---
title: Quick as lightning the wives cut the deer- thongs which bound them;… — The Orange Fairy Book · tree and pragmatics
description: Quick as lightning the wives cut the deer- thongs which bound them; but the poor birds were too weak from pain and starvation to do more than utter soft sounds of joy. Who acts: wives, deer thongs, poor birds. A sentence of «The Orange Fairy Book» by Andrew Lang, Opening, part 26, with its dependenc
---

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# The Orange Fairy Book, Opening, part 26, sentence 110

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Quick as lightning the wives cut the deer- thongs which bound them; but the poor birds were too weak from pain and starvation to do more than utter soft sounds of joy.

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**Who acts:** wives, deer thongs, poor birds · **What happens:** cut, bound, be, do · **To what, where:** deer thongs, thongs, pain, more

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This is a sentence of «The Orange Fairy Book» by Andrew Lang, Opening, part 26. The page gives its syntax tree — a dependency tree in the style of Universal Dependencies — and its pragmatics clause by clause: who acts (wives, deer thongs, poor birds), 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:pg3027:26:110
# text = Quick as lightning the wives cut the deer- thongs which bound them; but the poor birds were too weak from pain and starvation to do more than utter soft sounds of joy.
1	Quick	quick	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	3	case	_	_
2	as	as	ADP	IN	_	1	fixed	_	_
3	lightning	lightning	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	6	obl	_	_
4	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	5	det	_	_
5	wives	wife	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	6	nsubj	_	_
6	cut	cut	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Plur|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	0	root	_	_
7	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	10	det	_	_
8	deer	deer	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	10	compound	_	SpaceAfter=No
9	-	-	PUNCT	HYPH	_	8	punct	_	_
10	thongs	thong	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	6	obj	_	_
11	which	which	PRON	WDT	PronType=Rel	12	nsubj	_	_
12	bound	bound	VERB	VBP	Mood=Ind|Number=Plur|Person=3|Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Fin	10	acl:relcl	_	_
13	them	they	PRON	PRP	Case=Acc|Number=Plur|Person=3|PronType=Prs	12	obj	_	SpaceAfter=No
14	;	;	PUNCT	,	_	21	punct	_	_
15	but	but	CCONJ	CC	_	21	cc	_	_
16	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	18	det	_	_
17	poor	poor	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	18	amod	_	_
18	birds	bird	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	21	nsubj	_	_
19	were	be	AUX	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Plur|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	21	cop	_	_
20	too	too	ADV	RB	_	21	advmod	_	_
21	weak	weak	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	6	conj	_	_
22	from	from	ADP	IN	_	23	case	_	_
23	pain	pain	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	21	obl	_	_
24	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	25	cc	_	_
25	starvation	starvation	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	23	conj	_	_
26	to	to	PART	TO	_	27	mark	_	_
27	do	do	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	25	acl	_	_
28	more	more	ADJ	JJR	Degree=Cmp	27	obj	_	_
29	than	than	ADP	IN	_	32	case	_	_
30	utter	utter	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	32	amod	_	_
31	soft	soft	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	32	amod	_	_
32	sounds	sound	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	28	obl	_	_
33	of	of	ADP	IN	_	34	case	_	_
34	joy	joy	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	32	nmod	_	SpaceAfter=No
35	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	6	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

<!-- .fr -->
| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **cut** | past | the wives | the deer thongs |  |  |  | quick lightning | vn build-26.1-1 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent thong=Product |
| 2 | **bound** | present | the deer thongs | thongs *= thong* |  |  |  |  | vn run-51.3.2 «PP.location V NP»: agent=Initial\_Location they=Theme |
| 3 | **is** | past | the poor birds |  |  | pain and starvation |  | weak *property* | tree rules |
| 4 | **do** | to-infinitive | the poor birds *not said here* | more |  |  |  |  | vn act-114-1 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent more=Eventuality |

<!-- .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 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.

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