---
title: Thereupon he seized them by the scruff of their necks, lifted them o… — The Blue Fairy Book · tree and pragmatics
description: Thereupon he seized them by the scruff of their necks, lifted them on to the carving bench, and screwed down their paws firmly. Who acts: friend. A sentence of «The Blue Fairy Book» by Andrew Lang, The Tale of a Youth Who Set Out to Learn What Fear Was, with its dependency tree and the pragmatics of
---

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# The Blue Fairy Book, The Tale of a Youth Who Set Out to Learn What Fear Was, sentence 99

<!-- .ven lang=en -->
Thereupon he seized them by the scruff of their necks, lifted them on to the carving bench, and screwed down their paws firmly.

<!-- .vintro -->
**Who acts:** friend · **What happens:** seize, lift on, carve, screw down · **To what, where:** nails, carving bench, paws

<!-- .vabout -->
This is a sentence of «The Blue Fairy Book» by Andrew Lang, The Tale of a Youth Who Set Out to Learn What Fear Was. The page gives its syntax tree — a dependency tree in the style of Universal Dependencies — and its pragmatics clause by clause: who acts (friend), 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:pg503:13:99
# text = Thereupon he seized them by the scruff of their necks, lifted them on to the carving bench, and screwed down their paws firmly.
1	Thereupon	thereupon	ADV	RB	_	3	advmod	_	_
2	he	he	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	3	nsubj	_	_
3	seized	seize	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	0	root	_	_
4	them	they	PRON	PRP	Case=Acc|Number=Plur|Person=3|PronType=Prs	3	obj	_	_
5	by	by	ADP	IN	_	7	case	_	_
6	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	7	det	_	_
7	scruff	scruff	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	3	obl	_	_
8	of	of	ADP	IN	_	10	case	_	_
9	their	their	PRON	PRP$	Case=Gen|Number=Plur|Person=3|Poss=Yes|PronType=Prs	10	nmod:poss	_	_
10	necks	neck	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	7	nmod	_	SpaceAfter=No
11	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	12	punct	_	_
12	lifted	lift	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	3	conj	_	_
13	them	they	PRON	PRP	Case=Acc|Number=Plur|Person=3|PronType=Prs	12	obj	_	_
14	on	on	ADP	RP	_	12	compound:prt	_	_
15	to	to	ADP	IN	_	18	case	_	_
16	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	18	det	_	_
17	carving	carve	VERB	VBG	VerbForm=Ger	18	amod	_	_
18	bench	bench	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	12	obl	_	SpaceAfter=No
19	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	21	punct	_	_
20	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	21	cc	_	_
21	screwed	screw	VERB	VBN	Tense=Past|VerbForm=Part|Voice=Pass	12	conj	_	_
22	down	down	ADP	RP	_	21	compound:prt	_	_
23	their	their	PRON	PRP$	Case=Gen|Number=Plur|Person=3|Poss=Yes|PronType=Prs	24	nmod:poss	_	_
24	paws	paw	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	21	obj	_	_
25	firmly	firmly	ADV	RB	_	21	advmod	_	SpaceAfter=No
26	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	3	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

<!-- .fr -->
| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **seize** | past | friend | nails *= nail* |  |  |  | by the scruff of nails's necks; thereupon *property* | vn obtain-13.5.2 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent they=Theme |
| 2 | **lift on** | past | friend *not said here* | nails *= nail* |  | the carving bench |  |  | vn put\_direction-9.4 «NP V NP PP.destination»: agent=Agent they=Theme to bench=Destination |
| 3 | **carve** | gerund |  |  |  |  |  |  | vn scribble-25.2-1 «NP V»: agent=Agent |
| 4 | **screw down** | participle | friend *not said here* | nails's paws |  |  |  | firmly *property* | vn tape-22.4 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent paw=Patient |

<!-- .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 Blue Fairy Book» by Andrew Lang, Project Gutenberg book 503 (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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