---
title: But in a moment the egg had burst into a thousand pieces, and its sh… — The Crimson Fairy Book · tree and pragmatics
description: But in a moment the egg had burst into a thousand pieces, and its sharp shell struck him in the face and scratched him horribly. Who acts: sharp shell. A sentence of «The Crimson Fairy Book» by Andrew Lang, The Crimson Fairy Book, part 32, with its dependency tree and the pragmatics of every clause.
---

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# The Crimson Fairy Book, The Crimson Fairy Book, part 32, sentence 91

<!-- .ven lang=en -->
But in a moment the egg had burst into a thousand pieces, and its sharp shell struck him in the face and scratched him horribly.

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**Who acts:** sharp shell · **What happens:** burst, strike, scratch · **To what, where:** egg, thousand pieces, Monkey, face

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This is a sentence of «The Crimson Fairy Book» by Andrew Lang, The Crimson Fairy Book, part 32. The page gives its syntax tree — a dependency tree in the style of Universal Dependencies — and its pragmatics clause by clause: who acts (sharp shell), 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:pg2435:32:91
# text = But in a moment the egg had burst into a thousand pieces, and its sharp shell struck him in the face and scratched him horribly.
1	But	but	CCONJ	CC	_	8	cc	_	_
2	in	in	ADP	IN	_	4	case	_	_
3	a	a	DET	DT	Definite=Ind|PronType=Art	4	det	_	_
4	moment	moment	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	8	obl	_	_
5	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	6	det	_	_
6	egg	egg	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	8	nsubj:pass	_	_
7	had	have	AUX	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	8	aux	_	_
8	burst	burst	VERB	VBN	Tense=Past|VerbForm=Part|Voice=Pass	0	root	_	_
9	into	into	ADP	IN	_	12	case	_	_
10	a	a	DET	DT	Definite=Ind|PronType=Art	11	det	_	_
11	thousand	thousand	NUM	CD	NumForm=Word|NumType=Card	12	nummod	_	_
12	pieces	piece	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	8	obl	_	SpaceAfter=No
13	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	18	punct	_	_
14	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	18	cc	_	_
15	its	its	PRON	PRP$	Case=Gen|Gender=Neut|Number=Sing|Person=3|Poss=Yes|PronType=Prs	17	nmod:poss	_	_
16	sharp	sharp	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	17	amod	_	_
17	shell	shell	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	18	nsubj	_	_
18	struck	strike	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	8	conj	_	_
19	him	he	PRON	PRP	Case=Acc|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	18	obj	_	_
20	in	in	ADP	IN	_	22	case	_	_
21	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	22	det	_	_
22	face	face	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	18	obl	_	_
23	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	24	cc	_	_
24	scratched	scratch	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	18	conj	_	_
25	him	he	PRON	PRP	Case=Acc|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	24	obj	_	_
26	horribly	horribly	ADV	RB	_	24	advmod	_	SpaceAfter=No
27	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	8	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

<!-- .fr -->
| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **burst** | past · perfect · passive |  | the egg |  | thousand pieces | moment |  | vn appear-48.1.1 «PP.location V NP»: subject=Theme |
| 2 | **strike** | past | fire's sharp shell | Monkey |  | the face |  |  | vn hit-18.1-1 «NP V NP PP»: agent=Agent he=Instrument |
| 3 | **scratch** | past | fire's sharp shell *not said here* | Monkey |  |  |  | horribly *property* | vn scribble-25.2-1 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent he=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:** «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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