---
title: And in the mare’s ear there was a twig of sloe tree, and as he threw… — The Lilac Fairy Book · tree and pragmatics
description: And in the mare’s ear there was a twig of sloe tree, and as he threw it behind him there sprung up twenty miles of thornwood so thick that scarce a weasel could go through it. Who acts: twig, weasel. A sentence of «The Lilac Fairy Book» by Andrew Lang, The Lilac Fairy Book, part 29, with its depende
---

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[Mova](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/) · [this page in HTML](https://mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg3454/29/52/)

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# The Lilac Fairy Book, The Lilac Fairy Book, part 29, sentence 52

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And in the mare’s ear there was a twig of sloe tree, and as he threw it behind him there sprung up twenty miles of thornwood so thick that scarce a weasel could go through it.

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**Who acts:** twig, weasel · **What happens:** throw, spring up, be, scarce, go · **To what, where:** ear

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This is a sentence of «The Lilac Fairy Book» by Andrew Lang, The Lilac Fairy Book, part 29. The page gives its syntax tree — a dependency tree in the style of Universal Dependencies — and its pragmatics clause by clause: who acts (twig, weasel), 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:pg3454:29:52
# text = And in the mare’s ear there was a twig of sloe tree, and as he threw it behind him there sprung up twenty miles of thornwood so thick that scarce a weasel could go through it.
1	And	and	CCONJ	CC	_	8	cc	_	_
2	in	in	ADP	IN	_	6	case	_	_
3	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	4	det	_	_
4	mare	mare	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	6	nmod:poss	_	SpaceAfter=No
5	’s	's	PART	POS	_	4	case	_	_
6	ear	ear	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	8	obl	_	_
7	there	there	PRON	EX	PronType=Dem	8	expl	_	_
8	was	be	AUX	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	30	cop	_	_
9	a	a	DET	DT	Definite=Ind|PronType=Art	10	det	_	_
10	twig	twig	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	8	nsubj	_	_
11	of	of	ADP	IN	_	13	case	_	_
12	sloe	sloe	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	13	compound	_	_
13	tree	tree	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	10	nmod	_	SpaceAfter=No
14	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	30	punct	_	_
15	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	30	cc	_	_
16	as	as	SCONJ	IN	_	18	mark	_	_
17	he	he	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	18	nsubj	_	_
18	threw	throw	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	30	advcl	_	_
19	it	it	PRON	PRP	Case=Acc|Gender=Neut|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	18	obj	_	_
20	behind	behind	ADP	IN	_	21	case	_	_
21	him	he	PRON	PRP	Case=Acc|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	18	obl	_	_
22	there	there	ADV	RB	PronType=Dem	23	advmod	_	_
23	sprung	spring	VERB	VBN	Tense=Past|VerbForm=Part|Voice=Pass	18	advcl	_	_
24	up	up	ADP	RP	_	23	compound:prt	_	_
25	twenty	twenty	NUM	CD	NumForm=Word|NumType=Card	26	nummod	_	_
26	miles	mile	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	18	obj	_	_
27	of	of	ADP	IN	_	28	case	_	_
28	thornwood	thornwood	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	26	nmod	_	_
29	so	so	ADV	RB	_	30	advmod	_	_
30	thick	thick	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	0	root	_	_
31	that	that	SCONJ	IN	_	32	mark	_	_
32	scarce	scarce	VERB	VBP	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=2|Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Fin	30	advcl	_	_
33	a	a	DET	DT	Definite=Ind|PronType=Art	34	det	_	_
34	weasel	weasel	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	36	nsubj	_	_
35	could	could	AUX	MD	VerbForm=Fin	36	aux	_	_
36	go	go	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	32	ccomp	_	_
37	through	through	ADP	IN	_	38	case	_	_
38	it	it	PRON	PRP	Case=Acc|Gender=Neut|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	36	obl	_	SpaceAfter=No
39	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	30	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

<!-- .fr -->
| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **throw** | past | twig | ear |  |  |  | behind breath | tree rules |
| 2 | **spring up** | participle | twig *not said here* |  |  | there |  |  | vn appear-48.1.1 «NP V»: agent=Theme |
| 3 | **is** | past |  |  |  |  |  | thick *property* | tree rules |
| 4 | **scarce** | present |  |  |  |  |  |  | tree rules |
| 5 | **go** | could | a weasel |  |  | ear |  |  | vn escape-51.1-1 «NP V PP.initial\_location»: agent=Theme through it=Initial\_Location |

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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 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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