---
title: In an instant Gille Mairtean the fox had sprung on his back, and gav… — The Orange Fairy Book · tree and pragmatics
description: In an instant Gille Mairtean the fox had sprung on his back, and gave him such a bite that he fell down unconscious. Who acts: king. A sentence of «The Orange Fairy Book» by Andrew Lang, Opening, part 8, with its dependency tree and the pragmatics of every clause.
---

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# The Orange Fairy Book, Opening, part 8, sentence 24

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In an instant Gille Mairtean the fox had sprung on his back, and gave him such a bite that he fell down unconscious.

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**Who acts:** king · **What happens:** spring, give, fall down · **To what, where:** fox, instant, bite, king

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This is a sentence of «The Orange Fairy Book» by Andrew Lang, Opening, part 8. The page gives its syntax tree — a dependency tree in the style of Universal Dependencies — and its pragmatics clause by clause: who acts (king), 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:pg3027:8:24
# text = In an instant Gille Mairtean the fox had sprung on his back, and gave him such a bite that he fell down unconscious.
1	In	in	ADP	IN	_	3	case	_	_
2	an	a	DET	DT	Definite=Ind|PronType=Art	3	det	_	_
3	instant	instant	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	9	obl	_	_
4	Gille	Gille	PROPN	NNP	Number=Sing	3	appos	_	_
5	Mairtean	Mairtean	PROPN	NNP	Number=Sing	4	flat	_	_
6	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	7	det	_	_
7	fox	fox	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	9	nsubj:pass	_	_
8	had	have	AUX	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	9	aux	_	_
9	sprung	spring	VERB	VBN	Tense=Past|VerbForm=Part|Voice=Pass	0	root	_	_
10	on	on	ADP	IN	_	12	case	_	_
11	his	his	PRON	PRP$	Case=Gen|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|Poss=Yes|PronType=Prs	12	nmod:poss	_	_
12	back	back	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	9	obl	_	SpaceAfter=No
13	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	15	punct	_	_
14	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	15	cc	_	_
15	gave	give	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	9	conj	_	_
16	him	he	PRON	PRP	Case=Acc|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	15	iobj	_	_
17	such	such	DET	PDT	PronType=Ind	19	det:predet	_	_
18	a	a	DET	DT	Definite=Ind|PronType=Art	19	det	_	_
19	bite	bite	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	15	obj	_	_
20	that	that	SCONJ	IN	_	22	mark	_	_
21	he	he	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	22	nsubj	_	_
22	fell	fall	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	15	advcl	_	_
23	down	down	ADV	RB	_	22	advmod	_	_
24	unconscious	unconscious	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	22	xcomp	_	SpaceAfter=No
25	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	9	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

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| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **spring** | past · perfect · passive |  | the fox |  | a instant |  | on king's back | vn run-51.3.2 «PP.location V NP»: subject=Theme |
| 2 | **give** | past |  | such bite | king |  |  |  | vn give-13.1-1 «NP V NP-Dative NP»: agent=Agent he=Recipient bite=Theme |
| 3 | **fall down** | past | king |  |  |  |  | down, unconscious *property* | vn occur-48.3 «NP V»: agent=Theme |

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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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