---
title: At length he reached the fir-tree beneath which she was sitting, and… — The Yellow Fairy Book · tree and pragmatics
description: At length he reached the fir-tree beneath which she was sitting, and with a crisp crackling sound he alighted beside her, and looked at her lovely face. Who acts: frost, girl. A sentence of «The Yellow Fairy Book» by Andrew Lang, The Story of King Frost (26), with its dependency tree and the pragmat
---

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# The Yellow Fairy Book, The Story of King Frost (26), sentence 12

<!-- .ven lang=en -->
At length he reached the fir-tree beneath which she was sitting, and with a crisp crackling sound he alighted beside her, and looked at her lovely face.

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**Who acts:** frost, girl · **What happens:** reach, sit, crackle, alight, look · **To what, where:** fir tree, length, sound

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This is a sentence of «The Yellow Fairy Book» by Andrew Lang, The Story of King Frost (26). The page gives its syntax tree — a dependency tree in the style of Universal Dependencies — and its pragmatics clause by clause: who acts (frost, girl), 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:pg640:37:12
# text = At length he reached the fir-tree beneath which she was sitting, and with a crisp crackling sound he alighted beside her, and looked at her lovely face.
1	At	at	ADP	IN	_	2	case	_	_
2	length	length	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	4	obl	_	_
3	he	he	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	4	nsubj	_	_
4	reached	reach	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	0	root	_	_
5	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	8	det	_	_
6	fir	fir	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	8	compound	_	SpaceAfter=No
7	-	-	PUNCT	HYPH	_	6	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
8	tree	tree	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	4	obj	_	_
9	beneath	beneath	ADP	IN	_	10	case	_	_
10	which	which	PRON	WDT	PronType=Rel	13	obl	_	_
11	she	she	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Gender=Fem|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	13	nsubj	_	_
12	was	be	AUX	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	13	aux	_	_
13	sitting	sit	VERB	VBG	Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Part	8	acl:relcl	_	SpaceAfter=No
14	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	19	punct	_	_
15	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	19	cc	_	_
16	with	with	ADP	IN	_	18	case	_	_
17	a	a	DET	DT	Definite=Ind|PronType=Art	18	det	_	_
18	crisp	crisp	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	19	obl	_	_
19	crackling	crackle	VERB	VBG	Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Part	13	conj	_	_
20	sound	sound	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	19	obj	_	_
21	he	he	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	22	nsubj	_	_
22	alighted	alight	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	19	parataxis	_	_
23	beside	beside	ADP	IN	_	24	case	_	_
24	her	she	PRON	PRP	Case=Acc|Gender=Fem|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	22	obl	_	SpaceAfter=No
25	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	27	punct	_	_
26	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	27	cc	_	_
27	looked	look	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	4	conj	_	_
28	at	at	ADP	IN	_	31	case	_	_
29	her	her	PRON	PRP$	Case=Gen|Gender=Fem|Number=Sing|Person=3|Poss=Yes|PronType=Prs	31	nmod:poss	_	_
30	lovely	lovely	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	31	amod	_	_
31	face	face	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	27	obl	_	SpaceAfter=No
32	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	4	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

<!-- .fr -->
| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **reach** | past | frost | the fir tree |  | length |  |  | vn get-13.5.1 «NP V NP PP.source NP.asset»: agent=Agent tree=Theme at length=Asset |
| 2 | **sit** | past · progressive | girl |  |  | the fir tree |  |  | vn assuming\_position-50 «NP V PP.location»: agent=Agent beneath which=Location |
| 3 | **crackle** | gerund | girl *not said here* | sound |  |  |  | with a crisp | vn sound\_emission-43.2 «PP.location V NP»: agent=Location sound=Theme |
| 4 | **alight** | past | frost |  |  |  |  | beside girl | tree rules |
| 5 | **look** | past | frost *not said here* |  |  |  |  | at girl's lovely face | vn peer-30.3 «NP V PP.theme»: agent=Agent at face=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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