---
title: Noiselessly they crept along till they were quite close to it; then,… — The Violet Fairy Book · tree and pragmatics
description: Noiselessly they crept along till they were quite close to it; then, at a sign from the boy, they threw their spears. Who acts: legs. A sentence of «The Violet Fairy Book» by Andrew Lang, The Nunda, Eater of People, with its dependency tree and the pragmatics of every clause.
---

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# The Violet Fairy Book, The Nunda, Eater of People, sentence 215

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Noiselessly they crept along till they were quite close to it; then, at a sign from the boy, they threw their spears.

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**Who acts:** legs · **What happens:** creep, be, throw · **To what, where:** cloth, spears, sign

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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 (legs), 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:pg641:29:215
# text = Noiselessly they crept along till they were quite close to it; then, at a sign from the boy, they threw their spears.
1	Noiselessly	noiselessly	ADV	RB	_	3	advmod	_	_
2	they	they	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Number=Plur|Person=3|PronType=Prs	3	nsubj	_	_
3	crept	creep	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Plur|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	0	root	_	_
4	along	along	ADV	RB	_	3	advmod	_	_
5	till	till	SCONJ	IN	_	9	mark	_	_
6	they	they	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Number=Plur|Person=3|PronType=Prs	9	nsubj	_	_
7	were	be	AUX	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Plur|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	9	cop	_	_
8	quite	quite	ADV	RB	_	9	advmod	_	_
9	close	close	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	3	advcl	_	_
10	to	to	ADP	IN	_	11	case	_	_
11	it	it	PRON	PRP	Case=Acc|Gender=Neut|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	9	obl	_	SpaceAfter=No
12	;	;	PUNCT	:	_	23	punct	_	_
13	then	then	ADV	RB	PronType=Dem	23	advmod	_	SpaceAfter=No
14	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	13	punct	_	_
15	at	at	ADP	IN	_	17	case	_	_
16	a	a	DET	DT	Definite=Ind|PronType=Art	17	det	_	_
17	sign	sign	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	23	obl	_	_
18	from	from	ADP	IN	_	20	case	_	_
19	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	20	det	_	_
20	boy	boy	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	17	nmod	_	SpaceAfter=No
21	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	17	punct	_	_
22	they	they	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Number=Plur|Person=3|PronType=Prs	23	nsubj	_	_
23	threw	throw	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Plur|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	3	parataxis	_	_
24	their	their	PRON	PRP$	Case=Gen|Number=Plur|Person=3|Poss=Yes|PronType=Prs	25	nmod:poss	_	_
25	spears	spear	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	23	obj	_	SpaceAfter=No
26	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	3	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

<!-- .fr -->
| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **creep** | past | legs *= leg* |  |  |  |  | along, noiselessly *property* | vn run-51.3.2 «NP V»: agent=Theme |
| 2 | **is** | past | legs *= leg* |  | cloth |  |  | close *property* | tree rules |
| 3 | **throw** | past | legs *= leg* | legs's spears |  | a sign from the boy | then |  | vn throw-17.1-1-1 «NP V NP PP.destinations»: agent=Agent spear=Theme at sign=Destination |

<!-- .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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