---
title: “Be off,” cried Paul, snatching up the saucepan as he spoke. — The Crimson Fairy Book · tree and pragmatics
description: “Be off,” cried Paul, snatching up the saucepan as he spoke. Who acts: Paul. A sentence of «The Crimson Fairy Book» by Andrew Lang, The Crimson Fairy Book, part 31, with its dependency tree and the pragmatics of every clause.
---

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# The Crimson Fairy Book, The Crimson Fairy Book, part 31, sentence 52

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“Be off,” cried Paul, snatching up the saucepan as he spoke.

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**Who acts:** Paul · **What happens:** be, cry, snatch up, speak · **To what, where:** saucepan · **Speech:** someone speaks here

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This is a sentence of «The Crimson Fairy Book» by Andrew Lang, The Crimson Fairy Book, part 31. The page gives its syntax tree — a dependency tree in the style of Universal Dependencies — and its pragmatics clause by clause: who acts (Paul), 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:pg2435:31:52
# text = “Be off,” cried Paul, snatching up the saucepan as he spoke.
1	“	"	PUNCT	``	_	6	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
2	Be	be	AUX	VB	VerbForm=Inf	3	cop	_	_
3	off	off	ADV	RB	_	6	advmod	_	SpaceAfter=No
4	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	3	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
5	”	"	PUNCT	''	_	3	punct	_	_
6	cried	cry	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=1|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	0	root	_	_
7	Paul	Paul	PROPN	NNP	Number=Sing	6	obj	_	SpaceAfter=No
8	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	9	punct	_	_
9	snatching	snatch	VERB	VBG	Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Part	6	advcl	_	_
10	up	up	ADP	RP	_	9	compound:prt	_	_
11	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	12	det	_	_
12	saucepan	saucepan	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	9	obj	_	_
13	as	as	SCONJ	IN	_	15	mark	_	_
14	he	he	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	15	nsubj	_	_
15	spoke	speak	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	9	advcl	_	SpaceAfter=No
16	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	6	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

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| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **is** *in a quote* | infinitive |  |  |  |  |  | off *property* | tree rules |
| 2 | **cry** *speech: express* | past | Paul |  |  |  |  |  | vn manner\_speaking-37.3 «NP V»: agent=Agent |
| 3 | **snatch up** | gerund | Paul *not said here* | the saucepan |  |  |  |  | vn obtain-13.5.2 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent saucepan=Theme |
| 4 | **speak** *speech: other* | past | Paul |  |  |  |  |  | vn talk-37.5 «NP V»: agent=Agent |

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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 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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