Acc|Number=Plur|Person=3|PronType=Prs 29 obj _ SpaceAfter=No 31 , , PUNCT , _ 35 punct _ _ 32 and and CCONJ CC _ 35 cc _ _ 33 they they PRON PRP Case=Nom|Number=Plur|Person=3|PronType=Prs 35 nsubj _ _ 34 only only ADV RB _ 35 advmod _ _ 35 awoke awake VERB VBD Mood=Ind|Number=Plur|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin 29 conj _ _ 36 to to PART TO _ 37 mark _ _ 37 hear hear VERB VB VerbForm=Inf 35 xcomp _ _ 38 the the DET DT Definite=Def|PronType=Art 39 det _ _ 39 windows window NOUN NNS Number=Plur 37 obj _ _ 40 crashing crash VERB VBG VerbForm=Ger 39 acl _ _ 41 in in ADV RB _ 40 advmod _ SpaceAfter=No 42 . . PUNCT . _ 4 punct _ _ ``` ## Pragmatics {#pragmatics} | # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by | | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | | 1 | **do** | past | | the two eldest mount guard | | vain | | in the church with BROTHERS's guns | vn act-114-1 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent guard=Eventuality | | 2 | **appear** | past | the bird | | | BROTHERS's heads | | high, soon *property* | vn appear-48.1.1 «NP V PP.location»: agent=Theme above head=Location | | 3 | **overpower** | past | sleep | BROTHERS *= brother* | | | | | tree rules | | 4 | **awake** | past | BROTHERS *= brother* | | | | | | tree rules | | 5 | **hear** | to-infinitive | BROTHERS *= brother* *not said here* | the windows | | | | | vn see-30.1-1-1 «NP V S»: agent=Experiencer window=Stimulus | | 6 | **crash in** | gerund | the windows *not said here* | | | | | | vn break-45.1 «NP.patient V»: agent=Patient | 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. **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. - ← previous: [sentence 45](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg640/24/45/) - next →: [sentence 47](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg640/24/47/) - ↑ back to [The Glass Mountain(16), part 3](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg640/24/)