---
title: They were really frightful to behold, but, plucking up courage, he w… — Indian Fairy Tales · tree and pragmatics
description: They were really frightful to behold, but, plucking up courage, he whistled a tune as he walked through them, looking neither to the right nor the left. Who acts: demons, lad. A sentence of «Indian Fairy Tales» by Joseph Jacobs, Demon With Matted Hair " 196, part 13, with its dependency tree and the
---

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# Indian Fairy Tales, Demon With Matted Hair " 196, part 13, sentence 38

<!-- .ven lang=en -->
They were really frightful to behold, but, plucking up courage, he whistled a tune as he walked through them, looking neither to the right nor the left.

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**Who acts:** demons, lad · **What happens:** be, pluck up, whistle, walk, look · **To what, where:** courage, tune

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This is a sentence of «Indian Fairy Tales» by Joseph Jacobs, Demon With Matted Hair " 196, part 13. The page gives its syntax tree — a dependency tree in the style of Universal Dependencies — and its pragmatics clause by clause: who acts (demons, lad), what happens, when and where, as Mova's frames read it from the tree.

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**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:pg7128:19:38
# text = They were really frightful to behold, but, plucking up courage, he whistled a tune as he walked through them, looking neither to the right nor the left.
1	They	they	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Number=Plur|Person=3|PronType=Prs	4	nsubj	_	_
2	were	be	AUX	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Plur|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	4	cop	_	_
3	really	really	ADV	RB	_	4	advmod	_	_
4	frightful	frightful	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	0	root	_	_
5	to	to	ADP	IN	_	6	case	_	_
6	behold	behold	INTJ	UH	_	4	discourse	_	SpaceAfter=No
7	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	15	punct	_	_
8	but	but	CCONJ	CC	_	15	cc	_	SpaceAfter=No
9	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	10	punct	_	_
10	plucking	pluck	VERB	VBG	VerbForm=Ger	15	ccomp	_	_
11	up	up	ADP	RP	_	10	compound:prt	_	_
12	courage	courage	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	10	obj	_	SpaceAfter=No
13	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	10	punct	_	_
14	he	he	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	15	nsubj	_	_
15	whistled	whistle	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	4	conj	_	_
16	a	a	DET	DT	Definite=Ind|PronType=Art	17	det	_	_
17	tune	tune	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	15	obj	_	_
18	as	as	SCONJ	IN	_	20	mark	_	_
19	he	he	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	20	nsubj	_	_
20	walked	walk	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	15	advcl	_	_
21	through	through	ADP	IN	_	22	case	_	_
22	them	they	PRON	PRP	Case=Acc|Number=Plur|Person=3|PronType=Prs	20	obl	_	SpaceAfter=No
23	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	24	punct	_	_
24	looking	look	VERB	VBG	Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Part	20	advcl	_	_
25	neither	neither	ADV	RB	_	24	advmod	_	_
26	to	to	ADP	IN	_	28	case	_	_
27	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	28	det	_	_
28	right	right	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	24	obl	_	_
29	nor	nor	CCONJ	CC	Polarity=Neg	31	cc	_	_
30	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	31	det	_	_
31	left	left	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	28	conj	_	SpaceAfter=No
32	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	4	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

<!-- .fr -->
| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **is** | past | demons *= demon* |  |  |  |  | frightful *property* | tree rules |
| 2 | **pluck up** | gerund | lad *not said here* | courage |  |  |  |  | vn braid-41.2.2 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent courage=Patient |
| 3 | **whistle** | past | lad | a tune |  |  |  |  | tree rules |
| 4 | **walk** | past | lad |  |  |  |  | through demons *= demon* | vn run-51.3.2-2-1 «NP V PP.location»: agent=Theme through they=Trajectory |
| 5 | **look** | gerund | lad *not said here* |  |  |  |  | to the right nor the left; neither *property* | vn peer-30.3 «NP V PP.theme»: agent=Agent to right=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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