---
title: “Then let the slaughterer cut off the head of the horse I rode here… — The Blue Fairy Book · tree and pragmatics
description: “Then let the slaughterer cut off the head of the horse I rode here upon, because it behaved very badly on the journey.” Who acts: you, slaughterer, husband. A sentence of «The Blue Fairy Book» by Andrew Lang, The Goose-girl, with its dependency tree and the pragmatics of every clause.
---

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# The Blue Fairy Book, The Goose-girl, sentence 34

<!-- .ven lang=en -->
“Then let the slaughterer cut off the head of the horse I rode here upon, because it behaved very badly on the journey.”

<!-- .vintro -->
**Who acts:** you, slaughterer, husband · **What happens:** let, cut off, ride, behave · **To what, where:** slaughterer, head, horse, journey

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This is a sentence of «The Blue Fairy Book» by Andrew Lang, The Goose-girl. The page gives its syntax tree — a dependency tree in the style of Universal Dependencies — and its pragmatics clause by clause: who acts (you, slaughterer, husband), 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:pg503:37:34
# text = “Then let the slaughterer cut off the head of the horse I rode here upon, because it behaved very badly on the journey.”
1	“	"	PUNCT	``	_	3	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
2	Then	then	ADV	RB	PronType=Dem	3	advmod	_	_
3	let	let	VERB	VB	Mood=Imp|VerbForm=Fin	0	root	_	_
4	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	5	det	_	_
5	slaughterer	slaughterer	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	3	obj	_	_
6	cut	cut	VERB	VBN	Tense=Past|VerbForm=Part|Voice=Pass	5	acl	_	_
7	off	off	ADP	IN	_	9	case	_	_
8	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	9	det	_	_
9	head	head	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	6	obl	_	_
10	of	of	ADP	IN	_	12	case	_	_
11	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	12	det	_	_
12	horse	horse	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	9	nmod	_	_
13	I	I	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Number=Sing|Person=1|PronType=Prs	14	nsubj	_	_
14	rode	ride	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=1|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	12	acl:relcl	_	_
15	here	here	ADV	RB	PronType=Dem	14	advmod	_	_
16	upon	upon	ADP	IN	_	14	obl	_	SpaceAfter=No
17	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	20	punct	_	_
18	because	because	SCONJ	IN	_	20	mark	_	_
19	it	it	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Gender=Neut|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	20	nsubj	_	_
20	behaved	behave	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	3	conj	_	_
21	very	very	ADV	RB	_	22	advmod	_	_
22	badly	badly	ADV	RB	Degree=Pos	20	advmod	_	_
23	on	on	ADP	IN	_	25	case	_	_
24	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	25	det	_	_
25	journey	journey	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	20	obl	_	SpaceAfter=No
26	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	3	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
27	”	"	PUNCT	''	_	3	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

<!-- .fr -->
| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **let** *in a quote* | imperative | you *not said here* | the slaughterer |  |  | then |  | vn give-13.1-1 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent slaughterer=Theme |
| 2 | **cut off** *in a quote* | participle | the slaughterer *not said here* | the head of the horse |  |  |  |  | vn stop-55.4-1 «NP V NP.eventuality»: agent=Affector head=Eventuality |
| 3 | **ride** *in a quote* | past | husband | the horse *not said here* |  | here |  |  | vn nonvehicle-51.4.2 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent horse=Theme |
| 4 | **behave** *in a quote* | past | slaughterer |  |  | the journey |  | badly *property* | vn masquerade-29.6-1 «NP V PP.attribute»: agent=Agent |

<!-- .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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