---
title: But first take that sword which hangs on the wall, and cut off the h… — The Orange Fairy Book · tree and pragmatics
description: But first take that sword which hangs on the wall, and cut off the heads of the sixteen grooms.' Who acts: you, sword. A sentence of «The Orange Fairy Book» by Andrew Lang, Opening, part 5, with its dependency tree and the pragmatics of every clause.
---

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# The Orange Fairy Book, Opening, part 5, sentence 115

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But first take that sword which hangs on the wall, and cut off the heads of the sixteen grooms.'

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**Who acts:** you, sword · **What happens:** take, hang, cut off · **To what, where:** sword, wall, heads

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This is a sentence of «The Orange Fairy Book» by Andrew Lang, Opening, part 5. The page gives its syntax tree — a dependency tree in the style of Universal Dependencies — and its pragmatics clause by clause: who acts (you, sword), 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:pg3027:5:115
# text = But first take that sword which hangs on the wall, and cut off the heads of the sixteen grooms.'
1	But	but	CCONJ	CC	_	3	cc	_	_
2	first	first	ADV	RB	NumForm=Word|NumType=Ord	3	advmod	_	_
3	take	take	VERB	VB	Mood=Imp|VerbForm=Fin	0	root	_	_
4	that	that	DET	DT	Number=Sing|PronType=Dem	5	det	_	_
5	sword	sword	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	3	obj	_	_
6	which	which	PRON	WDT	PronType=Rel	7	nsubj	_	_
7	hangs	hang	VERB	VBZ	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Fin	5	acl:relcl	_	_
8	on	on	ADP	IN	_	10	case	_	_
9	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	10	det	_	_
10	wall	wall	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	7	obl	_	SpaceAfter=No
11	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	13	punct	_	_
12	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	13	cc	_	_
13	cut	cut	VERB	VBN	Tense=Past|VerbForm=Part|Voice=Pass	3	advcl	_	_
14	off	off	ADP	IN	_	16	case	_	_
15	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	16	det	_	_
16	heads	head	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	13	obl	_	_
17	of	of	ADP	IN	_	20	case	_	_
18	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	20	det	_	_
19	sixteen	sixteen	NUM	CD	NumForm=Word|NumType=Card	20	nummod	_	_
20	grooms	groom	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	16	nmod	_	SpaceAfter=No
21	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	3	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
22	'	'	PUNCT	''	_	3	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

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| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **take** | imperative | you *not said here* | that sword |  |  |  | first *property* | vn bring-11.3 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent sword=Theme |
| 2 | **hang** | present | that sword |  |  | the wall |  |  | vn assuming\_position-50 «NP V PP.location»: agent=Agent on wall=Location |
| 3 | **cut off** | participle | you *not said here* | the heads of the sixteen grooms |  |  |  |  | vn stop-55.4-1 «NP V NP.eventuality»: agent=Affector head=Eventuality |

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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 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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