---
title: The King took a long step, and quite thought he had the tail under h… — The Blue Fairy Book · tree and pragmatics
description: The King took a long step, and quite thought he had the tail under his foot, but the cat turned round so sharply that he only trod on air. Who acts: King, cat. A sentence of «The Blue Fairy Book» by Andrew Lang, Prince Hyacinth and the Dear Little Princess, with its dependency tree and the pragmatic
---

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# The Blue Fairy Book, Prince Hyacinth and the Dear Little Princess, sentence 8

<!-- .ven lang=en -->
The King took a long step, and quite thought he had the tail under his foot, but the cat turned round so sharply that he only trod on air.

<!-- .vintro -->
**Who acts:** King, cat · **What happens:** take, think, have, turn round, tread · **To what, where:** long step, tail, foot, air · **Speech:** someone speaks here

<!-- .vabout -->
This is a sentence of «The Blue Fairy Book» by Andrew Lang, Prince Hyacinth and the Dear Little Princess. The page gives its syntax tree — a dependency tree in the style of Universal Dependencies — and its pragmatics clause by clause: who acts (King, cat), 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:pg503:3:8
# text = The King took a long step, and quite thought he had the tail under his foot, but the cat turned round so sharply that he only trod on air.
1	The	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	2	det	_	_
2	King	King	PROPN	NNP	Number=Sing	3	nsubj	_	_
3	took	take	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	0	root	_	_
4	a	a	DET	DT	Definite=Ind|PronType=Art	6	det	_	_
5	long	long	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	6	amod	_	_
6	step	step	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	3	obj	_	SpaceAfter=No
7	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	10	punct	_	_
8	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	10	cc	_	_
9	quite	quite	ADV	RB	_	10	advmod	_	_
10	thought	think	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	3	conj	_	_
11	he	he	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	12	nsubj	_	_
12	had	have	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	10	ccomp	_	_
13	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	14	det	_	_
14	tail	tail	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	12	obj	_	_
15	under	under	ADP	IN	_	17	case	_	_
16	his	his	PRON	PRP$	Case=Gen|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|Poss=Yes|PronType=Prs	17	nmod:poss	_	_
17	foot	foot	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	12	obl	_	SpaceAfter=No
18	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	22	punct	_	_
19	but	but	CCONJ	CC	_	22	cc	_	_
20	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	21	det	_	_
21	cat	cat	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	22	nsubj	_	_
22	turned	turn	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	3	conj	_	_
23	round	round	ADV	RB	_	22	advmod	_	_
24	so	so	ADV	RB	_	25	advmod	_	_
25	sharply	sharply	ADV	RB	_	22	advmod	_	_
26	that	that	SCONJ	IN	_	29	mark	_	_
27	he	he	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	29	nsubj	_	_
28	only	only	ADV	RB	_	29	advmod	_	_
29	trod	tread	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	22	advcl	_	_
30	on	on	ADP	IN	_	31	case	_	_
31	air	air	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	29	obl	_	SpaceAfter=No
32	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	3	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

<!-- .fr -->
| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **take** | past | the King | a long step |  |  |  |  | vn bring-11.3 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent step=Theme |
| 2 | **think** *speech: other* | past | the King *not said here* |  |  |  |  |  | vn consider-29.9-2 «NP V how S»: agent=Agent clause=Theme |
| 3 | **have** | past | king | the tail |  | king's foot |  |  | vn birth-28.2-1 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent tail=Patient |
| 4 | **turn round** | past | the cat |  |  |  |  | round, sharply *property* | vn roll-51.3.1 «NP.theme V»: agent=Theme |
| 5 | **tread** | past | king |  |  | air |  |  | vn run-51.3.2 «NP V PP.location»: agent=Theme on air=Trajectory |

<!-- .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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