---
title: There three knights caught his feet unawares and plunged him into th… — The Lilac Fairy Book · tree and pragmatics
description: There three knights caught his feet unawares and plunged him into the water, while one snatched the razor from him, and another seized the scissors. Who acts: three knights, one, another. A sentence of «The Lilac Fairy Book» by Andrew Lang, The Lilac Fairy Book, part 40, with its dependency tree and
---

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# The Lilac Fairy Book, The Lilac Fairy Book, part 40, sentence 7

<!-- .ven lang=en -->
There three knights caught his feet unawares and plunged him into the water, while one snatched the razor from him, and another seized the scissors.

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**Who acts:** three knights, one, another · **What happens:** catch, plunge, snatch, seize · **To what, where:** feet unawares, boar, water, razor, scissors

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This is a sentence of «The Lilac Fairy Book» by Andrew Lang, The Lilac Fairy Book, part 40. The page gives its syntax tree — a dependency tree in the style of Universal Dependencies — and its pragmatics clause by clause: who acts (three knights, one, another), 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:pg3454:40:7
# text = There three knights caught his feet unawares and plunged him into the water, while one snatched the razor from him, and another seized the scissors.
1	There	there	PRON	EX	PronType=Dem	4	expl	_	_
2	three	three	NUM	CD	NumForm=Word|NumType=Card	3	nummod	_	_
3	knights	knight	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	4	nsubj	_	_
4	caught	catch	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	0	root	_	_
5	his	his	PRON	PRP$	Case=Gen|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|Poss=Yes|PronType=Prs	6	nmod:poss	_	_
6	feet	foot	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	7	compound	_	_
7	unawares	unaware	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	4	obj	_	_
8	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	9	cc	_	_
9	plunged	plunge	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Plur|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	4	conj	_	_
10	him	he	PRON	PRP	Case=Acc|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	9	obj	_	_
11	into	into	ADP	IN	_	13	case	_	_
12	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	13	det	_	_
13	water	water	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	9	obl	_	SpaceAfter=No
14	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	17	punct	_	_
15	while	while	SCONJ	IN	_	17	mark	_	_
16	one	one	NUM	CD	NumForm=Word|NumType=Card	17	nsubj	_	_
17	snatched	snatch	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	4	conj	_	_
18	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	19	det	_	_
19	razor	razor	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	17	obj	_	_
20	from	from	ADP	IN	_	21	case	_	_
21	him	he	PRON	PRP	Case=Acc|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	17	obl	_	SpaceAfter=No
22	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	25	punct	_	_
23	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	25	cc	_	_
24	another	another	PRON	DT	PronType=Ind	25	nsubj	_	_
25	seized	seize	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	4	conj	_	_
26	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	27	det	_	_
27	scissors	scissors	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	25	obj	_	SpaceAfter=No
28	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	4	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

<!-- .fr -->
| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **catch** | past | three knights | feet unawares |  | there |  |  | vn get-13.5.1 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent unaware=Theme |
| 2 | **plunge** | past | three knights *not said here* | boar |  | the water |  |  | vn meander-47.7-1 «PP.location V NP»: agent=Location he=Theme |
| 3 | **snatch** | past | one | the razor |  |  |  | from boar | vn obtain-13.5.2 «NP V NP PP.source»: agent=Agent razor=Theme from he=Source |
| 4 | **seize** | past | another | the scissors |  |  |  |  | vn obtain-13.5.2 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent scissors=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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