---
title: Then he opened the shells with a pin, split them carefully in two, a… — The Lilac Fairy Book · tree and pragmatics
description: Then he opened the shells with a pin, split them carefully in two, and broke small little bits of sticks for the rowers’ seats. Who acts: Lasse. A sentence of «The Lilac Fairy Book» by Andrew Lang, The Lilac Fairy Book, part 14, with its dependency tree and the pragmatics of every clause.
---

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[Mova](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/) · [this page in HTML](https://mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg3454/14/50/)

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# The Lilac Fairy Book, The Lilac Fairy Book, part 14, sentence 50

<!-- .ven lang=en -->
Then he opened the shells with a pin, split them carefully in two, and broke small little bits of sticks for the rowers’ seats.

<!-- .vintro -->
**Who acts:** Lasse · **What happens:** open, split, break · **To what, where:** shells, two, small little bits

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This is a sentence of «The Lilac Fairy Book» by Andrew Lang, The Lilac Fairy Book, part 14. The page gives its syntax tree — a dependency tree in the style of Universal Dependencies — and its pragmatics clause by clause: who acts (Lasse), what happens, when and where, as Mova's frames read it from the tree.

<!-- .note-en -->
**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:pg3454:14:50
# text = Then he opened the shells with a pin, split them carefully in two, and broke small little bits of sticks for the rowers’ seats.
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	opened	open	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	0	root	_	_
4	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	5	det	_	_
5	shells	shell	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	3	obj	_	_
6	with	with	ADP	IN	_	8	case	_	_
7	a	a	DET	DT	Definite=Ind|PronType=Art	8	det	_	_
8	pin	pin	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	3	obl	_	SpaceAfter=No
9	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	10	punct	_	_
10	split	split	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	3	advcl	_	_
11	them	they	PRON	PRP	Case=Acc|Number=Plur|Person=3|PronType=Prs	10	obj	_	_
12	carefully	carefully	ADV	RB	_	10	advmod	_	_
13	in	in	ADP	IN	_	14	case	_	_
14	two	two	NUM	CD	NumForm=Word|NumType=Card	10	obl	_	SpaceAfter=No
15	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	17	punct	_	_
16	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	17	cc	_	_
17	broke	break	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	3	conj	_	_
18	small	small	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	20	amod	_	_
19	little	little	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	20	amod	_	_
20	bits	bit	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	17	obj	_	_
21	of	of	ADP	IN	_	22	case	_	_
22	sticks	stick	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	20	nmod	_	_
23	for	for	ADP	IN	_	27	case	_	_
24	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	25	det	_	_
25	rowers	rower	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	27	nmod:poss	_	SpaceAfter=No
26	’	's	PART	POS	_	25	case	_	_
27	seats	seat	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	17	obl	_	SpaceAfter=No
28	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	3	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

<!-- .fr -->
| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **open** | past | Lasse | the shells |  |  | then | with a pin | vn establish-55.5-1 «NP V NP PP.instrument»: agent=Agent shell=Patient with pin=Instrument |
| 2 | **split** | infinitive | Lasse *not said here* | shells *= shell* |  | two |  | carefully *property* | vn break-45.1 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent they=Patient |
| 3 | **break** | past | Lasse *not said here* | small little bits of sticks |  |  |  | for the rowers's seats | vn hurt-40.8.3-1-1 «NP V NP»: agent=Experiencer bit=Patient |

<!-- .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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