---
title: The knife frees all it touches from the spells that have been laid o… — The Lilac Fairy Book · tree and pragmatics
description: The knife frees all it touches from the spells that have been laid on them; while the stick will carry you wherever you want to go. Who acts: knife, stick, you. A sentence of «The Lilac Fairy Book» by Andrew Lang, The Lilac Fairy Book, part 33, with its dependency tree and the pragmatics of every cl
---

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[Mova](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/) · [this page in HTML](https://mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg3454/33/94/)

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# The Lilac Fairy Book, The Lilac Fairy Book, part 33, sentence 94

<!-- .ven lang=en -->
The knife frees all it touches from the spells that have been laid on them; while the stick will carry you wherever you want to go.

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**Who acts:** knife, stick, you · **What happens:** free, touch, lay, carry, want, go · **To what, where:** spells, you

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This is a sentence of «The Lilac Fairy Book» by Andrew Lang, The Lilac Fairy Book, part 33. The page gives its syntax tree — a dependency tree in the style of Universal Dependencies — and its pragmatics clause by clause: who acts (knife, stick, you), 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:pg3454:33:94
# text = The knife frees all it touches from the spells that have been laid on them; while the stick will carry you wherever you want to go.
1	The	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	2	det	_	_
2	knife	knife	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	3	nsubj	_	_
3	frees	free	VERB	VBZ	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Fin	0	root	_	_
4	all	all	ADV	RB	_	6	advmod	_	_
5	it	it	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Gender=Neut|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	6	nsubj	_	_
6	touches	touch	VERB	VBZ	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Fin	3	advcl	_	_
7	from	from	ADP	IN	_	9	case	_	_
8	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	9	det	_	_
9	spells	spell	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	6	obl	_	_
10	that	that	PRON	WDT	PronType=Rel	13	nsubj:pass	_	_
11	have	have	AUX	VBP	Mood=Ind|Number=Plur|Person=3|Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Fin	13	aux	_	_
12	been	be	AUX	VBN	Tense=Past|VerbForm=Part	13	aux:pass	_	_
13	laid	lay	VERB	VBN	Tense=Past|VerbForm=Part|Voice=Pass	9	acl:relcl	_	_
14	on	on	ADP	IN	_	15	case	_	_
15	them	they	PRON	PRP	Case=Acc|Number=Plur|Person=3|PronType=Prs	13	obl	_	SpaceAfter=No
16	;	;	PUNCT	,	_	21	punct	_	_
17	while	while	SCONJ	IN	_	21	mark	_	_
18	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	19	det	_	_
19	stick	stick	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	21	nsubj	_	_
20	will	will	AUX	MD	VerbForm=Fin	21	aux	_	_
21	carry	carry	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	3	conj	_	_
22	you	you	PRON	PRP	Case=Acc|Person=2|PronType=Prs	21	obj	_	_
23	wherever	wherever	ADV	WRB	PronType=Int	25	advmod	_	_
24	you	you	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Person=2|PronType=Prs	25	nsubj	_	_
25	want	want	VERB	VBP	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=2|Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Fin	21	advcl	_	_
26	to	to	PART	TO	_	27	mark	_	_
27	go	go	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	25	xcomp	_	SpaceAfter=No
28	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	3	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

<!-- .fr -->
| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **free** | present | the knife |  |  |  |  |  | vn free-10.6.3-1 «NP V NP S\_ING»: agent=Causer |
| 2 | **touch** | present | knife |  |  | the spells |  | all *property* | vn contiguous\_location-47.8-1 «NP V»: agent=Theme |
| 3 | **lay** | present · perfect · passive |  | the spells |  |  |  | on spells *= spell* | vn put\_spatial-9.2 «NP V NP PP.destination»: subject=Theme on they=Destination |
| 4 | **carry** | future | the stick | you |  |  |  |  | vn carry-11.4 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent you=Theme |
| 5 | **want** | present | you |  |  |  |  | wherever *property* | vn want-32.1-1-1 «NP V NP S\_INF»: agent=Pivot clause=Theme |
| 6 | **go** *not said to happen* | to-infinitive | you *not said here* |  |  |  |  |  | vn disappearance-48.2-1 «NP V»: agent=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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