---
title: The lady was as if thunderstruck when she caught sight of her husban… — The Green Fairy Book · tree and pragmatics
description: The lady was as if thunderstruck when she caught sight of her husband; she fell on her knees and begged for mercy. Who acts: lady. A sentence of «The Green Fairy Book» by Andrew Lang, The Three Snake-leaves, with its dependency tree and the pragmatics of every clause.
---

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# The Green Fairy Book, The Three Snake-leaves, sentence 54

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The lady was as if thunderstruck when she caught sight of her husband; she fell on her knees and begged for mercy.

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**Who acts:** lady · **What happens:** thunderstruck, catch, fall, beg, sight · **To what, where:** lady, sight, knees, husband

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This is a sentence of «The Green Fairy Book» by Andrew Lang, The Three Snake-leaves. The page gives its syntax tree — a dependency tree in the style of Universal Dependencies — and its pragmatics clause by clause: who acts (lady), 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:pg7277:46:54
# text = The lady was as if thunderstruck when she caught sight of her husband; she fell on her knees and begged for mercy.
1	The	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	2	det	_	_
2	lady	lady	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	6	nsubj:pass	_	_
3	was	be	AUX	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	6	aux	_	_
4	as	as	SCONJ	IN	_	6	mark	_	_
5	if	if	SCONJ	IN	_	6	mark	_	_
6	thunderstruck	thunderstruck	VERB	VBN	Tense=Past|VerbForm=Part|Voice=Pass	0	root	_	_
7	when	when	SCONJ	WRB	_	9	mark	_	_
8	she	she	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Gender=Fem|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	9	nsubj	_	_
9	caught	catch	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	6	advcl	_	_
10	sight	sight	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	9	obj	_	_
11	of	of	ADP	IN	_	13	case	_	_
12	her	her	PRON	PRP$	Case=Gen|Gender=Fem|Number=Sing|Person=3|Poss=Yes|PronType=Prs	13	nmod:poss	_	_
13	husband	husband	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	10	nmod	_	SpaceAfter=No
14	;	;	PUNCT	,	_	16	punct	_	_
15	she	she	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Gender=Fem|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	16	nsubj	_	_
16	fell	fall	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	6	parataxis	_	_
17	on	on	ADP	IN	_	19	case	_	_
18	her	her	PRON	PRP$	Case=Gen|Gender=Fem|Number=Sing|Person=3|Poss=Yes|PronType=Prs	19	nmod:poss	_	_
19	knees	knee	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	16	obl	_	_
20	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	21	cc	_	_
21	begged	beg	VERB	VBN	Tense=Past|VerbForm=Part|Voice=Pass	16	conj	_	_
22	for	for	ADP	IN	_	23	case	_	_
23	mercy	mercy	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	21	obl	_	SpaceAfter=No
24	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	6	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

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| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **thunderstruck** | past · passive |  | the lady |  |  |  |  | tree rules |
| 2 | **catch** | past | lady | sight of lady's husband |  |  |  |  | vn get-13.5.1 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent sight=Theme |
| 3 | **fall** | past | lady |  |  | lady's knees |  |  | vn occur-48.3 «NP V PP»: agent=Theme on knee=Location |
| 4 | **beg** *speech: request* | participle | lady *not said here* |  |  |  |  | for mercy | vn beg-58.2-1-1 «NP V PP.Topic»: agent=Agent for mercy=Topic |
| 5 | **sight** |  |  | lady's husband |  |  |  |  | nom sight «cognition transitive»: of=patient |

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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 Green Fairy Book» by Andrew Lang, Project Gutenberg book 7277 (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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