---
title: Then he hurled his club at the prince’s head, but it fell harmless b… — The Brown Fairy Book · tree and pragmatics
description: Then he hurled his club at the prince’s head, but it fell harmless because the prince had quickly spurred his horse forward. Who acts: chief, club. A sentence of «The Brown Fairy Book» by Andrew Lang, The Brown Fairy Book, part 4, with its dependency tree and the pragmatics of every clause.
---

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# The Brown Fairy Book, The Brown Fairy Book, part 4, sentence 52

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Then he hurled his club at the prince’s head, but it fell harmless because the prince had quickly spurred his horse forward.

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**Who acts:** chief, club · **What happens:** hurl, fall, spur · **To what, where:** club, head, 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 (chief, club), 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:pg3282:4:52
# text = Then he hurled his club at the prince’s head, but it fell harmless because the prince had quickly spurred his horse forward.
1	Then	then	ADV	RB	PronType=Dem	3	advmod	_	_
2	he	he	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	3	nsubj	_	_
3	hurled	hurl	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	0	root	_	_
4	his	his	PRON	PRP$	Case=Gen|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|Poss=Yes|PronType=Prs	5	nmod:poss	_	_
5	club	club	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	3	obj	_	_
6	at	at	ADP	IN	_	10	case	_	_
7	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	8	det	_	_
8	prince	prince	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	10	nmod:poss	_	SpaceAfter=No
9	’s	's	PART	POS	_	8	case	_	_
10	head	head	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	3	obl	_	SpaceAfter=No
11	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	14	punct	_	_
12	but	but	CCONJ	CC	_	14	cc	_	_
13	it	it	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Gender=Neut|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	14	nsubj	_	_
14	fell	fall	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	3	conj	_	_
15	harmless	harmless	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	14	xcomp	_	_
16	because	because	SCONJ	IN	_	21	mark	_	_
17	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	18	det	_	_
18	prince	prince	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	21	nsubj:pass	_	_
19	had	have	AUX	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	21	aux	_	_
20	quickly	quickly	ADV	RB	_	21	advmod	_	_
21	spurred	spur	VERB	VBN	Tense=Past|VerbForm=Part|Voice=Pass	14	advcl	_	_
22	his	his	PRON	PRP$	Case=Gen|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|Poss=Yes|PronType=Prs	23	nmod:poss	_	_
23	horse	horse	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	21	obj	_	_
24	forward	forward	ADV	RB	_	21	advmod	_	SpaceAfter=No
25	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	3	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

<!-- .fr -->
| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **hurl** | past | chief | chief's club |  | the prince's head | then |  | vn throw-17.1-1 «NP V NP PP.destinations»: agent=Agent club=Theme at head=Destination |
| 2 | **fall** | past | club |  |  |  |  | harmless *property* | vn occur-48.3 «NP V»: agent=Theme |
| 3 | **spur** | past · perfect · passive |  | the prince |  |  |  | forward, quickly *property* | 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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