---
title: And instantly two rough men with thick sticks crept out of the bag a… — The Violet Fairy Book · tree and pragmatics
description: And instantly two rough men with thick sticks crept out of the bag and began to beat him well, crying as they did so: Who acts: two rough men, sticks. A sentence of «The Violet Fairy Book» by Andrew Lang, Two in a Sack, with its dependency tree and the pragmatics of every clause.
---

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# The Violet Fairy Book, Two in a Sack, sentence 47

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And instantly two rough men with thick sticks crept out of the bag and began to beat him well, crying as they did so:

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**Who acts:** two rough men, sticks · **What happens:** creep out, begin, beat, cry, do · **To what, where:** bag, man

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This is a sentence of «The Violet Fairy Book» by Andrew Lang, Two in a Sack. The page gives its syntax tree — a dependency tree in the style of Universal Dependencies — and its pragmatics clause by clause: who acts (two rough men, sticks), 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:pg641:17:47
# text = And instantly two rough men with thick sticks crept out of the bag and began to beat him well, crying as they did so:
1	And	and	CCONJ	CC	_	9	cc	_	_
2	instantly	instantly	ADV	RB	_	3	advmod	_	_
3	two	two	NUM	CD	NumForm=Word|NumType=Card	5	nummod	_	_
4	rough	rough	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	5	amod	_	_
5	men	man	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	9	nsubj	_	_
6	with	with	ADP	IN	_	8	case	_	_
7	thick	thick	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	8	amod	_	_
8	sticks	stick	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	5	nmod	_	_
9	crept	creep	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Plur|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	0	root	_	_
10	out	out	ADP	IN	_	13	case	_	_
11	of	of	ADP	IN	_	13	case	_	_
12	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	13	det	_	_
13	bag	bag	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	9	obl	_	_
14	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	15	cc	_	_
15	began	begin	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Plur|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	9	conj	_	_
16	to	to	PART	TO	_	17	mark	_	_
17	beat	beat	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	15	xcomp	_	_
18	him	he	PRON	PRP	Case=Acc|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	17	obj	_	_
19	well	well	ADV	RB	Degree=Pos	17	advmod	_	SpaceAfter=No
20	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	21	punct	_	_
21	crying	cry	VERB	VBG	Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Part	17	advcl	_	_
22	as	as	SCONJ	IN	_	24	mark	_	_
23	they	they	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Number=Plur|Person=3|PronType=Prs	24	nsubj	_	_
24	did	do	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Plur|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	21	ccomp	_	_
25	so	so	ADV	RB	_	24	advmod	_	SpaceAfter=No
26	:	:	PUNCT	:	_	9	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

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| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **creep out** | past | two rough men with thick sticks | the bag |  |  |  |  | vn run-51.3.2 «PP.location V NP»: agent=Initial\_Location bag=Theme |
| 2 | **begin** | past | two rough men with thick sticks *not said here* |  |  |  |  |  | vn begin-55.1-1-1 «NP V S\_INF»: agent=Agent clause=Eventuality |
| 3 | **beat** | to-infinitive | two rough men with thick sticks *not said here* | man |  |  |  | well *property* | vn sound\_emission-43.2 «PP.location V NP»: agent=Location he=Theme |
| 4 | **cry** *speech: express* | gerund | two rough men with thick sticks *not said here* |  |  |  |  |  | vn manner\_speaking-37.3 «NP V that S»: agent=Agent clause=Topic |
| 5 | **do** | past | sticks *= stick* |  |  |  |  |  | vn act-114-1 «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 Violet Fairy Book» by Andrew Lang, Project Gutenberg book 641 (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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