---
title: Just as the horsemen were about to ford the river, a hare, startled… — The Yellow Fairy Book · tree and pragmatics
description: Just as the horsemen were about to ford the river, a hare, startled by the sound of the horses’ hoofs, started up from the grass and ran towards the thicket. Who acts: horsemen. A sentence of «The Yellow Fairy Book» by Andrew Lang, The Glass Mountain(16), part 4, with its dependency tree and the pra
---

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# The Yellow Fairy Book, The Glass Mountain(16), part 4, sentence 42

<!-- .ven lang=en -->
Just as the horsemen were about to ford the river, a hare, startled by the sound of the horses’ hoofs, started up from the grass and ran towards the thicket.

<!-- .vintro -->
**Who acts:** horsemen · **What happens:** be, ford, startle, start up, run · **To what, where:** river, grass, thicket

<!-- .vabout -->
This is a sentence of «The Yellow Fairy Book» by Andrew Lang, The Glass Mountain(16), part 4. The page gives its syntax tree — a dependency tree in the style of Universal Dependencies — and its pragmatics clause by clause: who acts (horsemen), 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:pg640:25:42
# text = Just as the horsemen were about to ford the river, a hare, startled by the sound of the horses’ hoofs, started up from the grass and ran towards the thicket.
1	Just	just	ADV	RB	_	6	advmod	_	_
2	as	as	SCONJ	IN	_	6	mark	_	_
3	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	4	det	_	_
4	horsemen	horseman	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	6	nsubj	_	_
5	were	be	AUX	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Plur|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	6	cop	_	_
6	about	about	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	0	root	_	_
7	to	to	PART	TO	_	8	mark	_	_
8	ford	ford	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	6	xcomp	_	_
9	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	10	det	_	_
10	river	river	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	8	obj	_	SpaceAfter=No
11	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	13	punct	_	_
12	a	a	DET	DT	Definite=Ind|PronType=Art	13	det	_	_
13	hare	hare	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	10	conj	_	SpaceAfter=No
14	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	15	punct	_	_
15	startled	startle	VERB	VBN	Tense=Past|VerbForm=Part|Voice=Pass	10	acl	_	_
16	by	by	ADP	IN	_	18	case	_	_
17	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	18	det	_	_
18	sound	sound	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	15	obl	_	_
19	of	of	ADP	IN	_	23	case	_	_
20	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	21	det	_	_
21	horses	horse	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	23	nmod:poss	_	SpaceAfter=No
22	’	's	PART	POS	_	21	case	_	_
23	hoofs	hoof	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	18	nmod	_	SpaceAfter=No
24	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	25	punct	_	_
25	started	start	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	6	parataxis	_	_
26	up	up	ADP	RP	_	25	compound:prt	_	_
27	from	from	ADP	IN	_	29	case	_	_
28	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	29	det	_	_
29	grass	grass	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	25	obl	_	_
30	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	31	cc	_	_
31	ran	run	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=1|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	25	conj	_	_
32	towards	towards	ADP	IN	_	34	case	_	_
33	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	34	det	_	_
34	thicket	thicket	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	31	obl	_	SpaceAfter=No
35	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	6	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

<!-- .fr -->
| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **is** | past | the horsemen |  |  |  |  | about *property* | tree rules |
| 2 | **ford** | to-infinitive | the horsemen *not said here* | the river and a hare |  |  |  |  | tree rules |
| 3 | **startle** | participle |  | the river and a hare *not said here* |  |  |  | by the sound of the horses's hoofs | vn amuse-31.1 «NP V ADV-Middle»: agent=Experiencer |
| 4 | **start up** | past |  |  |  | the grass |  |  | vn begin-55.1-1-1 «NP.eventuality V»: agent=Eventuality |
| 5 | **run** | past |  |  |  | the thicket |  |  | vn run-51.3.2-2-1 «NP V PP.location»: agent=Theme towards thicket=Destination |

<!-- .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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