---
title: Fortunately no accident happened, only once a fiery horse, pawing wi… — The Blue Fairy Book · tree and pragmatics
description: Fortunately no accident happened, only once a fiery horse, pawing with his hoof, struck a hole in my handkerchief, and overthrew his rider and himself. Who acts: accident. A sentence of «The Blue Fairy Book» by Andrew Lang, Chapter III, with its dependency tree and the pragmatics of every clause.
---

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# The Blue Fairy Book, Chapter III, sentence 12

<!-- .ven lang=en -->
Fortunately no accident happened, only once a fiery horse, pawing with his hoof, struck a hole in my handkerchief, and overthrew his rider and himself.

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**Who acts:** accident · **What happens:** happen, paw, strike, overthrow · **To what, where:** hole, handkerchief, rider

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This is a sentence of «The Blue Fairy Book» by Andrew Lang, Chapter III. The page gives its syntax tree — a dependency tree in the style of Universal Dependencies — and its pragmatics clause by clause: who acts (accident), 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:pg503:45:12
# text = Fortunately no accident happened, only once a fiery horse, pawing with his hoof, struck a hole in my handkerchief, and overthrew his rider and himself.
1	Fortunately	fortunately	ADV	RB	_	4	advmod	_	_
2	no	no	DET	DT	PronType=Neg	3	det	_	_
3	accident	accident	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	4	nsubj	_	_
4	happened	happen	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	0	root	_	SpaceAfter=No
5	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	10	punct	_	_
6	only	only	ADV	RB	_	10	advmod	_	_
7	once	once	ADV	RB	NumForm=Word|NumType=Mult	10	advmod	_	_
8	a	a	DET	DT	Definite=Ind|PronType=Art	10	det	_	_
9	fiery	fiery	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	10	amod	_	_
10	horse	horse	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	4	conj	_	SpaceAfter=No
11	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	12	punct	_	_
12	pawing	paw	VERB	VBG	Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Part	4	advcl	_	_
13	with	with	ADP	IN	_	15	case	_	_
14	his	his	PRON	PRP$	Case=Gen|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|Poss=Yes|PronType=Prs	15	nmod:poss	_	_
15	hoof	hoof	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	12	obl	_	SpaceAfter=No
16	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	17	punct	_	_
17	struck	strike	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	4	conj	_	_
18	a	a	DET	DT	Definite=Ind|PronType=Art	19	det	_	_
19	hole	hole	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	17	obj	_	_
20	in	in	ADP	IN	_	22	case	_	_
21	my	my	PRON	PRP$	Case=Gen|Number=Sing|Person=1|Poss=Yes|PronType=Prs	22	nmod:poss	_	_
22	handkerchief	handkerchief	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	19	nmod	_	SpaceAfter=No
23	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	25	punct	_	_
24	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	25	cc	_	_
25	overthrew	overthrow	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	4	parataxis	_	_
26	his	his	PRON	PRP$	Case=Gen|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|Poss=Yes|PronType=Prs	27	nmod:poss	_	_
27	rider	rider	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	25	obj	_	_
28	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	29	cc	_	_
29	himself	himself	PRON	PRP	Case=Acc|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs|Reflex=Yes	25	obl	_	SpaceAfter=No
30	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	4	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

<!-- .fr -->
| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **happen** | past | no accident |  |  |  |  | fortunately *property* | vn occur-48.3-1 «NP V»: agent=Theme |
| 2 | **paw** | gerund | no accident *not said here* |  |  |  |  | with accident's hoof | vn swat-18.2 «NP V PP PP»: agent=Agent with hoof=Instrument |
| 3 | **strike** | past | no accident *not said here* | a hole |  | my handkerchief |  |  | vn hit-18.1-1 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent hole=Patient |
| 4 | **overthrow** | past |  | accident's rider |  |  |  | accident *obl* | tree rules |

<!-- .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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