---
title: He took the end of the thorn in his fingers; then he gave a strong,… — Fifty Famous Stories Retold · tree and pragmatics
description: He took the end of the thorn in his fingers; then he gave a strong, quick pull, and out it came. Who acts: Androclus, thorn. A sentence of «Fifty Famous Stories Retold» by James Baldwin, Androclus and the Lion., with its dependency tree and the pragmatics of every clause.
---

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# Fifty Famous Stories Retold, Androclus and the Lion., sentence 14

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He took the end of the thorn in his fingers; then he gave a strong, quick pull, and out it came.

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**Who acts:** Androclus, thorn · **What happens:** take, give, come · **To what, where:** end, fingers, strong quick pull

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This is a sentence of «Fifty Famous Stories Retold» by James Baldwin, Androclus and the Lion.. The page gives its syntax tree — a dependency tree in the style of Universal Dependencies — and its pragmatics clause by clause: who acts (Androclus, thorn), 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:pg18442:30:14
# text = He took the end of the thorn in his fingers; then he gave a strong, quick pull, and out it came.
1	He	he	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	2	nsubj	_	_
2	took	take	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	0	root	_	_
3	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	4	det	_	_
4	end	end	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	2	obj	_	_
5	of	of	ADP	IN	_	7	case	_	_
6	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	7	det	_	_
7	thorn	thorn	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	4	nmod	_	_
8	in	in	ADP	IN	_	10	case	_	_
9	his	his	PRON	PRP$	Case=Gen|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|Poss=Yes|PronType=Prs	10	nmod:poss	_	_
10	fingers	finger	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	2	obl	_	SpaceAfter=No
11	;	;	PUNCT	:	_	14	punct	_	_
12	then	then	ADV	RB	PronType=Dem	14	advmod	_	_
13	he	he	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	14	nsubj	_	_
14	gave	give	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	2	parataxis	_	_
15	a	a	DET	DT	Definite=Ind|PronType=Art	19	det	_	_
16	strong	strong	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	19	amod	_	SpaceAfter=No
17	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	16	punct	_	_
18	quick	quick	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	19	amod	_	_
19	pull	pull	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	14	obj	_	SpaceAfter=No
20	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	24	punct	_	_
21	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	24	cc	_	_
22	out	out	ADP	IN	_	24	case	_	_
23	it	it	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Gender=Neut|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	24	nsubj	_	_
24	came	come	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	14	conj	_	SpaceAfter=No
25	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	2	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

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| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **take** | past | Androclus | the end of the thorn |  | Androclus's fingers |  |  | vn fit-54.3 «NP V NP PP.location»: agent=Agent end=Value in finger=Location |
| 2 | **give** | past | Androclus | a strong quick pull |  |  | then |  | vn give-13.1-1 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent pull=Theme |
| 3 | **come** | past | thorn |  |  |  |  |  | vn escape-51.1-1 «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:** «Fifty Famous Stories Retold» by James Baldwin, Project Gutenberg book 18442 (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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