---
title: The guards had stepped back, but the king called to them in a furiou… — The Crimson Fairy Book · tree and pragmatics
description: The guards had stepped back, but the king called to them in a furious voice to secure the madman. Who acts: king. A sentence of «The Crimson Fairy Book» by Andrew Lang, The Crimson Fairy Book, part 35, with its dependency tree and the pragmatics of every clause.
---

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# The Crimson Fairy Book, The Crimson Fairy Book, part 35, sentence 20

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The guards had stepped back, but the king called to them in a furious voice to secure the madman.

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**Who acts:** king · **What happens:** step back, call, secure · **To what, where:** guards, furious voice, madman · **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 35. The page gives its syntax tree — a dependency tree in the style of Universal Dependencies — and its pragmatics clause by clause: who acts (king), 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:pg2435:35:20
# text = The guards had stepped back, but the king called to them in a furious voice to secure the madman.
1	The	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	2	det	_	_
2	guards	guard	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	4	nsubj:pass	_	_
3	had	have	AUX	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Plur|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	4	aux	_	_
4	stepped	step	VERB	VBN	Tense=Past|VerbForm=Part|Voice=Pass	0	root	_	_
5	back	back	ADV	RB	_	4	advmod	_	SpaceAfter=No
6	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	10	punct	_	_
7	but	but	CCONJ	CC	_	10	cc	_	_
8	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	9	det	_	_
9	king	king	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	10	nsubj	_	_
10	called	call	VERB	VBN	Tense=Past|VerbForm=Part|Voice=Pass	4	parataxis	_	_
11	to	to	ADP	IN	_	12	case	_	_
12	them	they	PRON	PRP	Case=Acc|Number=Plur|Person=3|PronType=Prs	10	obl	_	_
13	in	in	ADP	IN	_	16	case	_	_
14	a	a	DET	DT	Definite=Ind|PronType=Art	16	det	_	_
15	furious	furious	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	16	amod	_	_
16	voice	voice	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	10	obl	_	_
17	to	to	PART	TO	_	18	mark	_	_
18	secure	secure	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	10	advcl	_	_
19	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	20	det	_	_
20	madman	madman	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	18	obj	_	SpaceAfter=No
21	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	4	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

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| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **step back** | past · perfect · passive |  | the guards |  |  |  |  | vn run-51.3.2 «PP.location V NP»: subject=Theme |
| 2 | **call** | participle | the king |  | guards *= guard* | a furious voice |  |  | vn animal\_sounds-38 «NP V PP.recipient»: agent=Agent to they=Recipient |
| 3 | **secure** | to-infinitive | the king *not said here* | the madman |  |  |  |  | vn ensure-99 «NP V NP»: agent=Precondition madman=Theme |

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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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