---
title: Almost as soon as he could walk about he began scraping at the mud w… — Indian Fairy Tales · tree and pragmatics
description: Almost as soon as he could walk about he began scraping at the mud wall of their dungeon, and in an incredibly short space of time had made a hole big enough for him to crawl through. Who acts: boy. A sentence of «Indian Fairy Tales» by Joseph Jacobs, Demon With Matted Hair " 196, part 12, with its 
---

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# Indian Fairy Tales, Demon With Matted Hair " 196, part 12, sentence 124

<!-- .ven lang=en -->
Almost as soon as he could walk about he began scraping at the mud wall of their dungeon, and in an incredibly short space of time had made a hole big enough for him to crawl through.

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**Who acts:** boy · **What happens:** walk, begin, scrape, make, crawl · **To what, where:** hole, short space

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This is a sentence of «Indian Fairy Tales» by Joseph Jacobs, Demon With Matted Hair " 196, part 12. The page gives its syntax tree — a dependency tree in the style of Universal Dependencies — and its pragmatics clause by clause: who acts (boy), 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:pg7128:18:124
# text = Almost as soon as he could walk about he began scraping at the mud wall of their dungeon, and in an incredibly short space of time had made a hole big enough for him to crawl through.
1	Almost	almost	ADV	RB	_	2	advmod	_	_
2	as	as	ADV	RB	_	3	advmod	_	_
3	soon	soon	ADV	RB	Degree=Pos	7	advmod	_	_
4	as	as	SCONJ	IN	_	7	mark	_	_
5	he	he	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	7	nsubj	_	_
6	could	could	AUX	MD	VerbForm=Fin	7	aux	_	_
7	walk	walk	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	0	root	_	_
8	about	about	SCONJ	IN	_	10	mark	_	_
9	he	he	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	10	nsubj	_	_
10	began	begin	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	7	advcl	_	_
11	scraping	scrape	VERB	VBG	VerbForm=Ger	10	xcomp	_	_
12	at	at	ADP	IN	_	15	case	_	_
13	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	15	det	_	_
14	mud	mud	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	15	compound	_	_
15	wall	wall	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	11	obl	_	_
16	of	of	ADP	IN	_	18	case	_	_
17	their	their	PRON	PRP$	Case=Gen|Number=Plur|Person=3|Poss=Yes|PronType=Prs	18	nmod:poss	_	_
18	dungeon	dungeon	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	15	nmod	_	SpaceAfter=No
19	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	29	punct	_	_
20	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	29	cc	_	_
21	in	in	ADP	IN	_	25	case	_	_
22	an	a	DET	DT	Definite=Ind|PronType=Art	25	det	_	_
23	incredibly	incredibly	ADV	RB	_	24	advmod	_	_
24	short	short	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	25	amod	_	_
25	space	space	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	29	obl	_	_
26	of	of	ADP	IN	_	27	case	_	_
27	time	time	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	25	nmod	_	_
28	had	have	AUX	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	29	aux	_	_
29	made	make	VERB	VBN	Tense=Past|VerbForm=Part	7	advcl	_	_
30	a	a	DET	DT	Definite=Ind|PronType=Art	31	det	_	_
31	hole	hole	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	29	obj	_	_
32	big	big	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	31	amod	_	_
33	enough	enough	ADV	RB	_	32	advmod	_	_
34	for	for	SCONJ	IN	_	37	mark	_	_
35	him	he	PRON	PRP	Case=Acc|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	37	nsubj	_	_
36	to	to	PART	TO	_	37	mark	_	_
37	crawl	crawl	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	32	advcl	_	_
38	through	through	ADV	RB	_	37	advmod	_	SpaceAfter=No
39	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	7	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

<!-- .fr -->
| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **walk** | could | boy |  |  |  |  | soon *property* | vn run-51.3.2-2-1 «NP V»: agent=Theme |
| 2 | **begin** | past | boy |  |  |  |  |  | vn begin-55.1-1-1 «NP V S\_ING»: agent=Agent clause=Eventuality |
| 3 | **scrape** | gerund | boy *not said here* |  |  |  |  | at the mud wall of slaves's dungeon | vn cut-21.1-1 «NP V PP»: agent=Agent at wall=Patient |
| 4 | **make** | past · perfect | boy *not said here* | a hole |  | a short space of time |  |  | vn build-26.1-1 «NP.asset V NP»: agent=Asset hole=Product |
| 5 | **crawl** | to-infinitive | boy |  |  |  |  | through *property* | vn run-51.3.2 «NP V»: agent=Theme |

<!-- .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:** «Indian Fairy Tales» by Joseph Jacobs, Project Gutenberg book 7128 (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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