--- title: At last he came to a stream, and as he stopped for a moment to look… — The Violet Fairy Book · tree and pragmatics description: At last he came to a stream, and as he stopped for a moment to look at it he noticed a little fish lying on the bank, beating its tail convulsively, in a vain effort to get back into the water. Who acts: servant, little fish. A sentence of «The Violet Fairy Book» by Andrew Lang, The Nine Pea-hens an --- [Mova](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/) · [this page in HTML](https://mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg641/7/48/) [home](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/) / [corpora](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/) / [tales](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/) / [The Violet Fairy Book](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg641/) / [The Nine Pea-hens and the Golden Apples](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg641/7/) / 48 # The Violet Fairy Book, The Nine Pea-hens and the Golden Apples, sentence 48 At last he came to a stream, and as he stopped for a moment to look at it he noticed a little fish lying on the bank, beating its tail convulsively, in a vain effort to get back into the water. **Who acts:** servant, little fish · **What happens:** come, stop, look, notice, lie, beat · **To what, where:** last, little fish, bank, tail, water This is a sentence of «The Violet Fairy Book» by Andrew Lang, The Nine Pea-hens and the Golden Apples. The page gives its syntax tree — a dependency tree in the style of Universal Dependencies — and its pragmatics clause by clause: who acts (servant, little fish), what happens, when and where, as Mova's frames read it from the tree. **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:pg641:7:48 # text = At last he came to a stream, and as he stopped for a moment to look at it he noticed a little fish lying on the bank, beating its tail convulsively, in a vain effort to get back into the water. 1 At at ADP IN _ 2 case _ _ 2 last last ADJ JJ Degree=Pos 4 obl _ _ 3 he he PRON PRP Case=Nom|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs 4 nsubj _ _ 4 came come VERB VBD Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin 0 root _ _ 5 to to ADP IN _ 7 case _ _ 6 a a DET DT Definite=Ind|PronType=Art 7 det _ _ 7 stream stream NOUN NN Number=Sing 4 obl _ SpaceAfter=No 8 , , PUNCT , _ 12 punct _ _ 9 and and CCONJ CC _ 12 cc _ _ 10 as as SCONJ IN _ 12 mark _ _ 11 he he PRON PRP Case=Nom|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs 12 nsubj _ _ 12 stopped stop VERB VBD Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin 4 conj _ _ 13 for for ADP IN _ 15 case _ _ 14 a a DET DT Definite=Ind|PronType=Art 15 det _ _ 15 moment moment NOUN NN Number=Sing 12 obl _ _ 16 to to PART TO _ 17 mark _ _ 17 look look VERB VB VerbForm=Inf 21 advcl _ _ 18 at at ADP IN _ 19 case _ _ 19 it it PRON PRP Case=Acc|Gender=Neut|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs 17 obl _ _ 20 he he PRON PRP Case=Nom|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs 21 nsubj _ _ 21 noticed notice VERB VBD Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin 12 advcl _ _ 22 a a DET DT Definite=Ind|PronType=Art 24 det _ _ 23 little little ADJ JJ Degree=Pos 24 amod _ _ 24 fish fish NOUN NN Number=Sing 21 obj _ _ 25 lying lie VERB VBG VerbForm=Ger 24 acl _ _ 26 on on ADP IN _ 28 case _ _ 27 the the DET DT Definite=Def|PronType=Art 28 det _ _ 28 bank bank NOUN NN Number=Sing 25 obl _ SpaceAfter=No 29 , , PUNCT , _ 30 punct _ _ 30 beating beat VERB VBG VerbForm=Ger 25 conj _ _ 31 its its PRON PRP$ Case=Gen|Gender=Neut|Number=Sing|Person=3|Poss=Yes|PronType=Prs 32 nmod:poss _ _ 32 tail tail NOUN NN Number=Sing 30 obj _ _ 33 convulsively convulsively ADV RB _ 30 advmod _ SpaceAfter=No 34 , , PUNCT , _ 38 punct _ _ 35 in in ADP IN _ 38 case _ _ 36 a a DET DT Definite=Ind|PronType=Art 38 det _ _ 37 vain vain ADJ JJ Degree=Pos 38 amod _ _ 38 effort effort NOUN NN Number=Sing 21 parataxis _ _ 39 to to PART TO _ 40 mark _ _ 40 get get VERB VB VerbForm=Inf 38 acl _ _ 41 back back ADV RB _ 40 advmod _ _ 42 into into ADP IN _ 44 case _ _ 43 the the DET DT Definite=Def|PronType=Art 44 det _ _ 44 water water NOUN NN Number=Sing 40 obl _ SpaceAfter=No 45 . . PUNCT . _ 4 punct _ _ ``` ## Pragmatics {#pragmatics} | # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by | | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | | 1 | **come** | past | servant | | | last | | to a stream | vn escape-51.1-1 «NP V PP.initial\_location»: agent=Theme to stream=Initial\_Location | | 2 | **stop** | past | servant | | | | moment | | vn stop-55.4-1-1 «NP.eventuality V»: agent=Eventuality | | 3 | **look** | to-infinitive | servant *not said here* | | | | | at stream | vn peer-30.3 «NP V PP.theme»: agent=Agent at it=Theme | | 4 | **notice** | past | servant | a little fish | | | | | vn see-30.1-1 «NP V S»: agent=Experiencer fish=Stimulus | | 5 | **lie** | gerund | a little fish *not said here* | | | the bank | | | vn assuming\_position-50 «NP V PP.location»: agent=Agent on bank=Location | | 6 | **beat** | gerund | a little fish *not said here* | bank's tail | | | | convulsively *property* | vn sound\_emission-43.2 «PP.location V NP»: agent=Location tail=Theme | | 7 | **get back** | to-infinitive | servant *not said here* | | | the water | | | vn escape-51.1 «NP V PP.destination»: agent=Theme into water=Destination | 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. **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. - ← previous: [sentence 47](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg641/7/47/) - next →: [sentence 49](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg641/7/49/) - ↑ back to [The Nine Pea-hens and the Golden Apples](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg641/7/)