---
title: In an instant they had seized upon Death and held him tight, till th… — The Crimson Fairy Book · tree and pragmatics
description: In an instant they had seized upon Death and held him tight, till the prince should have time to reach the Land of Immortality. Who acts: prince. A sentence of «The Crimson Fairy Book» by Andrew Lang, The Crimson Fairy Book, part 19, with its dependency tree and the pragmatics of every clause.
---

<!-- md -->
[Mova](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/) · [this page in HTML](https://mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg2435/19/87/)

<!-- crumbs -->
[home](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/) / [corpora](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/) / [tales](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/) / [The Crimson Fairy Book](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg2435/) / [The Crimson Fairy Book, part 19](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg2435/19/) / 87

# The Crimson Fairy Book, The Crimson Fairy Book, part 19, sentence 87

<!-- .ven lang=en -->
In an instant they had seized upon Death and held him tight, till the prince should have time to reach the Land of Immortality.

<!-- .vintro -->
**Who acts:** prince · **What happens:** seize, hold, have, reach · **To what, where:** eagles, instant, prince, Land

<!-- .vabout -->
This is a sentence of «The Crimson Fairy Book» by Andrew Lang, The Crimson Fairy Book, part 19. The page gives its syntax tree — a dependency tree in the style of Universal Dependencies — and its pragmatics clause by clause: who acts (prince), 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:pg2435:19:87
# text = In an instant they had seized upon Death and held him tight, till the prince should have time to reach the Land of Immortality.
1	In	in	ADP	IN	_	3	case	_	_
2	an	a	DET	DT	Definite=Ind|PronType=Art	3	det	_	_
3	instant	instant	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	6	obl	_	_
4	they	they	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Number=Plur|Person=3|PronType=Prs	6	nsubj:pass	_	_
5	had	have	AUX	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Plur|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	6	aux	_	_
6	seized	seize	VERB	VBN	Tense=Past|VerbForm=Part|Voice=Pass	0	root	_	_
7	upon	upon	ADP	IN	_	8	case	_	_
8	Death	Death	PROPN	NNP	Number=Sing	6	obl	_	_
9	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	10	cc	_	_
10	held	hold	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Plur|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	6	conj	_	_
11	him	he	PRON	PRP	Case=Acc|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	10	obj	_	_
12	tight	tight	ADV	RB	_	10	advmod	_	SpaceAfter=No
13	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	18	punct	_	_
14	till	till	SCONJ	IN	_	18	mark	_	_
15	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	16	det	_	_
16	prince	prince	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	18	nsubj	_	_
17	should	should	AUX	MD	VerbForm=Fin	18	aux	_	_
18	have	have	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	6	conj	_	_
19	time	time	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	18	obj	_	_
20	to	to	PART	TO	_	21	mark	_	_
21	reach	reach	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	19	acl	_	_
22	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	23	det	_	_
23	Land	land	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	21	obj	_	_
24	of	of	ADP	IN	_	25	case	_	_
25	Immortality	immortality	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	23	nmod	_	SpaceAfter=No
26	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	6	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

<!-- .fr -->
| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **seize** | past · perfect · passive |  | eagles *= eagle* |  | a instant |  | upon Death | vn obtain-13.5.2 «NP V NP»: subject=Theme |
| 2 | **hold** | past |  | prince |  |  |  | tight *property* | vn keep-15.2 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent he=Theme |
| 3 | **have** | should | the prince |  |  |  | time |  | vn birth-28.2-1 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent |
| 4 | **reach** | to-infinitive | the prince *not said here* | the Land of Immortality |  |  |  |  | vn body\_motion-49.2-1-1 «NP V NP ADV»: agent=Agent land=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.

<!-- div src -->

**Text:** «The Crimson Fairy Book» by Andrew Lang, Project Gutenberg book 2435 (public domain in the USA). **Tree:** Mova's own parse, Elamur Cosmic License. **Frames:** Mova's frames reader (`prag`), the chapter read in order.

<!-- /div -->

<!-- pn -->
- ← previous: [sentence 86](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg2435/19/86/)
- next →: [sentence 88](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg2435/19/88/)
- ↑ back to [The Crimson Fairy Book, part 19](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg2435/19/)