---
title: But the sword slid swiftly and silently along the case till only the… — The Lilac Fairy Book · tree and pragmatics
description: But the sword slid swiftly and silently along the case till only the point was left touching it. Who acts: sword, point. A sentence of «The Lilac Fairy Book» by Andrew Lang, The Lilac Fairy Book, part 9, with its dependency tree and the pragmatics of every clause.
---

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# The Lilac Fairy Book, The Lilac Fairy Book, part 9, sentence 26

<!-- .ven lang=en -->
But the sword slid swiftly and silently along the case till only the point was left touching it.

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**Who acts:** sword, point · **What happens:** slide, leave, touch · **To what, where:** case, point, Sword

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This is a sentence of «The Lilac Fairy Book» by Andrew Lang, The Lilac Fairy Book, part 9. The page gives its syntax tree — a dependency tree in the style of Universal Dependencies — and its pragmatics clause by clause: who acts (sword, point), 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:pg3454:9:26
# text = But the sword slid swiftly and silently along the case till only the point was left touching it.
1	But	but	CCONJ	CC	_	4	cc	_	_
2	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	3	det	_	_
3	sword	sword	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	4	nsubj	_	_
4	slid	slide	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	0	root	_	_
5	swiftly	swiftly	ADV	RB	_	4	advmod	_	_
6	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	7	cc	_	_
7	silently	silently	ADV	RB	_	5	conj	_	_
8	along	along	ADP	IN	_	10	case	_	_
9	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	10	det	_	_
10	case	case	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	4	obl	_	_
11	till	till	SCONJ	IN	_	16	mark	_	_
12	only	only	ADV	RB	_	14	advmod	_	_
13	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	14	det	_	_
14	point	point	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	16	nsubj:pass	_	_
15	was	be	AUX	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	16	aux:pass	_	_
16	left	leave	VERB	VBN	Tense=Past|VerbForm=Part|Voice=Pass	4	advcl	_	_
17	touching	touch	VERB	VBG	VerbForm=Ger	16	xcomp	_	_
18	it	it	PRON	PRP	Case=Acc|Gender=Neut|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	17	obj	_	SpaceAfter=No
19	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	4	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

<!-- .fr -->
| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **slide** | past | the sword |  |  | the case |  | swiftly *property* | vn run-51.3.2-2 «NP V PP.location»: agent=Theme along case=Trajectory |
| 2 | **leave** | past · passive |  | the point |  |  |  |  | tree rules |
| 3 | **touch** | gerund | the point *not said here* | Sword |  |  |  |  | vn contiguous\_location-47.8-1 «NP V NP»: agent=Theme it=Co-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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