---
title: Instantly two rough men crept out of the sack, and began to beat the… — The Violet Fairy Book · tree and pragmatics
description: Instantly two rough men crept out of the sack, and began to beat the cousin as they cried: Who acts: two rough men, four. 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 58

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Instantly two rough men crept out of the sack, and began to beat the cousin as they cried:

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**Who acts:** two rough men, four · **What happens:** creep out, begin, beat, cry · **To what, where:** sack, cousin

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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, four), 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:pg641:17:58
# text = Instantly two rough men crept out of the sack, and began to beat the cousin as they cried:
1	Instantly	instantly	ADV	RB	_	5	advmod	_	_
2	two	two	NUM	CD	NumForm=Word|NumType=Card	4	nummod	_	_
3	rough	rough	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	4	amod	_	_
4	men	man	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	5	nsubj	_	_
5	crept	creep	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Plur|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	0	root	_	_
6	out	out	ADP	IN	_	9	case	_	_
7	of	of	ADP	IN	_	9	case	_	_
8	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	9	det	_	_
9	sack	sack	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	5	obl	_	SpaceAfter=No
10	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	12	punct	_	_
11	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	12	cc	_	_
12	began	begin	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Plur|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	5	conj	_	_
13	to	to	PART	TO	_	14	mark	_	_
14	beat	beat	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	12	xcomp	_	_
15	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	16	det	_	_
16	cousin	cousin	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	14	obj	_	_
17	as	as	SCONJ	IN	_	19	mark	_	_
18	they	they	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Number=Plur|Person=3|PronType=Prs	19	nsubj	_	_
19	cried	cry	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Plur|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	14	advcl	_	SpaceAfter=No
20	:	:	PUNCT	:	_	5	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 | the sack |  |  |  | instantly *property* | vn run-51.3.2 «PP.location V NP»: agent=Initial\_Location sack=Theme |
| 2 | **begin** | past | two rough men *not said here* |  |  |  |  |  | vn begin-55.1-1-1 «NP V S\_INF»: agent=Agent clause=Eventuality |
| 3 | **beat** | to-infinitive | two rough men *not said here* | the cousin |  |  |  |  | vn sound\_emission-43.2 «PP.location V NP»: agent=Location cousin=Theme |
| 4 | **cry** *speech: express* | past | four |  |  |  |  |  | vn manner\_speaking-37.3 «NP V»: agent=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 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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