---
title: But they could not agree about it, and fell to quarrelling, and it w… — The descent of the sun: A cycle of birth · tree and pragmatics
description: But they could not agree about it, and fell to quarrelling, and it was as if a stone had been dropped into a nest of serpents. Who acts: drops. A sentence of «The descent of the sun: A cycle of birth» by Unknown, A Sleep and a Dream., part 7, with its dependency tree and the pragmatics of every clau
---

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# The descent of the sun: A cycle of birth, A Sleep and a Dream., part 7, sentence 60

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But they could not agree about it, and fell to quarrelling, and it was as if a stone had been dropped into a nest of serpents.

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**Who acts:** drops · **What happens:** not agree, fall, drop · **To what, where:** quarrelling, nest

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This is a sentence of «The descent of the sun: A cycle of birth» by Unknown, A Sleep and a Dream., part 7. The page gives its syntax tree — a dependency tree in the style of Universal Dependencies — and its pragmatics clause by clause: who acts (drops), what happens, when and where, as Mova's frames read it from the tree.

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**Mova's own parse.** This tree may be wrong.

## The tree {#tree}

```conllu
# sent_id = book:pg68641:9:60
# text = But they could not agree about it, and fell to quarrelling, and it was as if a stone had been dropped into a nest of serpents.
1	But	but	CCONJ	CC	_	5	cc	_	_
2	they	they	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Number=Plur|Person=3|PronType=Prs	5	nsubj	_	_
3	could	could	AUX	MD	VerbForm=Fin	5	aux	_	_
4	not	not	PART	RB	Polarity=Neg	5	advmod	_	_
5	agree	agree	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	0	root	_	_
6	about	about	ADP	IN	_	7	case	_	_
7	it	it	PRON	PRP	Case=Acc|Gender=Neut|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	5	obl	_	SpaceAfter=No
8	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	10	punct	_	_
9	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	10	cc	_	_
10	fell	fall	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=1|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	5	advcl	_	_
11	to	to	ADP	IN	_	12	case	_	_
12	quarrelling	quarrelling	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	10	obl	_	SpaceAfter=No
13	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	23	punct	_	_
14	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	23	cc	_	_
15	it	it	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Gender=Neut|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	23	nsubj:pass	_	_
16	was	be	AUX	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	23	aux:pass	_	_
17	as	as	SCONJ	IN	_	23	mark	_	_
18	if	if	SCONJ	IN	_	23	mark	_	_
19	a	a	DET	DT	Definite=Ind|PronType=Art	20	det	_	_
20	stone	stone	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	23	nsubj:pass	_	_
21	had	have	AUX	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	23	aux	_	_
22	been	be	AUX	VBN	Tense=Past|VerbForm=Part	23	aux:pass	_	_
23	dropped	drop	VERB	VBN	Tense=Past|VerbForm=Part|Voice=Pass	10	parataxis	_	_
24	into	into	ADP	IN	_	26	case	_	_
25	a	a	DET	DT	Definite=Ind|PronType=Art	26	det	_	_
26	nest	nest	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	23	obl	_	_
27	of	of	ADP	IN	_	28	case	_	_
28	serpents	serpent	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	26	nmod	_	SpaceAfter=No
29	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	5	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

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| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **not** **agree** *speech: agree* | could | drops *= drop* |  |  |  |  | about beauty | vn correspond-36.1-1 «NP V PP.theme S»: agent=Agent about it=Topic |
| 2 | **fall** | past | drops *= drop* *not said here* |  |  |  |  | to quarrelling | vn acquiesce-95.1-1 «NP V PP.theme»: agent=Agent to quarrelling=Theme |
| 3 | **drop** *a condition, not said to happen* | past · perfect · passive |  | quarrelling |  | a nest of serpents |  | a stone *nsubj:pass* | vn put\_direction-9.4 «NP V NP PP.destination»: subject=Theme into nest=Destination |

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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 descent of the sun: A cycle of birth» by Unknown, Project Gutenberg book 68641 (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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