---
title: But the table fell to pieces as he touched it, in the cornet there r… — The Orange Fairy Book · tree and pragmatics
description: But the table fell to pieces as he touched it, in the cornet there remained only a few fragments of leathern belts which the rats had gnawed, and in the bag nothing but broken bits of stone. Who acts: table, army, cornet. A sentence of «The Orange Fairy Book» by Andrew Lang, Opening, part 20, with i
---

<!-- md -->
[Mova](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/) · [this page in HTML](https://mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg3027/20/104/)

<!-- crumbs -->
[home](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/) / [corpora](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/) / [tales](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/) / [The Orange Fairy Book](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg3027/) / [Opening, part 20](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg3027/20/) / 104

# The Orange Fairy Book, Opening, part 20, sentence 104

<!-- .ven lang=en -->
But the table fell to pieces as he touched it, in the cornet there remained only a few fragments of leathern belts which the rats had gnawed, and in the bag nothing but broken bits of stone.

<!-- .vintro -->
**Who acts:** table, army, cornet · **What happens:** fall, touch, remain, gnaw, break · **To what, where:** nothing, power, few fragments, leathern belts

<!-- .vabout -->
This is a sentence of «The Orange Fairy Book» by Andrew Lang, Opening, part 20. The page gives its syntax tree — a dependency tree in the style of Universal Dependencies — and its pragmatics clause by clause: who acts (table, army, cornet), what happens, when and where, as Mova's frames read it from the tree.

<!-- .note-en -->
**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:pg3027:20:104
# text = But the table fell to pieces as he touched it, in the cornet there remained only a few fragments of leathern belts which the rats had gnawed, and in the bag nothing but broken bits of stone.
1	But	but	CCONJ	CC	_	4	cc	_	_
2	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	3	det	_	_
3	table	table	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	4	nsubj	_	_
4	fell	fall	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	0	root	_	_
5	to	to	ADP	IN	_	6	case	_	_
6	pieces	piece	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	4	obl	_	_
7	as	as	SCONJ	IN	_	9	mark	_	_
8	he	he	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	9	nsubj	_	_
9	touched	touch	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	4	advcl	_	_
10	it	it	PRON	PRP	Case=Acc|Gender=Neut|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	9	obj	_	SpaceAfter=No
11	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	14	punct	_	_
12	in	in	ADP	IN	_	14	case	_	_
13	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	14	det	_	_
14	cornet	cornet	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	9	parataxis	_	_
15	there	there	ADV	RB	PronType=Dem	14	advmod	_	_
16	remained	remain	VERB	VBN	Tense=Past|VerbForm=Part|Voice=Pass	14	acl	_	_
17	only	only	ADV	RB	_	20	advmod	_	_
18	a	a	DET	DT	Definite=Ind|PronType=Art	20	det	_	_
19	few	few	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	20	amod	_	_
20	fragments	fragment	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	16	obl	_	_
21	of	of	ADP	IN	_	23	case	_	_
22	leathern	leathern	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	23	compound	_	_
23	belts	belt	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	20	nmod	_	_
24	which	which	PRON	WDT	PronType=Rel	28	nsubj:pass	_	_
25	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	26	det	_	_
26	rats	rat	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	28	nsubj:pass	_	_
27	had	have	AUX	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Plur|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	28	aux	_	_
28	gnawed	gnaw	VERB	VBN	Tense=Past|VerbForm=Part|Voice=Pass	23	acl:relcl	_	SpaceAfter=No
29	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	34	punct	_	_
30	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	34	cc	_	_
31	in	in	ADP	IN	_	34	case	_	_
32	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	34	det	_	_
33	bag	bag	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	34	compound	_	_
34	nothing	nothing	PRON	NN	Number=Sing|PronType=Neg	4	obl	_	_
35	but	but	CCONJ	CC	_	37	cc	_	_
36	broken	break	VERB	VBN	Tense=Past|VerbForm=Part|Voice=Pass	37	amod	_	_
37	bits	bit	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	34	conj	_	_
38	of	of	ADP	IN	_	39	case	_	_
39	stone	stone	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	37	nmod	_	SpaceAfter=No
40	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	4	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

<!-- .fr -->
| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **fall** | past | the table |  |  | nothing |  | to pieces | vn occur-48.3 «NP V PP»: agent=Theme in nothing=Location |
| 2 | **touch** | past | army | power |  |  |  |  | vn contiguous\_location-47.8-1 «NP V NP»: agent=Theme it=Co-Theme |
| 3 | **remain** | participle | the cornet *not said here* | a few fragments of leathern belts |  |  |  |  | vn exist-47.1 «NP V»: agent=Theme |
| 4 | **gnaw** | past · perfect · passive |  | leathern belts |  |  |  |  | vn chew-39.2 «NP V NP»: subject=Patient |
| 5 | **break** | participle |  |  |  |  |  |  | vn hurt-40.8.3-1-1 «NP V»: agent=Patient |

<!-- .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.

<!-- div src -->

**Text:** «The Orange Fairy Book» by Andrew Lang, Project Gutenberg book 3027 (public domain in the USA). **Tree:** Mova's own parse, Elamur Cosmic License. **Frames:** Mova's frames reader (`prag`), the chapter read in order.

<!-- /div -->

<!-- pn -->
- ← previous: [sentence 103](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg3027/20/103/)
- next →: [sentence 105](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg3027/20/105/)
- ↑ back to [Opening, part 20](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg3027/20/)