---
title: In a moment of respite from attack he struck his fire-steel and burn… — The Brown Fairy Book · tree and pragmatics
description: In a moment of respite from attack he struck his fire-steel and burned a hair of the king-lion; and he had just succeeded in this when the negroes charged again and all but took him prisoner. Who acts: prince, negroes. A sentence of «The Brown Fairy Book» by Andrew Lang, The Brown Fairy Book, part 4
---

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# The Brown Fairy Book, The Brown Fairy Book, part 4, sentence 42

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In a moment of respite from attack he struck his fire-steel and burned a hair of the king-lion; and he had just succeeded in this when the negroes charged again and all but took him prisoner.

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**Who acts:** prince, negroes · **What happens:** strike, burn, succeed, charge, take · **To what, where:** fire steel, hair, this, prince

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This is a sentence of «The Brown Fairy Book» by Andrew Lang, The Brown Fairy Book, part 4. The page gives its syntax tree — a dependency tree in the style of Universal Dependencies — and its pragmatics clause by clause: who acts (prince, negroes), 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:pg3282:4:42
# text = In a moment of respite from attack he struck his fire-steel and burned a hair of the king-lion; and he had just succeeded in this when the negroes charged again and all but took him prisoner.
1	In	in	ADP	IN	_	3	case	_	_
2	a	a	DET	DT	Definite=Ind|PronType=Art	3	det	_	_
3	moment	moment	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	9	obl	_	_
4	of	of	ADP	IN	_	5	case	_	_
5	respite	respite	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	3	nmod	_	_
6	from	from	ADP	IN	_	7	case	_	_
7	attack	attack	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	5	nmod	_	_
8	he	he	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	9	nsubj	_	_
9	struck	strike	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	0	root	_	_
10	his	his	PRON	PRP$	Case=Gen|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|Poss=Yes|PronType=Prs	13	nmod:poss	_	_
11	fire	fire	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	13	compound	_	SpaceAfter=No
12	-	-	PUNCT	HYPH	_	11	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
13	steel	steel	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	9	obj	_	_
14	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	15	cc	_	_
15	burned	burn	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	9	conj	_	_
16	a	a	DET	DT	Definite=Ind|PronType=Art	17	det	_	_
17	hair	hair	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	15	obj	_	_
18	of	of	ADP	IN	_	22	case	_	_
19	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	22	det	_	_
20	king	king	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	22	compound	_	SpaceAfter=No
21	-	-	PUNCT	HYPH	_	20	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
22	lion	lion	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	17	nmod	_	SpaceAfter=No
23	;	;	PUNCT	:	_	28	punct	_	_
24	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	28	cc	_	_
25	he	he	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	28	nsubj	_	_
26	had	have	AUX	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	28	aux	_	_
27	just	just	ADV	RB	_	28	advmod	_	_
28	succeeded	succeed	VERB	VBN	Tense=Past|VerbForm=Part	9	parataxis	_	_
29	in	in	ADP	IN	_	30	case	_	_
30	this	this	PRON	DT	Number=Sing|PronType=Dem	28	obl	_	_
31	when	when	ADV	WRB	PronType=Int	34	advmod	_	_
32	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	33	det	_	_
33	negroes	negro	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	34	nsubj	_	_
34	charged	charge	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Plur|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	28	advcl	_	_
35	again	again	ADV	RB	_	34	advmod	_	_
36	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	37	cc	_	_
37	all	all	ADV	RB	_	35	conj	_	_
38	but	but	CCONJ	CC	_	39	cc	_	_
39	took	take	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	28	conj	_	_
40	him	he	PRON	PRP	Case=Acc|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	39	obj	_	_
41	prisoner	prisoner	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	39	obj	_	SpaceAfter=No
42	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	9	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

<!-- .fr -->
| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **strike** | past | prince | prince's fire steel |  |  | moment |  | vn hit-18.1-1 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent steel=Patient |
| 2 | **burn** | past | prince *not said here* | a hair of the king lion |  |  |  |  | vn light\_emission-43.1 «NP V NP.theme»: agent=Agent hair=Theme |
| 3 | **succeed** | past · perfect | prince |  |  | this |  |  | vn succeed-74-1 «NP V PP.eventuality S\_ING»: agent=Agent in this=Eventuality |
| 4 | **charge** | past | the negroes |  |  |  | again |  | vn run-51.3.2 «NP V»: agent=Theme |
| 5 | **take** | past | prince *not said here* | prince |  |  |  |  | vn bring-11.3 «NP V NP ADVP»: agent=Instrument he=Theme prisoner=Destination |

<!-- .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.

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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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