---
title: At every step he seemed to sink into the clouds, but fear gave wings… — The Yellow Fairy Book · tree and pragmatics
description: At every step he seemed to sink into the clouds, but fear gave wings to his feet, and he crossed the lake in safety and set to work at once. Who acts: Prince, fear. A sentence of «The Yellow Fairy Book» by Andrew Lang, The Glass Mountain(16), part 4, with its dependency tree and the pragmatics of ev
---

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# The Yellow Fairy Book, The Glass Mountain(16), part 4, sentence 55

<!-- .ven lang=en -->
At every step he seemed to sink into the clouds, but fear gave wings to his feet, and he crossed the lake in safety and set to work at once.

<!-- .vintro -->
**Who acts:** Prince, fear · **What happens:** seem, sink, give, cross, set, work · **To what, where:** clouds, wings, lake

<!-- .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 (Prince, fear), 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:pg640:25:55
# text = At every step he seemed to sink into the clouds, but fear gave wings to his feet, and he crossed the lake in safety and set to work at once.
1	At	at	ADP	IN	_	3	case	_	_
2	every	every	DET	DT	PronType=Tot	3	det	_	_
3	step	step	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	5	obl	_	_
4	he	he	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	5	nsubj	_	_
5	seemed	seem	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	0	root	_	_
6	to	to	PART	TO	_	7	mark	_	_
7	sink	sink	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	5	xcomp	_	_
8	into	into	ADP	IN	_	10	case	_	_
9	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	10	det	_	_
10	clouds	cloud	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	7	obl	_	SpaceAfter=No
11	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	14	punct	_	_
12	but	but	CCONJ	CC	_	14	cc	_	_
13	fear	fear	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	14	nsubj	_	_
14	gave	give	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	5	conj	_	_
15	wings	wing	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	14	iobj	_	_
16	to	to	ADP	IN	_	18	case	_	_
17	his	his	PRON	PRP$	Case=Gen|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|Poss=Yes|PronType=Prs	18	nmod:poss	_	_
18	feet	foot	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	14	obl	_	SpaceAfter=No
19	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	22	punct	_	_
20	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	22	cc	_	_
21	he	he	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	22	nsubj	_	_
22	crossed	cross	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	5	parataxis	_	_
23	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	24	det	_	_
24	lake	lake	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	22	obj	_	_
25	in	in	ADP	IN	_	26	case	_	_
26	safety	safety	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	22	obl	_	_
27	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	28	cc	_	_
28	set	set	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	22	conj	_	_
29	to	to	PART	TO	_	30	mark	_	_
30	work	work	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	28	xcomp	_	_
31	at	at	ADP	IN	_	32	case	_	_
32	once	once	ADV	RB	NumForm=Word|NumType=Mult	30	obl	_	SpaceAfter=No
33	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	5	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

<!-- .fr -->
| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **seem** | past | Prince |  |  |  |  | at every step | vn seem-109-1-1-1 «NP V S\_INF»: agent=Theme clause=Attribute |
| 2 | **sink** | to-infinitive | Prince *not said here* |  |  | the clouds |  |  | vn other\_cos-45.4 «NP.patient V»: agent=Patient |
| 3 | **give** | past | fear |  | wings |  |  | to Prince's feet | vn give-13.1-1 «NP V NP PP.recipient»: agent=Agent wing=Theme to foot=Recipient |
| 4 | **cross** | past | Prince | the lake |  |  |  | in safety | vn crane-40.3.2 «NP V NP PP.recipient PP.theme»: agent=Agent lake=Patient in safety=Topic |
| 5 | **set** | infinitive | Prince *not said here* |  |  |  |  |  | tree rules |
| 6 | **work** | to-infinitive | Prince *not said here* |  |  |  |  |  | vn employment-95.3 «NP V PP.theme»: agent=Agent at once=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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