---
title: The prince saw his chance, and before his foe could shut his mouth a… — The Orange Fairy Book · tree and pragmatics
description: The prince saw his chance, and before his foe could shut his mouth again had plunged his sword far down his adversary's throat. Who acts: prince. A sentence of «The Orange Fairy Book» by Andrew Lang, Opening, part 29, with its dependency tree and the pragmatics of every clause.
---

<!-- md -->
[Mova](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/) · [this page in HTML](https://mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg3027/29/70/)

<!-- 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 29](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg3027/29/) / 70

# The Orange Fairy Book, Opening, part 29, sentence 70

<!-- .ven lang=en -->
The prince saw his chance, and before his foe could shut his mouth again had plunged his sword far down his adversary's throat.

<!-- .vintro -->
**Who acts:** prince · **What happens:** see, shut, plunge, chance · **To what, where:** chance, mouth, sword

<!-- .vabout -->
This is a sentence of «The Orange Fairy Book» by Andrew Lang, Opening, part 29. 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.

<!-- .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:pg3027:29:70
# text = The prince saw his chance, and before his foe could shut his mouth again had plunged his sword far down his adversary's throat.
1	The	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	2	det	_	_
2	prince	prince	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	3	nsubj	_	_
3	saw	see	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	0	root	_	_
4	his	his	PRON	PRP$	Case=Gen|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|Poss=Yes|PronType=Prs	5	nmod:poss	_	_
5	chance	chance	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	3	obj	_	SpaceAfter=No
6	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	12	punct	_	_
7	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	12	cc	_	_
8	before	before	ADP	IN	_	10	case	_	_
9	his	his	PRON	PRP$	Case=Gen|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|Poss=Yes|PronType=Prs	10	nmod:poss	_	_
10	foe	foe	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	12	obl	_	_
11	could	could	AUX	MD	VerbForm=Fin	12	aux	_	_
12	shut	shut	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	3	conj	_	_
13	his	his	PRON	PRP$	Case=Gen|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|Poss=Yes|PronType=Prs	14	nmod:poss	_	_
14	mouth	mouth	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	12	obj	_	_
15	again	again	ADV	RB	_	17	advmod	_	_
16	had	have	AUX	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	17	aux	_	_
17	plunged	plunge	VERB	VBN	Tense=Past|VerbForm=Part	12	advcl	_	_
18	his	his	PRON	PRP$	Case=Gen|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|Poss=Yes|PronType=Prs	19	nmod:poss	_	_
19	sword	sword	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	17	obj	_	_
20	far	far	ADV	RB	Degree=Pos	25	advmod	_	_
21	down	down	ADP	IN	_	25	case	_	_
22	his	his	PRON	PRP$	Case=Gen|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|Poss=Yes|PronType=Prs	23	nmod:poss	_	_
23	adversary	adversary	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	25	nmod:poss	_	SpaceAfter=No
24	's	's	PART	POS	_	23	case	_	_
25	throat	throat	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	17	obl	_	SpaceAfter=No
26	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	3	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

<!-- .fr -->
| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **see** | past | the prince | prince's chance |  |  |  |  | vn comprehend-87.2-1-1 «NP V NP»: agent=Experiencer chance=Stimulus |
| 2 | **shut** | could | the prince *not said here* | prince's mouth |  |  | before prince's foe |  | vn other\_cos-45.4 «NP V NP.patient»: agent=Agent mouth=Patient |
| 3 | **plunge** | past · perfect | the prince *not said here* | prince's sword |  |  | again | down prince's adversary's throat | vn meander-47.7-1 «PP.location V NP»: agent=Location sword=Theme |
| 4 | **chance** |  | prince |  |  |  |  |  | nom chance «state intransitive»: poss=agent |

<!-- .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 69](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg3027/29/69/)
- next →: [sentence 71](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg3027/29/71/)
- ↑ back to [Opening, part 29](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg3027/29/)