---
title: Hardly had he reached his own house when, taking the ring, he said,… — The Blue Fairy Book · tree and pragmatics
description: Hardly had he reached his own house when, taking the ring, he said, “Bronze ring, obey thy master. Who acts: captain. A sentence of «The Blue Fairy Book» by Andrew Lang, The Bronze Ring, with its dependency tree and the pragmatics of every clause.
---

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# The Blue Fairy Book, The Bronze Ring, sentence 163

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Hardly had he reached his own house when, taking the ring, he said, “Bronze ring, obey thy master.

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**Who acts:** captain · **What happens:** reach, take, say, obey · **To what, where:** own house, ring, master · **Speech:** someone speaks here

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This is a sentence of «The Blue Fairy Book» by Andrew Lang, The Bronze Ring. The page gives its syntax tree — a dependency tree in the style of Universal Dependencies — and its pragmatics clause by clause: who acts (captain), 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:pg503:2:163
# text = Hardly had he reached his own house when, taking the ring, he said, “Bronze ring, obey thy master.
1	Hardly	hardly	ADV	RB	_	4	advmod	_	_
2	had	have	AUX	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	4	aux	_	_
3	he	he	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	4	nsubj	_	_
4	reached	reach	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	15	advcl	_	_
5	his	his	PRON	PRP$	Case=Gen|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|Poss=Yes|PronType=Prs	7	nmod:poss	_	_
6	own	own	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	7	amod	_	_
7	house	house	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	4	obj	_	_
8	when	when	ADV	WRB	PronType=Int	4	advmod	_	SpaceAfter=No
9	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	10	punct	_	_
10	taking	take	VERB	VBG	Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Part	4	advcl	_	_
11	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	12	det	_	_
12	ring	ring	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	10	obj	_	SpaceAfter=No
13	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	4	punct	_	_
14	he	he	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	15	nsubj	_	_
15	said	say	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	0	root	_	SpaceAfter=No
16	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	19	punct	_	_
17	“	"	PUNCT	``	_	19	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
18	Bronze	bronze	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	19	amod	_	_
19	ring	ring	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	15	ccomp	_	SpaceAfter=No
20	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	21	punct	_	_
21	obey	obey	VERB	VBP	Mood=Ind|Number=Plur|Person=3|Tense=Pres|Typo=Yes|VerbForm=Fin	15	conj	_	_
22	thy	thy	PRON	PRP$	Case=Gen|Number=Sing|Person=2|Poss=Yes|PronType=Prs|Style=Arch	23	nmod:poss	_	_
23	master	master	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	21	obj	_	SpaceAfter=No
24	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	15	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

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| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **reach** | past | captain | captain's own house |  |  |  | hardly *property* | vn body\_motion-49.2-1-1 «NP V NP ADV»: agent=Agent house=Theme |
| 2 | **take** | gerund | captain *not said here* | the ring |  |  |  |  | vn bring-11.3 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent ring=Theme |
| 3 | **say** *speech: assert* | past | captain |  |  |  |  |  | vn say-37.7-1-1 «NP V that S»: agent=Agent |
| 4 | **obey** *in a quote* | present | captain *not said here* | thy master |  |  |  |  | vn abide\_by-93.2 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent master=Theme |

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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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