---
title: The twigs cracked and the flame blazed up, and a slim yellow dog pus… — The Lilac Fairy Book · tree and pragmatics
description: The twigs cracked and the flame blazed up, and a slim yellow dog pushed through the bushes and laid his head on the king’s knee, and the king stroked his head. Who acts: twigs, flame, slim yellow dog, king. A sentence of «The Lilac Fairy Book» by Andrew Lang, The Lilac Fairy Book, part 9, with its d
---

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# The Lilac Fairy Book, The Lilac Fairy Book, part 9, sentence 69

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The twigs cracked and the flame blazed up, and a slim yellow dog pushed through the bushes and laid his head on the king’s knee, and the king stroked his head.

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**Who acts:** twigs, flame, slim yellow dog, king · **What happens:** crack, blaze up, push, lay, stroke · **To what, where:** slim yellow dog, bushes, head, knee

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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 (twigs, flame, slim yellow dog, king), 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:pg3454:9:69
# text = The twigs cracked and the flame blazed up, and a slim yellow dog pushed through the bushes and laid his head on the king’s knee, and the king stroked his head.
1	The	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	2	det	_	_
2	twigs	twig	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	3	nsubj	_	_
3	cracked	crack	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	0	root	_	_
4	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	7	cc	_	_
5	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	6	det	_	_
6	flame	flame	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	7	nsubj	_	_
7	blazed	blaze	VERB	VBN	Tense=Past|VerbForm=Part|Voice=Pass	3	conj	_	_
8	up	up	ADP	RP	_	7	compound:prt	_	SpaceAfter=No
9	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	20	punct	_	_
10	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	20	cc	_	_
11	a	a	DET	DT	Definite=Ind|PronType=Art	14	det	_	_
12	slim	slim	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	14	amod	_	_
13	yellow	yellow	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	14	amod	_	_
14	dog	dog	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	20	nsubj	_	_
15	pushed	push	VERB	VBN	Tense=Past|VerbForm=Part|Voice=Pass	14	acl	_	_
16	through	through	ADP	IN	_	18	case	_	_
17	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	18	det	_	_
18	bushes	bush	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	15	obl	_	_
19	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	15	cc	_	_
20	laid	lay	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	3	conj	_	_
21	his	his	PRON	PRP$	Case=Gen|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|Poss=Yes|PronType=Prs	22	nmod:poss	_	_
22	head	head	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	20	obj	_	_
23	on	on	ADP	IN	_	27	case	_	_
24	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	25	det	_	_
25	king	king	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	27	nmod:poss	_	SpaceAfter=No
26	’s	's	PART	POS	_	25	case	_	_
27	knee	knee	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	20	obl	_	SpaceAfter=No
28	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	32	punct	_	_
29	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	32	cc	_	_
30	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	31	det	_	_
31	king	king	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	32	nsubj	_	_
32	stroked	stroke	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	3	conj	_	_
33	his	his	PRON	PRP$	Case=Gen|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|Poss=Yes|PronType=Prs	34	nmod:poss	_	_
34	head	head	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	32	obj	_	SpaceAfter=No
35	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	3	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

<!-- .fr -->
| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **crack** | past | the twigs |  |  |  |  |  | vn sound\_emission-43.2 «NP V»: agent=Theme |
| 2 | **blaze up** | participle | the flame |  |  |  |  |  | vn light\_emission-43.1 «NP V»: agent=Theme |
| 3 | **push** | participle |  | a slim yellow dog *not said here* |  | the bushes |  |  | vn push-12-1-1 «NP V PP.trajectory»: agent=Agent through bush=Trajectory |
| 4 | **lay** | past | a slim yellow dog | dog's head |  | the king's knee |  |  | vn put\_spatial-9.2 «NP V NP PP.destination»: agent=Agent head=Theme on knee=Destination |
| 5 | **stroke** | past | the king | dog's head |  |  |  |  | vn touch-20-1 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent head=Experiencer |

<!-- .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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