---
title: His slave became frightened as he looked at him, and asked, ‘My mast… — The Violet Fairy Book · tree and pragmatics
description: His slave became frightened as he looked at him, and asked, ‘My master, what is it?’ Who acts: slave, sun. 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 54

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His slave became frightened as he looked at him, and asked, ‘My master, what is it?’

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**Who acts:** slave, sun · **What happens:** become, frighten, look, ask, be · **To what, where:** master

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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 (slave, sun), 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:pg641:29:54
# text = His slave became frightened as he looked at him, and asked, ‘My master, what is it?’
1	His	his	PRON	PRP$	Case=Gen|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|Poss=Yes|PronType=Prs	2	nmod:poss	_	_
2	slave	slave	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	3	nsubj	_	_
3	became	become	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	0	root	_	_
4	frightened	frighten	VERB	VBN	Tense=Past|VerbForm=Part|Voice=Pass	3	xcomp	_	_
5	as	as	SCONJ	IN	_	7	mark	_	_
6	he	he	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	7	nsubj	_	_
7	looked	look	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	4	advcl	_	_
8	at	at	ADP	IN	_	9	case	_	_
9	him	he	PRON	PRP	Case=Acc|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	7	obl	_	SpaceAfter=No
10	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	12	punct	_	_
11	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	12	cc	_	_
12	asked	ask	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	3	conj	_	SpaceAfter=No
13	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	16	punct	_	_
14	‘	'	PUNCT	``	_	16	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
15	My	my	PRON	PRP$	Case=Gen|Number=Sing|Person=1|Poss=Yes|PronType=Prs	16	nmod:poss	_	_
16	master	master	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	12	ccomp	_	SpaceAfter=No
17	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	18	punct	_	_
18	what	what	PRON	WP	PronType=Int	16	parataxis	_	_
19	is	be	AUX	VBZ	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Fin	20	cop	_	_
20	it	it	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Gender=Neut|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	18	nsubj	_	SpaceAfter=No
21	?	?	PUNCT	.	_	3	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
22	’	'	PUNCT	''	_	3	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

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| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **become** | past | sun's slave |  |  |  |  |  | tree rules |
| 2 | **frighten** | participle | sun's slave *not said here* |  |  |  |  |  | vn amuse-31.1 «NP V ADV-Middle»: agent=Experiencer |
| 3 | **look** | past | sun |  |  |  |  | at tongue | vn peer-30.3 «NP V PP.theme»: agent=Agent at he=Theme |
| 4 | **ask** *speech: ask* | past | sun's slave *not said here* |  |  |  |  |  | vn inquire-37.1.2 «NP V»: agent=Agent |
| 5 | **is a** | present |  | master |  |  |  |  | tree rules |

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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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