---
title: They sat for two days and two nights in the corn, and grew so hungry… — The Yellow Fairy Book · tree and pragmatics
description: They sat for two days and two nights in the corn, and grew so hungry that they nearly died; but if they were to venture out, it was certain death. Who acts: others, corn. A sentence of «The Yellow Fairy Book» by Andrew Lang, The Dragon and His Grandmother, with its dependency tree and the pragmatics
---

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# The Yellow Fairy Book, The Dragon and His Grandmother, sentence 8

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They sat for two days and two nights in the corn, and grew so hungry that they nearly died; but if they were to venture out, it was certain death.

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**Who acts:** others, corn · **What happens:** sit, grow, die, venture out, be · **To what, where:** corn, certain death

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This is a sentence of «The Yellow Fairy Book» by Andrew Lang, The Dragon and His Grandmother. The page gives its syntax tree — a dependency tree in the style of Universal Dependencies — and its pragmatics clause by clause: who acts (others, corn), 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:pg640:9:8
# text = They sat for two days and two nights in the corn, and grew so hungry that they nearly died; but if they were to venture out, it was certain death.
1	They	they	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Number=Plur|Person=3|PronType=Prs	2	nsubj	_	_
2	sat	sit	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Plur|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	0	root	_	_
3	for	for	ADP	IN	_	5	case	_	_
4	two	two	NUM	CD	NumForm=Word|NumType=Card	5	nummod	_	_
5	days	day	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	2	obl	_	_
6	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	8	cc	_	_
7	two	two	NUM	CD	NumForm=Word|NumType=Card	8	nummod	_	_
8	nights	night	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	5	conj	_	_
9	in	in	ADP	IN	_	11	case	_	_
10	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	11	det	_	_
11	corn	corn	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	2	obl	_	SpaceAfter=No
12	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	14	punct	_	_
13	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	14	cc	_	_
14	grew	grow	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Plur|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	2	conj	_	_
15	so	so	ADV	RB	_	16	advmod	_	_
16	hungry	hungry	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	14	xcomp	_	_
17	that	that	SCONJ	IN	_	20	mark	_	_
18	they	they	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Number=Plur|Person=3|PronType=Prs	20	nsubj	_	_
19	nearly	nearly	ADV	RB	_	20	advmod	_	_
20	died	die	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Plur|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	16	advcl	_	SpaceAfter=No
21	;	;	PUNCT	,	_	33	punct	_	_
22	but	but	CCONJ	CC	_	33	cc	_	_
23	if	if	SCONJ	IN	_	27	mark	_	_
24	they	they	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Number=Plur|Person=3|PronType=Prs	27	nsubj	_	_
25	were	be	AUX	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Plur|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	27	aux	_	_
26	to	to	PART	TO	_	27	mark	_	_
27	venture	venture	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	33	advcl	_	_
28	out	out	ADP	RP	_	27	compound:prt	_	SpaceAfter=No
29	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	27	punct	_	_
30	it	it	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Gender=Neut|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	33	nsubj	_	_
31	was	be	AUX	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	33	cop	_	_
32	certain	certain	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	33	amod	_	_
33	death	death	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	2	conj	_	SpaceAfter=No
34	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	2	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

<!-- .fr -->
| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **sit** | past | others *= other* |  |  | the corn | day |  | vn assuming\_position-50 «NP V PP.location»: agent=Agent in corn=Location |
| 2 | **grow** | past | others *= other* *not said here* |  |  |  |  | hungry *property* | vn appear-48.1.1 «NP V»: agent=Theme |
| 3 | **die** | past | others *= other* |  |  |  |  | nearly *property* | vn calibratable\_cos-45.6.1 «NP.attribute V»: agent=Attribute |
| 4 | **venture out** *a condition, not said to happen* | past | others *= other* |  |  |  |  |  | vn say-37.7-1 «NP V how S»: agent=Agent |
| 5 | **is a** | past | corn | certain death |  |  |  |  | tree rules |

<!-- .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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