---
title: But in a moment he was on his feet again, and seized the chain with… — The Orange Fairy Book · tree and pragmatics
description: But in a moment he was on his feet again, and seized the chain with so much strength that four links came off in his hand. Who acts: Ian, four links. 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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[Mova](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/) · [this page in HTML](https://mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg3027/5/41/)

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# The Orange Fairy Book, Opening, part 5, sentence 41

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But in a moment he was on his feet again, and seized the chain with so much strength that four links came off in his hand.

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**Who acts:** Ian, four links · **What happens:** be, seize, come off · **To what, where:** feet, chain, much strength, hand

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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 (Ian, four links), 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:pg3027:5:41
# text = But in a moment he was on his feet again, and seized the chain with so much strength that four links came off in his hand.
1	But	but	CCONJ	CC	_	13	cc	_	_
2	in	in	ADP	IN	_	4	case	_	_
3	a	a	DET	DT	Definite=Ind|PronType=Art	4	det	_	_
4	moment	moment	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	13	obl	_	_
5	he	he	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	9	nsubj	_	_
6	was	be	AUX	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	9	cop	_	_
7	on	on	ADP	IN	_	9	case	_	_
8	his	his	PRON	PRP$	Case=Gen|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|Poss=Yes|PronType=Prs	9	nmod:poss	_	_
9	feet	foot	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	4	nmod	_	_
10	again	again	ADV	RB	_	9	advmod	_	SpaceAfter=No
11	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	13	punct	_	_
12	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	13	cc	_	_
13	seized	seize	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=1|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	0	root	_	_
14	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	15	det	_	_
15	chain	chain	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	13	obj	_	_
16	with	with	ADP	IN	_	19	case	_	_
17	so	so	ADV	RB	_	18	advmod	_	_
18	much	much	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	19	amod	_	_
19	strength	strength	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	13	obl	_	_
20	that	that	PRON	WDT	PronType=Rel	23	obl	_	_
21	four	four	NUM	CD	NumForm=Word|NumType=Card	22	nummod	_	_
22	links	link	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	23	nsubj	_	_
23	came	come	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Plur|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	19	acl:relcl	_	_
24	off	off	ADP	RP	_	23	compound:prt	_	_
25	in	in	ADP	IN	_	27	case	_	_
26	his	his	PRON	PRP$	Case=Gen|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|Poss=Yes|PronType=Prs	27	nmod:poss	_	_
27	hand	hand	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	23	obl	_	SpaceAfter=No
28	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	13	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

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| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **is** | past | Ian |  |  | Ian's feet | again |  | tree rules |
| 2 | **seize** | past |  | the chain |  |  | moment | with much strength | vn obtain-13.5.2 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent chain=Theme |
| 3 | **come off** | past | four links | much strength |  | Ian's hand |  |  | vn occur-48.3-2 «NP V PP»: agent=Theme in hand=Location |

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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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