---
title: The next day the sorcerer, tied to the tail of a savage mule loaded… — The Blue Fairy Book · tree and pragmatics
description: The next day the sorcerer, tied to the tail of a savage mule loaded with nuts, was broken into as many pieces as there were nuts upon the mule’s back. Who acts: nuts. 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 229

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The next day the sorcerer, tied to the tail of a savage mule loaded with nuts, was broken into as many pieces as there were nuts upon the mule’s back.

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**Who acts:** nuts · **What happens:** tie, load, break, be · **To what, where:** sorcerer, savage mule, back

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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 (nuts), 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:pg503:2:229
# text = The next day the sorcerer, tied to the tail of a savage mule loaded with nuts, was broken into as many pieces as there were nuts upon the mule’s back.
1	The	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	3	det	_	_
2	next	next	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	3	amod	_	_
3	day	day	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	20	obl:unmarked	_	_
4	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	5	det	_	_
5	sorcerer	sorcerer	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	3	appos	_	SpaceAfter=No
6	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	7	punct	_	_
7	tied	tie	VERB	VBN	Tense=Past|VerbForm=Part|Voice=Pass	5	acl	_	_
8	to	to	ADP	IN	_	10	case	_	_
9	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	10	det	_	_
10	tail	tail	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	7	obl	_	_
11	of	of	ADP	IN	_	14	case	_	_
12	a	a	DET	DT	Definite=Ind|PronType=Art	14	det	_	_
13	savage	savage	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	14	amod	_	_
14	mule	mule	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	10	nmod	_	_
15	loaded	load	VERB	VBN	Tense=Past|VerbForm=Part|Voice=Pass	14	acl	_	_
16	with	with	ADP	IN	_	17	case	_	_
17	nuts	nut	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	15	obl	_	SpaceAfter=No
18	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	3	punct	_	_
19	was	be	AUX	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	20	aux:pass	_	_
20	broken	break	VERB	VBN	Tense=Past|VerbForm=Part|Voice=Pass	0	root	_	_
21	into	into	ADP	IN	_	20	case	_	_
22	as	as	ADP	IN	_	24	case	_	_
23	many	many	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	24	amod	_	_
24	pieces	piece	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	20	obl	_	_
25	as	as	SCONJ	IN	_	27	mark	_	_
26	there	there	PRON	EX	PronType=Dem	27	expl	_	_
27	were	be	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Plur|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	20	advcl	_	_
28	nuts	nut	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	27	nsubj	_	_
29	upon	upon	ADP	IN	_	33	case	_	_
30	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	31	det	_	_
31	mule	mule	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	33	nmod:poss	_	SpaceAfter=No
32	’s	's	PART	POS	_	31	case	_	_
33	back	back	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	27	obl	_	SpaceAfter=No
34	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	20	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

<!-- .fr -->
| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **tie** | participle |  | the sorcerer *not said here* |  |  |  | to the tail of a savage mule | vn mix-22.1-2 «NP V ADVP-Middle PP»: agent=Patient to tail=Co-Patient |
| 2 | **load** | participle |  | a savage mule *not said here* |  |  |  | with nuts | vn spray-9.7-2 «NP V NP.destination PP.theme»: agent=Agent with nut=Theme |
| 3 | **break** | past · passive |  |  |  |  | day | as many pieces | vn hurt-40.8.3-1-1 «NP V» |
| 4 | **be** | past | nuts |  |  | the mule's back; there |  |  | vn exist-47.1 «NP V PP.location»: agent=Theme upon back=Location |

<!-- .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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