---
title: After a few moments there came out of the forest a maiden, gliding o… — The Yellow Fairy Book · tree and pragmatics
description: After a few moments there came out of the forest a maiden, gliding over the grass so lightly that her feet seemed scarcely to touch the ground, and stood beside the spring. Who acts: feet. A sentence of «The Yellow Fairy Book» by Andrew Lang, The Dragon of the North(2), with its dependency tree and 
---

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# The Yellow Fairy Book, The Dragon of the North(2), sentence 56

<!-- .ven lang=en -->
After a few moments there came out of the forest a maiden, gliding over the grass so lightly that her feet seemed scarcely to touch the ground, and stood beside the spring.

<!-- .vintro -->
**Who acts:** feet · **What happens:** come out, glide, seem, touch, stand · **To what, where:** forest, grass, ground

<!-- .vabout -->
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 (feet), 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:pg640:5:56
# text = After a few moments there came out of the forest a maiden, gliding over the grass so lightly that her feet seemed scarcely to touch the ground, and stood beside the spring.
1	After	after	ADP	IN	_	4	case	_	_
2	a	a	DET	DT	Definite=Ind|PronType=Art	4	det	_	_
3	few	few	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	4	amod	_	_
4	moments	moment	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	6	obl	_	_
5	there	there	ADV	RB	PronType=Dem	6	advmod	_	_
6	came	come	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	0	root	_	_
7	out	out	ADP	IN	_	10	case	_	_
8	of	of	ADP	IN	_	10	case	_	_
9	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	10	det	_	_
10	forest	forest	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	6	obl	_	_
11	a	a	DET	DT	Definite=Ind|PronType=Art	10	appos	_	_
12	maiden	maiden	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	11	amod	_	SpaceAfter=No
13	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	14	punct	_	_
14	gliding	glide	VERB	VBG	Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Part	12	advcl	_	_
15	over	over	ADP	IN	_	17	case	_	_
16	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	17	det	_	_
17	grass	grass	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	14	obl	_	_
18	so	so	ADV	RB	_	19	advmod	_	_
19	lightly	lightly	ADV	RB	_	14	advmod	_	_
20	that	that	SCONJ	IN	_	23	mark	_	_
21	her	her	PRON	PRP$	Case=Gen|Gender=Fem|Number=Sing|Person=3|Poss=Yes|PronType=Prs	22	nmod:poss	_	_
22	feet	foot	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	23	nsubj	_	_
23	seemed	seem	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Plur|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	19	advcl	_	_
24	scarcely	scarcely	ADV	RB	_	26	advmod	_	_
25	to	to	PART	TO	_	26	mark	_	_
26	touch	touch	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	23	xcomp	_	_
27	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	28	det	_	_
28	ground	ground	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	26	obj	_	SpaceAfter=No
29	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	31	punct	_	_
30	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	31	cc	_	_
31	stood	stand	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Plur|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	23	conj	_	_
32	beside	beside	ADP	IN	_	34	case	_	_
33	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	34	det	_	_
34	spring	spring	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	31	obl	_	SpaceAfter=No
35	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	6	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

<!-- .fr -->
| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **come out** | past |  | the forest |  | there | moment |  | vn become-109.1 «NP V ADJ»: agent=Patient forest=Result |
| 2 | **glide** | gerund |  |  |  | the grass |  | lightly *property* | vn run-51.3.2-2 «NP V PP.location»: agent=Theme over grass=Trajectory |
| 3 | **seem** | past | forest's feet |  |  |  |  |  | vn seem-109-1-1-1 «NP V S\_INF»: agent=Theme clause=Attribute |
| 4 | **touch** | to-infinitive | forest's feet *not said here* | the ground |  |  |  | scarcely *property* | vn contiguous\_location-47.8-1 «NP V NP»: agent=Theme ground=Co-Theme |
| 5 | **stand** | past | forest's feet *not said here* |  |  |  | spring |  | vn assuming\_position-50 «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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