---
title: A unicorn is running about loose in the wood, and doing much mischie… — The Blue Fairy Book · tree and pragmatics
description: A unicorn is running about loose in the wood, and doing much mischief; you must first catch it.” Who acts: unicorn, you. A sentence of «The Blue Fairy Book» by Andrew Lang, The Brave Little Tailor, with its dependency tree and the pragmatics of every clause.
---

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# The Blue Fairy Book, The Brave Little Tailor, sentence 110

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A unicorn is running about loose in the wood, and doing much mischief; you must first catch it.”

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**Who acts:** unicorn, you · **What happens:** run, do, catch · **To what, where:** much mischief, mischief

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This is a sentence of «The Blue Fairy Book» by Andrew Lang, The Brave Little Tailor. The page gives its syntax tree — a dependency tree in the style of Universal Dependencies — and its pragmatics clause by clause: who acts (unicorn, you), 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:pg503:42:110
# text = A unicorn is running about loose in the wood, and doing much mischief; you must first catch it.”
1	A	a	DET	DT	Definite=Ind|PronType=Art	2	det	_	_
2	unicorn	unicorn	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	4	nsubj	_	_
3	is	be	AUX	VBZ	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Fin	4	aux	_	_
4	running	run	VERB	VBG	Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Part	0	root	_	_
5	about	about	ADP	IN	_	6	case	_	_
6	loose	loose	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	4	obl	_	_
7	in	in	ADP	IN	_	9	case	_	_
8	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	9	det	_	_
9	wood	wood	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	6	obl	_	SpaceAfter=No
10	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	12	punct	_	_
11	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	12	cc	_	_
12	doing	do	VERB	VBG	Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Part	4	conj	_	_
13	much	much	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	14	amod	_	_
14	mischief	mischief	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	12	obj	_	SpaceAfter=No
15	;	;	PUNCT	:	_	19	punct	_	_
16	you	you	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Person=2|PronType=Prs	19	nsubj	_	_
17	must	must	AUX	MD	VerbForm=Fin	19	aux	_	_
18	first	first	ADV	RB	NumForm=Word|NumType=Ord	19	advmod	_	_
19	catch	catch	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	4	conj	_	_
20	it	it	PRON	PRP	Case=Acc|Gender=Neut|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	19	obj	_	SpaceAfter=No
21	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	19	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
22	”	"	PUNCT	''	_	19	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

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| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **run** | present · progressive | a unicorn |  |  |  |  | about loose | vn run-51.3.2-2-1 «NP V PP.location»: agent=Theme about loose=Trajectory |
| 2 | **do** | gerund | a unicorn *not said here* | much mischief |  |  |  |  | vn act-114-1 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent mischief=Eventuality |
| 3 | **catch** | must | you | mischief |  |  |  | first *property* | vn get-13.5.1 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent it=Theme |

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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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