---
title: They cut Cassim’s body into four quarters, and nailed them up inside… — The Blue Fairy Book · tree and pragmatics
description: They cut Cassim’s body into four quarters, and nailed them up inside the cave, in order to frighten anyone who should venture in, and went away in search of more treasure. Who acts: sabres. A sentence of «The Blue Fairy Book» by Andrew Lang, The Forty Thieves, with its dependency tree and the pragma
---

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# The Blue Fairy Book, The Forty Thieves, sentence 50

<!-- .ven lang=en -->
They cut Cassim’s body into four quarters, and nailed them up inside the cave, in order to frighten anyone who should venture in, and went away in search of more treasure.

<!-- .vintro -->
**Who acts:** sabres · **What happens:** cut, nail up, frighten, venture, go away, search · **To what, where:** body, four quarters, sabres, cave, anyone, search

<!-- .vabout -->
This is a sentence of «The Blue Fairy Book» by Andrew Lang, The Forty Thieves. The page gives its syntax tree — a dependency tree in the style of Universal Dependencies — and its pragmatics clause by clause: who acts (sabres), 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:pg503:34:50
# text = They cut Cassim’s body into four quarters, and nailed them up inside the cave, in order to frighten anyone who should venture in, and went away in search of more treasure.
1	They	they	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Number=Plur|Person=3|PronType=Prs	2	nsubj	_	_
2	cut	cut	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Plur|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	0	root	_	_
3	Cassim	Cassim	PROPN	NNP	Number=Sing	5	nmod:poss	_	SpaceAfter=No
4	’s	's	PART	POS	_	3	case	_	_
5	body	body	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	2	obj	_	_
6	into	into	ADP	IN	_	8	case	_	_
7	four	four	NUM	CD	NumForm=Word|NumType=Card	8	nummod	_	_
8	quarters	quarter	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	2	obl	_	SpaceAfter=No
9	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	11	punct	_	_
10	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	11	cc	_	_
11	nailed	nail	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Plur|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	2	conj	_	_
12	them	they	PRON	PRP	Case=Acc|Number=Plur|Person=3|PronType=Prs	11	obj	_	_
13	up	up	ADP	RP	_	11	compound:prt	_	_
14	inside	inside	ADP	IN	_	16	case	_	_
15	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	16	det	_	_
16	cave	cave	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	11	obl	_	SpaceAfter=No
17	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	21	punct	_	_
18	in	in	SCONJ	IN	ExtPos=SCONJ	21	mark	_	_
19	order	order	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	18	fixed	_	_
20	to	to	PART	TO	_	21	mark	_	_
21	frighten	frighten	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	11	advcl	_	_
22	anyone	anyone	PRON	NN	Number=Sing|PronType=Ind	21	obj	_	_
23	who	who	PRON	WP	PronType=Rel	25	nsubj	_	_
24	should	should	AUX	MD	VerbForm=Fin	25	aux	_	_
25	venture	venture	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	22	acl:relcl	_	_
26	in	in	ADV	RB	_	25	advmod	_	SpaceAfter=No
27	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	29	punct	_	_
28	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	29	cc	_	_
29	went	go	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Plur|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	2	conj	_	_
30	away	away	ADV	RB	_	29	advmod	_	_
31	in	in	ADP	IN	_	32	case	_	_
32	search	search	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	29	obl	_	_
33	of	of	ADP	IN	_	35	case	_	_
34	more	more	ADJ	JJR	Degree=Cmp	35	amod	_	_
35	treasure	treasure	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	32	nmod	_	SpaceAfter=No
36	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	2	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

<!-- .fr -->
| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **cut** | past | sabres *= sabre* | Cassim's body |  | four quarters |  |  | vn build-26.1-1 «NP V NP.material PP.product»: agent=Agent body=Material into quarter=Product |
| 2 | **nail up** | past | sabres *= sabre* *not said here* | sabres *= sabre* |  | the cave |  |  | vn tape-22.4 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent they=Patient |
| 3 | **frighten** | to-infinitive | sabres *= sabre* *not said here* | anyone |  |  |  |  | vn amuse-31.1 «NP V NP»: agent=Stimulus anyone=Experiencer |
| 4 | **venture** | should |  |  |  |  |  |  | vn say-37.7-1 «NP V how S»: agent=Agent |
| 5 | **go away** | past | sabres *= sabre* *not said here* |  |  | search of more treasure |  | away *property* | vn occur-48.3-2 «NP V PP»: agent=Theme in search=Location |
| 6 | **search** |  |  | more treasure |  |  |  |  | nom search «act transitive»: of=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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