---
title: Half-dead with fright, and trembling in every limb, the poor childre… — The Yellow Fairy Book · tree and pragmatics
description: Half-dead with fright, and trembling in every limb, the poor children lay down to sleep on a heap of straw in the corner of the hut; but they dared not close their eyes, and scarcely ventured to breathe. Who acts: poor children, children. A sentence of «The Yellow Fairy Book» by Andrew Lang, The Wit
---

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# The Yellow Fairy Book, The Witch (28), sentence 50

<!-- .ven lang=en -->
Half-dead with fright, and trembling in every limb, the poor children lay down to sleep on a heap of straw in the corner of the hut; but they dared not close their eyes, and scarcely ventured to breathe.

<!-- .vintro -->
**Who acts:** poor children, children · **What happens:** tremble, lay down, sleep, close, venture, breathe · **To what, where:** limb, heap, eyes

<!-- .vabout -->
This is a sentence of «The Yellow Fairy Book» by Andrew Lang, The Witch (28). The page gives its syntax tree — a dependency tree in the style of Universal Dependencies — and its pragmatics clause by clause: who acts (poor children, children), 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:pg640:39:50
# text = Half-dead with fright, and trembling in every limb, the poor children lay down to sleep on a heap of straw in the corner of the hut; but they dared not close their eyes, and scarcely ventured to breathe.
1	Half	half	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing|NumForm=Word|NumType=Frac	3	nsubj	_	SpaceAfter=No
2	-	-	PUNCT	HYPH	_	3	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
3	dead	dead	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	0	root	_	_
4	with	with	ADP	IN	_	5	case	_	_
5	fright	fright	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	3	obl	_	SpaceAfter=No
6	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	8	punct	_	_
7	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	8	cc	_	_
8	trembling	tremble	VERB	VBG	Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Part	3	parataxis	_	_
9	in	in	ADP	IN	_	11	case	_	_
10	every	every	DET	DT	PronType=Tot	11	det	_	_
11	limb	limb	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	8	obl	_	SpaceAfter=No
12	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	16	punct	_	_
13	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	15	det	_	_
14	poor	poor	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	15	amod	_	_
15	children	child	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	16	nsubj	_	_
16	lay	lay	VERB	VBP	Mood=Ind|Number=Plur|Person=3|Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Fin	3	conj	_	_
17	down	down	ADV	RB	_	16	advmod	_	_
18	to	to	PART	TO	_	19	mark	_	_
19	sleep	sleep	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	16	advcl	_	_
20	on	on	ADP	IN	_	22	case	_	_
21	a	a	DET	DT	Definite=Ind|PronType=Art	22	det	_	_
22	heap	heap	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	19	obl	_	_
23	of	of	ADP	IN	_	24	case	_	_
24	straw	straw	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	22	nmod	_	_
25	in	in	ADP	IN	_	27	case	_	_
26	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	27	det	_	_
27	corner	corner	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	24	nmod	_	_
28	of	of	ADP	IN	_	30	case	_	_
29	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	30	det	_	_
30	hut	hut	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	27	nmod	_	SpaceAfter=No
31	;	;	PUNCT	:	_	36	punct	_	_
32	but	but	CCONJ	CC	_	36	cc	_	_
33	they	they	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Number=Plur|Person=3|PronType=Prs	36	nsubj	_	_
34	dared	dare	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Plur|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	36	aux	_	_
35	not	not	PART	RB	Polarity=Neg	34	advmod	_	_
36	close	close	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	3	parataxis	_	_
37	their	their	PRON	PRP$	Case=Gen|Number=Plur|Person=3|Poss=Yes|PronType=Prs	38	nmod:poss	_	_
38	eyes	eye	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	36	obj	_	SpaceAfter=No
39	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	42	punct	_	_
40	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	42	cc	_	_
41	scarcely	scarcely	ADV	RB	_	42	advmod	_	_
42	ventured	venture	VERB	VBN	Tense=Past|VerbForm=Part	36	conj	_	_
43	to	to	PART	TO	_	44	mark	_	_
44	breathe	breathe	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	42	xcomp	_	SpaceAfter=No
45	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	3	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

<!-- .fr -->
| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **tremble** | gerund |  |  |  | every limb |  |  | vn modes\_of\_being\_with\_motion-47.3 «NP V PP.location»: agent=Theme in limb=Location |
| 2 | **lay down** | present | the poor children |  |  |  |  | down *property* | vn create-26.4 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent |
| 3 | **sleep** | to-infinitive | the poor children *not said here* |  |  | a heap of straw in the corner of the hut |  |  | vn snooze-40.4-1 «NP V»: agent=Agent |
| 4 | **close** | past | children *= child* | children's eyes |  |  |  |  | vn crane-40.3.2 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent eye=Patient |
| 5 | **venture** | participle | children *= child* *not said here* |  |  |  |  | scarcely *property* | vn say-37.7-1 «NP V how S\_INF»: agent=Agent clause=Topic |
| 6 | **breathe** | to-infinitive | children *= child* *not said here* |  |  |  |  |  | vn breathe-40.1.2-1 «NP V»: agent=Agent |

<!-- .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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