---
title: This was too much for Moti’s excited pony, who shied so suddenly tha… — The Lilac Fairy Book · tree and pragmatics
description: This was too much for Moti’s excited pony, who shied so suddenly that Moti went flying over his head like a sky rocket, and alighted right on the top of his fat foe. Who acts: This, excited pony, Moti. A sentence of «The Lilac Fairy Book» by Andrew Lang, The Lilac Fairy Book, part 16, with its depen
---

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# The Lilac Fairy Book, The Lilac Fairy Book, part 16, sentence 40

<!-- .ven lang=en -->
This was too much for Moti’s excited pony, who shied so suddenly that Moti went flying over his head like a sky rocket, and alighted right on the top of his fat foe.

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**Who acts:** This, excited pony, Moti · **What happens:** be, shy, go, fly, alight · **To what, where:** head, top

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This is a sentence of «The Lilac Fairy Book» by Andrew Lang, The Lilac Fairy Book, part 16. The page gives its syntax tree — a dependency tree in the style of Universal Dependencies — and its pragmatics clause by clause: who acts (This, excited pony, Moti), 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:pg3454:16:40
# text = This was too much for Moti’s excited pony, who shied so suddenly that Moti went flying over his head like a sky rocket, and alighted right on the top of his fat foe.
1	This	this	PRON	DT	Number=Sing|PronType=Dem	4	nsubj	_	_
2	was	be	AUX	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	4	cop	_	_
3	too	too	ADV	RB	_	4	advmod	_	_
4	much	much	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	0	root	_	_
5	for	for	ADP	IN	_	9	case	_	_
6	Moti	Moti	PROPN	NNP	Number=Sing	9	nmod:poss	_	SpaceAfter=No
7	’s	's	PART	POS	_	6	case	_	_
8	excited	excited	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	9	amod	_	_
9	pony	pony	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	4	nmod	_	SpaceAfter=No
10	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	12	punct	_	_
11	who	who	PRON	WP	PronType=Rel	12	nsubj	_	_
12	shied	shy	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	9	acl:relcl	_	_
13	so	so	ADV	RB	_	14	advmod	_	_
14	suddenly	suddenly	ADV	RB	_	12	advmod	_	_
15	that	that	SCONJ	IN	_	17	mark	_	_
16	Moti	Moti	PROPN	NNP	Number=Sing	17	nsubj	_	_
17	went	go	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	12	advcl	_	_
18	flying	fly	VERB	VBG	VerbForm=Ger	17	xcomp	_	_
19	over	over	ADP	IN	_	21	case	_	_
20	his	his	PRON	PRP$	Case=Gen|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|Poss=Yes|PronType=Prs	21	nmod:poss	_	_
21	head	head	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	18	obl	_	_
22	like	like	ADP	IN	_	25	case	_	_
23	a	a	DET	DT	Definite=Ind|PronType=Art	25	det	_	_
24	sky	sky	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	25	compound	_	_
25	rocket	rocket	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	18	obl	_	SpaceAfter=No
26	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	28	punct	_	_
27	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	28	cc	_	_
28	alighted	alight	VERB	VBN	Tense=Past|VerbForm=Part|Voice=Pass	12	conj	_	_
29	right	right	ADV	RB	_	32	advmod	_	_
30	on	on	ADP	IN	_	32	case	_	_
31	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	32	det	_	_
32	top	top	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	28	obl	_	_
33	of	of	ADP	IN	_	36	case	_	_
34	his	his	PRON	PRP$	Case=Gen|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|Poss=Yes|PronType=Prs	36	nmod:poss	_	_
35	fat	fat	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	36	amod	_	_
36	foe	foe	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	32	nmod	_	SpaceAfter=No
37	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	4	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

<!-- .fr -->
| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **is** | past | This |  |  |  |  | for Moti's excited pony; much *property* | tree rules |
| 2 | **shy** | past | Moti's excited pony |  |  |  |  | suddenly *property* | tree rules |
| 3 | **go** | past | Moti |  |  |  |  |  | vn say-37.7 «NP V S-Quote»: agent=Agent clause=Topic |
| 4 | **fly** | gerund | Moti *not said here* |  |  | Moti's head |  | like a sky rocket | vn spatial\_configuration-47.6-1 «NP V PP.location»: agent=Theme over head=Location |
| 5 | **alight** | participle | Moti's excited pony *not said here* |  |  | the top of Moti's fat foe |  |  | tree rules |

<!-- .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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