---
title: For, no sooner had he flashed it before their eyes than down they fe… — The Blue Fairy Book · tree and pragmatics
description: For, no sooner had he flashed it before their eyes than down they fell at his feet quite helpless, and he killed them with one blow. Who acts: King, sisters. A sentence of «The Blue Fairy Book» by Andrew Lang, The Yellow Dwarf, part 3, with its dependency tree and the pragmatics of every clause.
---

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# The Blue Fairy Book, The Yellow Dwarf, part 3, sentence 61

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For, no sooner had he flashed it before their eyes than down they fell at his feet quite helpless, and he killed them with one blow.

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**Who acts:** King, sisters · **What happens:** have, flash, fall, kill · **To what, where:** memory, feet, sisters

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This is a sentence of «The Blue Fairy Book» by Andrew Lang, The Yellow Dwarf, part 3. The page gives its syntax tree — a dependency tree in the style of Universal Dependencies — and its pragmatics clause by clause: who acts (King, sisters), 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:pg503:7:61
# text = For, no sooner had he flashed it before their eyes than down they fell at his feet quite helpless, and he killed them with one blow.
1	For	for	SCONJ	IN	_	5	mark	_	SpaceAfter=No
2	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	5	punct	_	_
3	no	no	DET	DT	PronType=Neg	4	det	_	_
4	sooner	soon	ADV	RBR	Degree=Cmp	5	advmod	_	_
5	had	have	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=1|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	7	advcl	_	_
6	he	he	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	7	nsubj	_	_
7	flashed	flash	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	0	root	_	_
8	it	it	PRON	PRP	Case=Acc|Gender=Neut|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	7	obj	_	_
9	before	before	ADP	IN	_	11	case	_	_
10	their	their	PRON	PRP$	Case=Gen|Number=Plur|Person=3|Poss=Yes|PronType=Prs	11	nmod:poss	_	_
11	eyes	eye	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	7	obl	_	_
12	than	than	SCONJ	IN	_	15	mark	_	_
13	down	down	ADP	IN	_	15	mark	_	_
14	they	they	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Number=Plur|Person=3|PronType=Prs	15	nsubj	_	_
15	fell	fall	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Plur|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	7	advcl	_	_
16	at	at	ADP	IN	_	18	case	_	_
17	his	his	PRON	PRP$	Case=Gen|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|Poss=Yes|PronType=Prs	18	nmod:poss	_	_
18	feet	foot	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	15	obl	_	_
19	quite	quite	ADV	RB	_	20	advmod	_	_
20	helpless	helpless	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	18	amod	_	SpaceAfter=No
21	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	24	punct	_	_
22	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	24	cc	_	_
23	he	he	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	24	nsubj	_	_
24	killed	kill	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	7	conj	_	_
25	them	they	PRON	PRP	Case=Acc|Number=Plur|Person=3|PronType=Prs	24	obj	_	_
26	with	with	ADP	IN	_	28	case	_	_
27	one	one	NUM	CD	NumForm=Word|NumType=Card	28	nummod	_	_
28	blow	blow	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	24	obl	_	SpaceAfter=No
29	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	7	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

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| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **have** | past | King *not said here* |  |  |  |  | soon *property* | vn birth-28.2-1 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent |
| 2 | **flash** | past | King | memory |  |  | before sisters's eyes |  | vn light\_emission-43.1 «NP V NP.theme»: agent=Agent it=Theme |
| 3 | **fall** | past | sisters *= sister* |  |  | King's feet |  |  | vn occur-48.3 «NP V PP»: agent=Theme at foot=Location |
| 4 | **kill** | past | King | sisters *= sister* |  |  |  | with one blow | vn murder-42.1-1 «NP V NP PP.instrument»: agent=Agent they=Patient with blow=Instrument |

<!-- .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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