---
title: But before they left their shelter she broke off a little bit of the… — The Yellow Fairy Book · tree and pragmatics
description: But before they left their shelter she broke off a little bit of the rock, spoke some magic words over it, and threw it in the direction her mother was coming from. Who acts: mountains, girl, mother. A sentence of «The Yellow Fairy Book» by Andrew Lang, The Glass Mountain(16), part 4, with its depen
---

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# The Yellow Fairy Book, The Glass Mountain(16), part 4, sentence 89

<!-- .ven lang=en -->
But before they left their shelter she broke off a little bit of the rock, spoke some magic words over it, and threw it in the direction her mother was coming from.

<!-- .vintro -->
**Who acts:** mountains, girl, mother · **What happens:** leave, break off, speak, throw, come · **To what, where:** shelter, little bit, magic words, rock, direction · **Speech:** someone speaks here

<!-- .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 (mountains, girl, mother), 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:pg640:25:89
# text = But before they left their shelter she broke off a little bit of the rock, spoke some magic words over it, and threw it in the direction her mother was coming from.
1	But	but	CCONJ	CC	_	8	cc	_	_
2	before	before	SCONJ	IN	_	4	mark	_	_
3	they	they	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Number=Plur|Person=3|PronType=Prs	4	nsubj	_	_
4	left	leave	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Plur|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	8	advcl	_	_
5	their	their	PRON	PRP$	Case=Gen|Number=Plur|Person=3|Poss=Yes|PronType=Prs	6	nmod:poss	_	_
6	shelter	shelter	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	4	obj	_	_
7	she	she	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Gender=Fem|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	8	nsubj	_	_
8	broke	break	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	0	root	_	_
9	off	off	ADP	RP	_	8	compound:prt	_	_
10	a	a	DET	DT	Definite=Ind|PronType=Art	12	det	_	_
11	little	little	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	12	amod	_	_
12	bit	bit	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	8	obl:unmarked	_	_
13	of	of	ADP	IN	_	15	case	_	_
14	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	15	det	_	_
15	rock	rock	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	12	nmod	_	SpaceAfter=No
16	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	17	punct	_	_
17	spoke	speak	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	8	conj	_	_
18	some	some	DET	DT	PronType=Ind	20	det	_	_
19	magic	magic	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	20	amod	_	_
20	words	word	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	17	obj	_	_
21	over	over	ADP	IN	_	22	case	_	_
22	it	it	PRON	PRP	Case=Acc|Gender=Neut|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	20	nmod	_	SpaceAfter=No
23	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	25	punct	_	_
24	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	25	cc	_	_
25	threw	throw	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	8	conj	_	_
26	it	it	PRON	PRP	Case=Acc|Gender=Neut|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	25	obj	_	_
27	in	in	ADP	IN	_	29	case	_	_
28	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	29	det	_	_
29	direction	direction	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	25	obl	_	_
30	her	her	PRON	PRP$	Case=Gen|Gender=Fem|Number=Sing|Person=3|Poss=Yes|PronType=Prs	31	nmod:poss	_	_
31	mother	mother	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	33	nsubj	_	_
32	was	be	AUX	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	33	aux	_	_
33	coming	come	VERB	VBG	Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Part	29	acl:relcl	_	_
34	from	from	ADP	IN	_	33	obl	_	SpaceAfter=No
35	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	8	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

<!-- .fr -->
| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **leave** | past | mountains *= mountain* | mountains's shelter |  |  |  |  | vn keep-15.2 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent shelter=Theme |
| 2 | **break off** | past | girl | a little bit of the rock |  |  |  |  | vn hurt-40.8.3-1-1 «NP V»: agent=Patient |
| 3 | **speak** *speech: other* | past | girl *not said here* | some magic words |  | rock |  |  | tree rules |
| 4 | **throw** | past | girl *not said here* | shelter |  | the direction |  |  | vn throw-17.1-1-1 «NP V NP PP.destinations»: agent=Agent it=Theme in direction=Destination |
| 5 | **come** | past · progressive | girl's mother | the direction *not said here* |  |  |  |  | vn appear-48.1.1 «PP.location V NP»: agent=Location direction=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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