---
title: His feet were almost on the bridge, when a big grey wolf with grinni… — The Violet Fairy Book · tree and pragmatics
description: His feet were almost on the bridge, when a big grey wolf with grinning teeth appeared before the princess. Who acts: feet, big grey wolf. A sentence of «The Violet Fairy Book» by Andrew Lang, The Girl Who Pretended to Be a Boy, part 1, with its dependency tree and the pragmatics of every clause.
---

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[Mova](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/) · [this page in HTML](https://mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg641/38/49/)

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# The Violet Fairy Book, The Girl Who Pretended to Be a Boy, part 1, sentence 49

<!-- .ven lang=en -->
His feet were almost on the bridge, when a big grey wolf with grinning teeth appeared before the princess.

<!-- .vintro -->
**Who acts:** feet, big grey wolf · **What happens:** be, grin, appear · **To what, where:** bridge

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This is a sentence of «The Violet Fairy Book» by Andrew Lang, The Girl Who Pretended to Be a Boy, part 1. The page gives its syntax tree — a dependency tree in the style of Universal Dependencies — and its pragmatics clause by clause: who acts (feet, big grey wolf), what happens, when and where, as Mova's frames read it from the tree.

<!-- .note-en -->
**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:pg641:38:49
# text = His feet were almost on the bridge, when a big grey wolf with grinning teeth appeared before the princess.
1	His	his	PRON	PRP$	Case=Gen|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|Poss=Yes|PronType=Prs	2	nmod:poss	_	_
2	feet	foot	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	7	nsubj	_	_
3	were	be	AUX	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Plur|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	7	cop	_	_
4	almost	almost	ADV	RB	_	7	advmod	_	_
5	on	on	ADP	IN	_	7	case	_	_
6	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	7	det	_	_
7	bridge	bridge	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	0	root	_	SpaceAfter=No
8	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	17	punct	_	_
9	when	when	SCONJ	WRB	_	17	mark	_	_
10	a	a	DET	DT	Definite=Ind|PronType=Art	13	det	_	_
11	big	big	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	13	amod	_	_
12	grey	grey	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	13	amod	_	_
13	wolf	wolf	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	17	nsubj	_	_
14	with	with	ADP	IN	_	16	case	_	_
15	grinning	grin	VERB	VBG	VerbForm=Ger	16	amod	_	_
16	teeth	tooth	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	13	nmod	_	_
17	appeared	appear	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	7	parataxis	_	_
18	before	before	ADP	IN	_	20	case	_	_
19	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	20	det	_	_
20	princess	princess	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	17	obl	_	SpaceAfter=No
21	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	7	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

<!-- .fr -->
| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **is** | past | emperor's feet |  |  | the bridge |  | almost *property* | tree rules |
| 2 | **grin** | gerund |  |  |  |  |  |  | vn nonverbal\_expression-40.2 «NP V»: agent=Agent |
| 3 | **appear** | past | a big grey wolf with grinning teeth |  |  |  | before the princess |  | vn appear-48.1.1 «NP V PP.location»: agent=Theme before princess=Location |

<!-- .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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