---
title: The fight was so fierce that it seemed as if the earth would give wa… — The Violet Fairy Book · tree and pragmatics
description: The fight was so fierce that it seemed as if the earth would give way under them, and for twenty miles round the beasts in the forests fled to their caves for shelter. Who acts: fight, it, earth. A sentence of «The Violet Fairy Book» by Andrew Lang, The Girl Who Pretended to Be a Boy, part 3, with i
---

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# The Violet Fairy Book, The Girl Who Pretended to Be a Boy, part 3, sentence 34

<!-- .ven lang=en -->
The fight was so fierce that it seemed as if the earth would give way under them, and for twenty miles round the beasts in the forests fled to their caves for shelter.

<!-- .vintro -->
**Who acts:** fight, it, earth · **What happens:** be, seem, give, flee · **To what, where:** way, caves

<!-- .vabout -->
This is a sentence of «The Violet Fairy Book» by Andrew Lang, The Girl Who Pretended to Be a Boy, part 3. The page gives its syntax tree — a dependency tree in the style of Universal Dependencies — and its pragmatics clause by clause: who acts (fight, it, earth), 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:pg641:40:34
# text = The fight was so fierce that it seemed as if the earth would give way under them, and for twenty miles round the beasts in the forests fled to their caves for shelter.
1	The	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	2	det	_	_
2	fight	fight	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	5	nsubj	_	_
3	was	be	AUX	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	5	cop	_	_
4	so	so	ADV	RB	_	5	advmod	_	_
5	fierce	fierce	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	0	root	_	_
6	that	that	SCONJ	IN	_	8	mark	_	_
7	it	it	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Gender=Neut|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	8	nsubj	_	_
8	seemed	seem	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	5	ccomp	_	_
9	as	as	SCONJ	IN	_	14	mark	_	_
10	if	if	SCONJ	IN	_	14	mark	_	_
11	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	12	det	_	_
12	earth	earth	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	14	nsubj	_	_
13	would	would	AUX	MD	VerbForm=Fin	14	aux	_	_
14	give	give	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	8	ccomp	_	_
15	way	way	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	14	obj	_	_
16	under	under	ADP	IN	_	17	case	_	_
17	them	they	PRON	PRP	Case=Acc|Number=Plur|Person=3|PronType=Prs	14	obl	_	SpaceAfter=No
18	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	29	punct	_	_
19	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	29	cc	_	_
20	for	for	ADP	IN	_	22	case	_	_
21	twenty	twenty	NUM	CD	NumForm=Word|NumType=Card	22	nummod	_	_
22	miles	mile	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	29	obl	_	_
23	round	round	ADP	IN	_	25	case	_	_
24	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	25	det	_	_
25	beasts	beast	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	22	nmod	_	_
26	in	in	ADP	IN	_	28	case	_	_
27	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	28	det	_	_
28	forests	forest	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	25	nmod	_	_
29	fled	flee	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	5	conj	_	_
30	to	to	ADP	IN	_	32	case	_	_
31	their	their	PRON	PRP$	Case=Gen|Number=Plur|Person=3|Poss=Yes|PronType=Prs	32	nmod:poss	_	_
32	caves	cave	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	29	obl	_	_
33	for	for	ADP	IN	_	34	case	_	_
34	shelter	shelter	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	29	obl	_	SpaceAfter=No
35	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	5	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

<!-- .fr -->
| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **is** | past | the fight |  |  |  |  | fierce *property* | tree rules |
| 2 | **seem** | past | it |  |  |  |  |  | vn seem-109-1-1-1 «NP V S\_INF»: agent=Theme clause=Attribute |
| 3 | **give** *a condition, not said to happen* | would | the earth | way |  |  |  | under knees *= knee* | vn give-13.1-1 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent way=Theme |
| 4 | **flee** | past | the fight *not said here* |  |  | knees's caves |  | for twenty miles round the beasts in the forests; for shelter | vn escape-51.1-1-1 «NP V PP.initial\_location»: agent=Theme to cave=Initial\_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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