---
title: Then the prince swung the dragon straight up into the clouds, and wh… — The Crimson Fairy Book · tree and pragmatics
description: Then the prince swung the dragon straight up into the clouds, and when he touched the earth again, he broke into a thousand pieces. Who acts: prince. A sentence of «The Crimson Fairy Book» by Andrew Lang, The Crimson Fairy Book, part 9, with its dependency tree and the pragmatics of every clause.
---

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# The Crimson Fairy Book, The Crimson Fairy Book, part 9, sentence 38

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Then the prince swung the dragon straight up into the clouds, and when he touched the earth again, he broke into a thousand pieces.

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**Who acts:** prince · **What happens:** swing, touch, break · **To what, where:** dragon, clouds, earth, thousand pieces

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This is a sentence of «The Crimson Fairy Book» by Andrew Lang, The Crimson Fairy Book, part 9. The page gives its syntax tree — a dependency tree in the style of Universal Dependencies — and its pragmatics clause by clause: who acts (prince), 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:pg2435:9:38
# text = Then the prince swung the dragon straight up into the clouds, and when he touched the earth again, he broke into a thousand pieces.
1	Then	then	ADV	RB	PronType=Dem	4	advmod	_	_
2	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	3	det	_	_
3	prince	prince	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	4	nsubj	_	_
4	swung	swing	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	0	root	_	_
5	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	6	det	_	_
6	dragon	dragon	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	4	obj	_	_
7	straight	straight	ADV	RB	_	8	advmod	_	_
8	up	up	ADV	RB	_	4	advmod	_	_
9	into	into	ADP	IN	_	11	case	_	_
10	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	11	det	_	_
11	clouds	cloud	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	4	obl	_	SpaceAfter=No
12	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	16	punct	_	_
13	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	16	cc	_	_
14	when	when	ADV	WRB	PronType=Int	16	advmod	_	_
15	he	he	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	16	nsubj	_	_
16	touched	touch	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	4	conj	_	_
17	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	18	det	_	_
18	earth	earth	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	16	obj	_	_
19	again	again	ADV	RB	_	16	advmod	_	SpaceAfter=No
20	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	22	punct	_	_
21	he	he	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	22	nsubj	_	_
22	broke	break	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	4	conj	_	_
23	into	into	ADP	IN	_	26	case	_	_
24	a	a	DET	DT	Definite=Ind|PronType=Art	25	det	_	_
25	thousand	thousand	NUM	CD	NumForm=Word|NumType=Card	26	nummod	_	_
26	pieces	piece	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	22	obl	_	SpaceAfter=No
27	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	4	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

<!-- .fr -->
| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **swing** | past | the prince | the dragon |  | the clouds | then |  | vn roll-51.3.1 «NP V NP PP.trajectory»: agent=Agent dragon=Theme into cloud=Trajectory |
| 2 | **touch** | past | prince | the earth |  |  | again |  | vn contiguous\_location-47.8-1 «NP V NP»: agent=Theme earth=Co-Theme |
| 3 | **break** | past | prince |  |  |  |  | into thousand pieces *result* | vn break-45.1 «NP V PP.result»: agent=Patient into piece=Result |

<!-- .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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