---
title: Houarn sat down and took out the knife which Bellah had given him, b… — The Lilac Fairy Book · tree and pragmatics
description: Houarn sat down and took out the knife which Bellah had given him, but as soon as the blade touched the fish the enchantment ceased, and four men stood before him. Who acts: Houarn, enchantment, four men. A sentence of «The Lilac Fairy Book» by Andrew Lang, The Lilac Fairy Book, part 34, with its de
---

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[Mova](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/) · [this page in HTML](https://mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg3454/34/42/)

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# The Lilac Fairy Book, The Lilac Fairy Book, part 34, sentence 42

<!-- .ven lang=en -->
Houarn sat down and took out the knife which Bellah had given him, but as soon as the blade touched the fish the enchantment ceased, and four men stood before him.

<!-- .vintro -->
**Who acts:** Houarn, enchantment, four men · **What happens:** sit down, take out, give, touch, cease, stand · **To what, where:** knife, Houarn, fish

<!-- .vabout -->
This is a sentence of «The Lilac Fairy Book» by Andrew Lang, The Lilac Fairy Book, part 34. The page gives its syntax tree — a dependency tree in the style of Universal Dependencies — and its pragmatics clause by clause: who acts (Houarn, enchantment, four men), 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:pg3454:34:42
# text = Houarn sat down and took out the knife which Bellah had given him, but as soon as the blade touched the fish the enchantment ceased, and four men stood before him.
1	Houarn	Houarn	PROPN	NNP	Number=Sing	2	nsubj	_	_
2	sat	sit	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	0	root	_	_
3	down	down	ADP	RP	_	2	compound:prt	_	_
4	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	5	cc	_	_
5	took	take	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	2	conj	_	_
6	out	out	ADP	RP	_	5	compound:prt	_	_
7	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	8	det	_	_
8	knife	knife	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	5	obj	_	_
9	which	which	PRON	WDT	PronType=Rel	12	nsubj	_	_
10	Bellah	Bellah	PROPN	NNP	Number=Sing	12	nsubj:pass	_	_
11	had	have	AUX	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	12	aux	_	_
12	given	give	VERB	VBN	Tense=Past|VerbForm=Part|Voice=Pass	8	acl:relcl	_	_
13	him	he	PRON	PRP	Case=Acc|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	12	iobj	_	SpaceAfter=No
14	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	21	punct	_	_
15	but	but	CCONJ	CC	_	21	cc	_	_
16	as	as	ADV	RB	_	17	advmod	_	_
17	soon	soon	ADV	RB	Degree=Pos	21	advmod	_	_
18	as	as	ADP	IN	_	20	case	_	_
19	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	20	det	_	_
20	blade	blade	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	21	obl	_	_
21	touched	touch	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	2	parataxis	_	_
22	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	23	det	_	_
23	fish	fish	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	21	obj	_	_
24	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	25	det	_	_
25	enchantment	enchantment	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	26	nsubj	_	_
26	ceased	cease	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	21	conj	_	SpaceAfter=No
27	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	31	punct	_	_
28	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	31	cc	_	_
29	four	four	NUM	CD	NumForm=Word|NumType=Card	30	nummod	_	_
30	men	man	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	31	nsubj	_	_
31	stood	stand	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Plur|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	2	conj	_	_
32	before	before	ADP	IN	_	33	case	_	_
33	him	he	PRON	PRP	Case=Acc|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	31	obl	_	SpaceAfter=No
34	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	2	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

<!-- .fr -->
| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **sit down** | past | Houarn |  |  |  |  |  | vn assuming\_position-50 «NP V»: agent=Agent |
| 2 | **take out** | past | Houarn *not said here* | the knife |  |  |  |  | vn remove-10.1 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent knife=Theme |
| 3 | **give** | past · perfect · passive |  | the knife | Houarn |  |  |  | vn give-13.1-1 «NP V NP-Dative NP»: subject=Recipient he=Theme |
| 4 | **touch** | past |  | the fish |  |  |  | as the blade; soon *property* | vn contiguous\_location-47.8-1 «NP V NP»: agent=Theme fish=Co-Theme |
| 5 | **cease** | past | the enchantment |  |  |  |  |  | vn stop-55.4-1-1 «NP.eventuality V»: agent=Eventuality |
| 6 | **stand** | past | four men |  |  |  | before Houarn |  | vn assuming\_position-50 «NP V PP.location»: agent=Agent before he=Location |

<!-- .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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