---
title: The death struggle of the monster lasted three days and three nights… — The Yellow Fairy Book · tree and pragmatics
description: The death struggle of the monster lasted three days and three nights; in his writhing he beat his tail so violently against the ground, that at ten miles’ distance the earth trembled as if with an earthquake. Who acts: death struggle, wisdom, earth, monster. A sentence of «The Yellow Fairy Book» by 
---

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# The Yellow Fairy Book, The Dragon of the North(2), sentence 165

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The death struggle of the monster lasted three days and three nights; in his writhing he beat his tail so violently against the ground, that at ten miles’ distance the earth trembled as if with an earthquake.

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**Who acts:** death struggle, wisdom, earth, monster · **What happens:** last, beat, distance, tremble, struggle · **To what, where:** tail, writhing, earth

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This is a sentence of «The Yellow Fairy Book» by Andrew Lang, The Dragon of the North(2). The page gives its syntax tree — a dependency tree in the style of Universal Dependencies — and its pragmatics clause by clause: who acts (death struggle, wisdom, earth, monster), what happens, when and where, as Mova's frames read it from the tree.

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**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:pg640:5:165
# text = The death struggle of the monster lasted three days and three nights; in his writhing he beat his tail so violently against the ground, that at ten miles’ distance the earth trembled as if with an earthquake.
1	The	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	3	det	_	_
2	death	death	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	3	compound	_	_
3	struggle	struggle	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	7	nsubj	_	_
4	of	of	ADP	IN	_	6	case	_	_
5	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	6	det	_	_
6	monster	monster	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	3	nmod	_	_
7	lasted	last	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	0	root	_	_
8	three	three	NUM	CD	NumForm=Word|NumType=Card	9	nummod	_	_
9	days	day	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	7	obl:unmarked	_	_
10	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	12	cc	_	_
11	three	three	NUM	CD	NumForm=Word|NumType=Card	12	nummod	_	_
12	nights	night	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	9	conj	_	SpaceAfter=No
13	;	;	PUNCT	:	_	18	punct	_	_
14	in	in	ADP	IN	_	16	case	_	_
15	his	his	PRON	PRP$	Case=Gen|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|Poss=Yes|PronType=Prs	16	nmod:poss	_	_
16	writhing	writhing	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	18	obl	_	_
17	he	he	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	18	nsubj	_	_
18	beat	beat	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	7	conj	_	_
19	his	his	PRON	PRP$	Case=Gen|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|Poss=Yes|PronType=Prs	20	nmod:poss	_	_
20	tail	tail	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	18	obj	_	_
21	so	so	ADV	RB	_	22	advmod	_	_
22	violently	violently	ADV	RB	_	18	advmod	_	_
23	against	against	ADP	IN	_	25	case	_	_
24	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	25	det	_	_
25	ground	ground	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	18	obl	_	SpaceAfter=No
26	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	32	punct	_	_
27	that	that	DET	DT	Number=Sing|PronType=Dem	32	det	_	_
28	at	at	ADP	IN	_	30	case	_	_
29	ten	ten	NUM	CD	NumForm=Word|NumType=Card	30	nummod	_	_
30	miles	mile	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	32	obl	_	SpaceAfter=No
31	’	'	PUNCT	''	_	30	punct	_	_
32	distance	distance	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	18	obl	_	_
33	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	34	det	_	_
34	earth	earth	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	32	nsubj	_	_
35	trembled	tremble	VERB	VBN	Tense=Past|VerbForm=Part|Voice=Pass	34	acl	_	_
36	as	as	ADP	IN	ExtPos=ADP	40	case	_	_
37	if	if	SCONJ	IN	_	36	fixed	_	_
38	with	with	ADP	IN	_	40	case	_	_
39	an	a	DET	DT	Definite=Ind|PronType=Art	40	det	_	_
40	earthquake	earthquake	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	35	obl	_	SpaceAfter=No
41	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	7	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

<!-- .fr -->
| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **last** | past | the death struggle of the monster |  |  |  | day |  | vn cost-54.2 «NP V NP.value»: agent=Theme |
| 2 | **beat** | past | wisdom | wisdom's tail |  | struggle's writhing |  | against the ground; violently *property* | vn hit-18.1-1 «NP V NP PP»: agent=Agent tail=Instrument against ground=Patient |
| 3 | **distance** |  | the earth |  |  |  |  | at ten miles | tree rules |
| 4 | **tremble** | participle |  | the earth *not said here* |  |  |  | as a earthquake | vn modes\_of\_being\_with\_motion-47.3 «NP V»: agent=Theme |
| 5 | **struggle** |  | the monster |  |  |  |  |  | nom struggle «act intransitive»: of=agent |

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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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