---
title: He reined in his steed, and flung a short, sharp knife over his shou… — The Lilac Fairy Book · tree and pragmatics
description: He reined in his steed, and flung a short, sharp knife over his shoulder, and up sprung a thick wood between the giant and themselves. Who acts: prince. A sentence of «The Lilac Fairy Book» by Andrew Lang, The Lilac Fairy Book, part 11, with its dependency tree and the pragmatics of every clause.
---

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# The Lilac Fairy Book, The Lilac Fairy Book, part 11, sentence 20

<!-- .ven lang=en -->
He reined in his steed, and flung a short, sharp knife over his shoulder, and up sprung a thick wood between the giant and themselves.

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**Who acts:** prince · **What happens:** rein, fling, spring · **To what, where:** steed, short sharp knife, shoulder, thick wood

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This is a sentence of «The Lilac Fairy Book» by Andrew Lang, The Lilac Fairy Book, part 11. The page gives its syntax tree — a dependency tree in the style of Universal Dependencies — and its pragmatics clause by clause: who acts (prince), 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:pg3454:11:20
# text = He reined in his steed, and flung a short, sharp knife over his shoulder, and up sprung a thick wood between the giant and themselves.
1	He	he	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	2	nsubj	_	_
2	reined	rein	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	0	root	_	_
3	in	in	ADP	IN	_	5	case	_	_
4	his	his	PRON	PRP$	Case=Gen|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|Poss=Yes|PronType=Prs	5	nmod:poss	_	_
5	steed	steed	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	2	obl	_	SpaceAfter=No
6	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	8	punct	_	_
7	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	8	cc	_	_
8	flung	fling	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	2	conj	_	_
9	a	a	DET	DT	Definite=Ind|PronType=Art	13	det	_	_
10	short	short	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	13	amod	_	SpaceAfter=No
11	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	10	punct	_	_
12	sharp	sharp	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	13	amod	_	_
13	knife	knife	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	8	obj	_	_
14	over	over	ADP	IN	_	16	case	_	_
15	his	his	PRON	PRP$	Case=Gen|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|Poss=Yes|PronType=Prs	16	nmod:poss	_	_
16	shoulder	shoulder	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	8	obl	_	SpaceAfter=No
17	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	20	punct	_	_
18	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	20	cc	_	_
19	up	up	ADV	RB	_	20	advmod	_	_
20	sprung	spring	VERB	VBN	Tense=Past|VerbForm=Part|Voice=Pass	2	conj	_	_
21	a	a	DET	DT	Definite=Ind|PronType=Art	23	det	_	_
22	thick	thick	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	23	amod	_	_
23	wood	wood	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	20	obj	_	_
24	between	between	ADP	IN	_	26	case	_	_
25	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	26	det	_	_
26	giant	giant	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	20	obl	_	_
27	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	28	cc	_	_
28	themselves	themselves	PRON	PRP	Case=Acc|Number=Plur|Person=3|PronType=Prs|Reflex=Yes	26	conj	_	SpaceAfter=No
29	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	2	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

<!-- .fr -->
| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **rein** | past | prince |  |  | prince's steed |  |  | tree rules |
| 2 | **fling** | past | prince *not said here* | a short sharp knife |  | prince's shoulder |  |  | vn throw-17.1-1 «NP V NP PP.destinations»: agent=Agent knife=Theme over shoulder=Destination |
| 3 | **spring** | participle | prince *not said here* | a thick wood |  |  |  | between the giant | vn run-51.3.2 «PP.location V NP»: agent=Initial\_Location wood=Theme |

<!-- .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 Lilac Fairy Book» by Andrew Lang, Project Gutenberg book 3454 (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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