---
title: It was only an old muzzle-loading flint-lock after all, but Niels th… — The Crimson Fairy Book · tree and pragmatics
description: It was only an old muzzle-loading flint-lock after all, but Niels thought it a great prize, and went about shooting at everything he could see. Who acts: hold, Niels, father. A sentence of «The Crimson Fairy Book» by Andrew Lang, The Crimson Fairy Book, part 29, with its dependency tree and the prag
---

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# The Crimson Fairy Book, The Crimson Fairy Book, part 29, sentence 108

<!-- .ven lang=en -->
It was only an old muzzle-loading flint-lock after all, but Niels thought it a great prize, and went about shooting at everything he could see.

<!-- .vintro -->
**Who acts:** hold, Niels, father · **What happens:** be, think, go, shoot, see · **To what, where:** old loading flint lock, hold, everything

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This is a sentence of «The Crimson Fairy Book» by Andrew Lang, The Crimson Fairy Book, part 29. The page gives its syntax tree — a dependency tree in the style of Universal Dependencies — and its pragmatics clause by clause: who acts (hold, Niels, father), 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:pg2435:29:108
# text = It was only an old muzzle-loading flint-lock after all, but Niels thought it a great prize, and went about shooting at everything he could see.
1	It	it	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Gender=Neut|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	11	nsubj	_	_
2	was	be	AUX	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	11	cop	_	_
3	only	only	ADV	RB	_	11	advmod	_	_
4	an	a	DET	DT	Definite=Ind|PronType=Art	11	det	_	_
5	old	old	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	11	amod	_	_
6	muzzle	muzzle	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	8	compound	_	SpaceAfter=No
7	-	-	PUNCT	HYPH	_	6	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
8	loading	loading	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	11	compound	_	_
9	flint	flint	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	11	compound	_	SpaceAfter=No
10	-	-	PUNCT	HYPH	_	9	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
11	lock	lock	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	0	root	_	_
12	after	after	ADP	IN	_	13	case	_	_
13	all	all	DET	DT	PronType=Tot	11	nmod	_	SpaceAfter=No
14	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	17	punct	_	_
15	but	but	CCONJ	CC	_	17	cc	_	_
16	Niels	Niels	PROPN	NNP	Number=Sing	17	nsubj	_	_
17	thought	think	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	11	parataxis	_	_
18	it	it	PRON	PRP	Case=Acc|Gender=Neut|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	17	obj	_	_
19	a	a	DET	DT	Definite=Ind|PronType=Art	21	det	_	_
20	great	great	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	21	amod	_	_
21	prize	prize	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	17	obj	_	SpaceAfter=No
22	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	24	punct	_	_
23	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	24	cc	_	_
24	went	go	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	17	conj	_	_
25	about	about	SCONJ	IN	_	26	mark	_	_
26	shooting	shoot	VERB	VBG	Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Part	24	advcl	_	_
27	at	at	ADP	IN	_	28	case	_	_
28	everything	everything	PRON	NN	Number=Sing|PronType=Tot	26	obl	_	_
29	he	he	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	31	nsubj	_	_
30	could	could	AUX	MD	VerbForm=Fin	31	aux	_	_
31	see	see	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	28	acl:relcl	_	SpaceAfter=No
32	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	11	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

<!-- .fr -->
| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **is a** | past | hold | a old loading flint lock |  |  | after all |  | tree rules |
| 2 | **think** *speech: other* | past | Niels | hold |  |  |  |  | vn consider-29.9-2 «NP V NP ADJ»: agent=Agent it=Theme prize=Attribute |
| 3 | **go** | past | Niels *not said here* |  |  |  |  |  | vn disappearance-48.2-1 «NP V»: agent=Theme |
| 4 | **shoot** | gerund | Niels *not said here* |  |  | everything |  |  | vn throw-17.1-1 «NP V NP PP.destinations»: agent=Agent at everything=Destination |
| 5 | **see** | could | father |  |  |  |  |  | vn comprehend-87.2-1-1 «NP V»: agent=Experiencer |

<!-- .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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