---
title: But at these words the knight let his spear fall, so surprised was he. — The Brown Fairy Book · tree and pragmatics
description: But at these words the knight let his spear fall, so surprised was he. Who acts: knight. A sentence of «The Brown Fairy Book» by Andrew Lang, Story of Wali Dâd the Simple-Hearted, part 5, with its dependency tree and the pragmatics of every clause.
---

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# The Brown Fairy Book, Story of Wali Dâd the Simple-Hearted, part 5, sentence 22

<!-- .ven lang=en -->
But at these words the knight let his spear fall, so surprised was he.

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**Who acts:** knight · **What happens:** let, be · **To what, where:** spear fall, words, Knight

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This is a sentence of «The Brown Fairy Book» by Andrew Lang, Story of Wali Dâd the Simple-Hearted, 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 (knight), 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:pg3282:38:22
# text = But at these words the knight let his spear fall, so surprised was he.
1	But	but	CCONJ	CC	_	7	cc	_	_
2	at	at	ADP	IN	_	4	case	_	_
3	these	this	DET	DT	Number=Plur|PronType=Dem	4	det	_	_
4	words	word	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	7	obl	_	_
5	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	6	det	_	_
6	knight	knight	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	7	nsubj	_	_
7	let	let	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	0	root	_	_
8	his	his	PRON	PRP$	Case=Gen|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|Poss=Yes|PronType=Prs	10	nmod:poss	_	_
9	spear	spear	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	10	compound	_	_
10	fall	fall	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	7	obj	_	SpaceAfter=No
11	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	13	punct	_	_
12	so	so	ADV	RB	_	13	advmod	_	_
13	surprised	surprised	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	7	xcomp	_	_
14	was	be	AUX	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	15	cop	_	_
15	he	he	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	13	nsubj	_	SpaceAfter=No
16	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	7	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

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| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **let** | past | the knight | Knight's spear fall |  | this words |  | surprised *property* | vn give-13.1-1 «NP V NP PP.asset»: agent=Agent fall=Theme at word=Asset |
| 2 | **is a** | past |  | Knight |  |  |  |  | tree rules |

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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 Brown Fairy Book» by Andrew Lang, Project Gutenberg book 3282 (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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