---
title: It took him but a short time to cut a road through the blackthorn, a… — The Lilac Fairy Book · tree and pragmatics
description: It took him but a short time to cut a road through the blackthorn, and then he laid the axe and the knife under a tree. Who acts: It, short time, breath. A sentence of «The Lilac Fairy Book» by Andrew Lang, The Lilac Fairy Book, part 29, with its dependency tree and the pragmatics of every clause.
---

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# The Lilac Fairy Book, The Lilac Fairy Book, part 29, sentence 55

<!-- .ven lang=en -->
It took him but a short time to cut a road through the blackthorn, and then he laid the axe and the knife under a tree.

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**Who acts:** It, short time, breath · **What happens:** take, cut, lay · **To what, where:** breath, road, blackthorn, axe, tree

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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 (It, short time, breath), 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:pg3454:29:55
# text = It took him but a short time to cut a road through the blackthorn, and then he laid the axe and the knife under a tree.
1	It	it	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Gender=Neut|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	2	nsubj	_	_
2	took	take	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	0	root	_	_
3	him	he	PRON	PRP	Case=Acc|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	2	obj	_	_
4	but	but	CCONJ	CC	_	9	cc	_	_
5	a	a	DET	DT	Definite=Ind|PronType=Art	7	det	_	_
6	short	short	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	7	amod	_	_
7	time	time	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	9	nsubj	_	_
8	to	to	PART	TO	_	9	mark	_	_
9	cut	cut	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	2	conj	_	_
10	a	a	DET	DT	Definite=Ind|PronType=Art	11	det	_	_
11	road	road	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	9	obj	_	_
12	through	through	ADP	IN	_	14	case	_	_
13	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	14	det	_	_
14	blackthorn	blackthorn	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	9	obl	_	SpaceAfter=No
15	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	19	punct	_	_
16	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	19	cc	_	_
17	then	then	ADV	RB	PronType=Dem	19	advmod	_	_
18	he	he	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	19	nsubj	_	_
19	laid	lay	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	2	conj	_	_
20	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	21	det	_	_
21	axe	axe	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	19	obj	_	_
22	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	24	cc	_	_
23	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	24	det	_	_
24	knife	knife	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	21	conj	_	_
25	under	under	ADP	IN	_	27	case	_	_
26	a	a	DET	DT	Definite=Ind|PronType=Art	27	det	_	_
27	tree	tree	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	19	obl	_	SpaceAfter=No
28	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	2	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

<!-- .fr -->
| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **take** | past | It |  | breath |  |  |  | vn bring-11.3 «NP V NP ADVP»: agent=Instrument he=Destination |
| 2 | **cut** | to-infinitive | a short time | a road |  | the blackthorn |  |  | vn build-26.1-1 «NP.asset V NP»: agent=Asset road=Product |
| 3 | **lay** | past | breath | the axe and the knife |  | a tree | then |  | vn put\_spatial-9.2 «NP V NP PP.destination»: agent=Agent axe=Theme under tree=Destination |

<!-- .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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