---
title: He then took a great knife, and, coming up to these poor children, w… — The Blue Fairy Book · tree and pragmatics
description: He then took a great knife, and, coming up to these poor children, whetted it upon a great whet-stone which he held in his left hand. Who acts: ogre, great whet stone. A sentence of «The Blue Fairy Book» by Andrew Lang, Little Thumb, with its dependency tree and the pragmatics of every clause.
---

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# The Blue Fairy Book, Little Thumb, sentence 81

<!-- .ven lang=en -->
He then took a great knife, and, coming up to these poor children, whetted it upon a great whet-stone which he held in his left hand.

<!-- .vintro -->
**Who acts:** ogre, great whet stone · **What happens:** take, come up, whet, hold · **To what, where:** great knife, knife, left hand

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This is a sentence of «The Blue Fairy Book» by Andrew Lang, Little Thumb. The page gives its syntax tree — a dependency tree in the style of Universal Dependencies — and its pragmatics clause by clause: who acts (ogre, great whet stone), 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:pg503:33:81
# text = He then took a great knife, and, coming up to these poor children, whetted it upon a great whet-stone which he held in his left hand.
1	He	he	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	3	nsubj	_	_
2	then	then	ADV	RB	PronType=Dem	3	advmod	_	_
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	great	great	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	6	amod	_	_
6	knife	knife	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	3	obj	_	SpaceAfter=No
7	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	10	punct	_	_
8	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	10	cc	_	SpaceAfter=No
9	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	10	punct	_	_
10	coming	come	VERB	VBG	Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Part	3	conj	_	_
11	up	up	ADP	RP	_	10	compound:prt	_	_
12	to	to	ADP	IN	_	15	case	_	_
13	these	this	DET	DT	Number=Plur|PronType=Dem	15	det	_	_
14	poor	poor	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	15	amod	_	_
15	children	child	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	10	obl	_	SpaceAfter=No
16	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	17	punct	_	_
17	whetted	whet	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	3	conj	_	_
18	it	it	PRON	PRP	Case=Acc|Gender=Neut|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	17	obj	_	_
19	upon	upon	ADP	IN	_	24	case	_	_
20	a	a	DET	DT	Definite=Ind|PronType=Art	24	det	_	_
21	great	great	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	24	amod	_	_
22	whet	whet	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	24	compound	_	SpaceAfter=No
23	-	-	PUNCT	HYPH	_	22	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
24	stone	stone	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	17	obl	_	_
25	which	which	PRON	WDT	PronType=Rel	27	nsubj	_	_
26	he	he	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	27	nsubj	_	_
27	held	hold	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	24	acl:relcl	_	_
28	in	in	ADP	IN	_	31	case	_	_
29	his	his	PRON	PRP$	Case=Gen|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|Poss=Yes|PronType=Prs	31	nmod:poss	_	_
30	left	left	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	31	amod	_	_
31	hand	hand	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	27	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 | ogre | a great knife |  |  | then |  | vn bring-11.3 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent knife=Theme |
| 2 | **come up** | gerund | ogre *not said here* |  |  |  |  | to this poor children | vn escape-51.1-1 «NP V PP.initial\_location»: agent=Theme to child=Initial\_Location |
| 3 | **whet** | past | ogre *not said here* | knife |  |  |  | upon a great whet stone | tree rules |
| 4 | **hold** | past | a great whet stone |  |  | ogre's left hand |  |  | vn exist-47.1 «NP V PP.location»: agent=Theme in hand=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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