---
title: Then I took four other sticks, and tied them parallel at each corner… — The Blue Fairy Book · tree and pragmatics
description: Then I took four other sticks, and tied them parallel at each corner, about two feet from the ground. Who acts: I. 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 7

<!-- .ven lang=en -->
Then I took four other sticks, and tied them parallel at each corner, about two feet from the ground.

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**Who acts:** I · **What happens:** take, tie · **To what, where:** four other sticks, sticks, corner

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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 (I), 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:pg503:45:7
# text = Then I took four other sticks, and tied them parallel at each corner, about two feet from the ground.
1	Then	then	ADV	RB	PronType=Dem	3	advmod	_	_
2	I	I	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Number=Sing|Person=1|PronType=Prs	3	nsubj	_	_
3	took	take	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=1|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	0	root	_	_
4	four	four	NUM	CD	NumForm=Word|NumType=Card	6	nummod	_	_
5	other	other	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	6	amod	_	_
6	sticks	stick	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	3	obj	_	SpaceAfter=No
7	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	9	punct	_	_
8	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	9	cc	_	_
9	tied	tie	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=1|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	3	conj	_	_
10	them	they	PRON	PRP	Case=Acc|Number=Plur|Person=3|PronType=Prs	9	obj	_	_
11	parallel	parallel	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	9	xcomp	_	_
12	at	at	ADP	IN	_	14	case	_	_
13	each	each	DET	DT	PronType=Tot	14	det	_	_
14	corner	corner	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	9	obl	_	SpaceAfter=No
15	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	18	punct	_	_
16	about	about	ADV	RB	_	17	advmod	_	_
17	two	two	NUM	CD	NumForm=Word|NumType=Card	18	nummod	_	_
18	feet	foot	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	14	conj	_	_
19	from	from	ADP	IN	_	21	case	_	_
20	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	21	det	_	_
21	ground	ground	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	18	nmod	_	SpaceAfter=No
22	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	3	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

<!-- .fr -->
| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **take** | past | I | four other sticks |  |  | then |  | vn bring-11.3 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent stick=Theme |
| 2 | **tie** | past | I *not said here* | sticks *= stick* |  | each corner and two feet from the ground |  | parallel *property* | vn mix-22.1-2 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent they=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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