---
title: There was no beast, however fierce, that he was afraid of, till at l… — The Violet Fairy Book · tree and pragmatics
description: There was no beast, however fierce, that he was afraid of, till at last his father and mother begged him to give up the chase after the Nunda. Who acts: beast, last father. A sentence of «The Violet Fairy Book» by Andrew Lang, The Nunda, Eater of People, with its dependency tree and the pragmatics o
---

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# The Violet Fairy Book, The Nunda, Eater of People, sentence 183

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There was no beast, however fierce, that he was afraid of, till at last his father and mother begged him to give up the chase after the Nunda.

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**Who acts:** beast, last father · **What happens:** be, beg, give up · **To what, where:** cat, chase

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This is a sentence of «The Violet Fairy Book» by Andrew Lang, The Nunda, Eater of People. The page gives its syntax tree — a dependency tree in the style of Universal Dependencies — and its pragmatics clause by clause: who acts (beast, last father), 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:pg641:29:183
# text = There was no beast, however fierce, that he was afraid of, till at last his father and mother begged him to give up the chase after the Nunda.
1	There	there	PRON	EX	PronType=Dem	2	expl	_	_
2	was	be	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	0	root	_	_
3	no	no	DET	DT	PronType=Neg	4	det	_	_
4	beast	beast	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	2	nsubj	_	SpaceAfter=No
5	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	7	punct	_	_
6	however	however	ADV	RB	_	7	advmod	_	_
7	fierce	fierce	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	2	parataxis	_	SpaceAfter=No
8	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	12	punct	_	_
9	that	that	SCONJ	IN	_	12	mark	_	_
10	he	he	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	12	nsubj	_	_
11	was	be	AUX	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	12	cop	_	_
12	afraid	afraid	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	7	advcl	_	_
13	of	of	ADP	IN	_	17	advmod	_	SpaceAfter=No
14	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	13	punct	_	_
15	till	till	ADP	IN	_	17	case	_	_
16	at	at	ADP	IN	_	17	case	_	_
17	last	last	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	19	amod	_	_
18	his	his	PRON	PRP$	Case=Gen|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|Poss=Yes|PronType=Prs	19	nmod:poss	_	_
19	father	father	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	22	nsubj	_	_
20	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	21	cc	_	_
21	mother	mother	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	19	conj	_	_
22	begged	beg	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	12	ccomp	_	_
23	him	he	PRON	PRP	Case=Acc|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	22	obj	_	_
24	to	to	PART	TO	_	25	mark	_	_
25	give	give	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	22	xcomp	_	_
26	up	up	ADP	RP	_	25	compound:prt	_	_
27	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	28	det	_	_
28	chase	chase	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	25	obj	_	_
29	after	after	ADP	IN	_	31	case	_	_
30	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	31	det	_	_
31	Nunda	Nunda	PROPN	NNP	Number=Sing	25	obl	_	SpaceAfter=No
32	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	2	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

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| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **be** | past | no beast |  |  | there |  |  | vn exist-47.1 «NP V»: agent=Theme |
| 2 | **is** | past | beast |  |  |  |  | afraid *property* | tree rules |
| 3 | **beg** *speech: request* | past | beast's last father and mother |  | cat |  |  |  | vn beg-58.2-1-1 «NP V NP S\_INF»: agent=Agent he=Recipient clause=Topic |
| 4 | **give up** *not said to happen* | to-infinitive | beast's last father and mother *not said here* | the chase |  |  | after the Nunda |  | vn resign-10.11-2 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent chase=Source |

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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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