---
title: The son had a rope ready to cast round its horns, and throw it to th… — The Crimson Fairy Book · tree and pragmatics
description: The son had a rope ready to cast round its horns, and throw it to the ground, but the ox was stronger than the rope, and soon tore it in pieces. Who acts: son, rope, ox. A sentence of «The Crimson Fairy Book» by Andrew Lang, The Crimson Fairy Book, part 26, with its dependency tree and the pragmatic
---

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# The Crimson Fairy Book, The Crimson Fairy Book, part 26, sentence 124

<!-- .ven lang=en -->
The son had a rope ready to cast round its horns, and throw it to the ground, but the ox was stronger than the rope, and soon tore it in pieces.

<!-- .vintro -->
**Who acts:** son, rope, ox · **What happens:** have, cast, throw, be, tore · **To what, where:** rope, ground, pieces

<!-- .vabout -->
This is a sentence of «The Crimson Fairy Book» by Andrew Lang, The Crimson Fairy Book, part 26. The page gives its syntax tree — a dependency tree in the style of Universal Dependencies — and its pragmatics clause by clause: who acts (son, rope, ox), 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:pg2435:26:124
# text = The son had a rope ready to cast round its horns, and throw it to the ground, but the ox was stronger than the rope, and soon tore it in pieces.
1	The	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	2	det	_	_
2	son	son	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	3	nsubj	_	_
3	had	have	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	0	root	_	_
4	a	a	DET	DT	Definite=Ind|PronType=Art	5	det	_	_
5	rope	rope	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	3	obj	_	_
6	ready	ready	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	3	xcomp	_	_
7	to	to	PART	TO	_	8	mark	_	_
8	cast	cast	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	6	xcomp	_	_
9	round	round	ADP	IN	_	11	case	_	_
10	its	its	PRON	PRP$	Case=Gen|Gender=Neut|Number=Sing|Person=3|Poss=Yes|PronType=Prs	11	nmod:poss	_	_
11	horns	horn	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	8	obl	_	SpaceAfter=No
12	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	14	punct	_	_
13	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	14	cc	_	_
14	throw	throw	VERB	VB	Mood=Imp|VerbForm=Fin	3	parataxis	_	_
15	it	it	PRON	PRP	Case=Acc|Gender=Neut|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	14	obj	_	_
16	to	to	ADP	IN	_	18	case	_	_
17	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	18	det	_	_
18	ground	ground	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	14	obl	_	SpaceAfter=No
19	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	24	punct	_	_
20	but	but	CCONJ	CC	_	24	cc	_	_
21	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	22	det	_	_
22	ox	ox	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	24	nsubj	_	_
23	was	be	AUX	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	24	cop	_	_
24	stronger	strong	ADJ	JJR	Degree=Cmp	14	parataxis	_	_
25	than	than	ADP	IN	_	27	case	_	_
26	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	27	det	_	_
27	rope	rope	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	24	obl	_	SpaceAfter=No
28	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	31	punct	_	_
29	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	31	cc	_	_
30	soon	soon	ADV	RB	Degree=Pos	31	advmod	_	_
31	tore	tore	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	3	parataxis	_	_
32	it	it	PRON	PRP	Case=Acc|Gender=Neut|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	31	obj	_	_
33	in	in	ADP	IN	_	34	case	_	_
34	pieces	piece	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	31	obl	_	SpaceAfter=No
35	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	3	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

<!-- .fr -->
| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **have** | past | the son | a rope |  |  |  | ready *property* | vn birth-28.2-1 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent rope=Patient |
| 2 | **cast** | to-infinitive | a rope *not said here* |  |  |  |  | round rope's horns | vn build-26.1 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent |
| 3 | **throw** | infinitive |  | rope |  | the ground |  |  | vn throw-17.1-1-1 «NP V NP PP.destinations»: agent=Agent it=Theme to ground=Destination |
| 4 | **is** | past | the ox |  |  |  |  | than the rope; strong *property* | tree rules |
| 5 | **tore** | past |  | rope |  | pieces |  | soon *property* | tree rules |

<!-- .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:** «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.

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