---
title: He fled like lightning with the harp, talking to it as he went (for… — The Red Fairy Book · tree and pragmatics
description: He fled like lightning with the harp, talking to it as he went (for he saw it was a fairy), and telling it he was the son of its old master, the knight. Who acts: Jack, harp. A sentence of «The Red Fairy Book» by Andrew Lang, ‘master! Master!’, with its dependency tree and the pragmatics of every cl
---

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# The Red Fairy Book, ‘master! Master!’, sentence 4

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He fled like lightning with the harp, talking to it as he went (for he saw it was a fairy), and telling it he was the son of its old master, the knight.

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**Who acts:** Jack, harp · **What happens:** flee, talk, go, see, be, tell · **To what, where:** harp, fairy, son · **Speech:** someone speaks here

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This is a sentence of «The Red Fairy Book» by Andrew Lang, ‘master! Master!’. The page gives its syntax tree — a dependency tree in the style of Universal Dependencies — and its pragmatics clause by clause: who acts (Jack, harp), 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:pg540:20:4
# text = He fled like lightning with the harp, talking to it as he went (for he saw it was a fairy), and telling it he was the son of its old master, the knight.
1	He	he	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	2	nsubj	_	_
2	fled	flee	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	0	root	_	_
3	like	like	ADP	IN	_	4	case	_	_
4	lightning	lightning	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	2	obl	_	_
5	with	with	ADP	IN	_	7	case	_	_
6	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	7	det	_	_
7	harp	harp	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	2	obl	_	SpaceAfter=No
8	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	9	punct	_	_
9	talking	talk	VERB	VBG	Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Part	2	advcl	_	_
10	to	to	ADP	IN	_	11	case	_	_
11	it	it	PRON	PRP	Case=Acc|Gender=Neut|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	9	obl	_	_
12	as	as	SCONJ	IN	_	14	mark	_	_
13	he	he	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	14	nsubj	_	_
14	went	go	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	9	advcl	_	_
15	(	(	PUNCT	-LRB-	_	18	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
16	for	for	SCONJ	IN	_	18	mark	_	_
17	he	he	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	18	nsubj	_	_
18	saw	see	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	14	conj	_	_
19	it	it	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Gender=Neut|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	22	nsubj	_	_
20	was	be	AUX	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	22	cop	_	_
21	a	a	DET	DT	Definite=Ind|PronType=Art	22	det	_	_
22	fairy	fairy	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	18	obj	_	SpaceAfter=No
23	)	)	PUNCT	-RRB-	_	22	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
24	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	26	punct	_	_
25	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	26	cc	_	_
26	telling	tell	VERB	VBG	Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Part	2	parataxis	_	_
27	it	it	PRON	PRP	Case=Acc|Gender=Neut|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	26	obj	_	_
28	he	he	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	31	nsubj	_	_
29	was	be	AUX	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	31	cop	_	_
30	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	31	det	_	_
31	son	son	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	26	ccomp	_	_
32	of	of	ADP	IN	_	35	case	_	_
33	its	its	PRON	PRP$	Case=Gen|Gender=Neut|Number=Sing|Person=3|Poss=Yes|PronType=Prs	35	nmod:poss	_	_
34	old	old	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	35	amod	_	_
35	master	master	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	31	nmod	_	SpaceAfter=No
36	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	38	punct	_	_
37	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	38	det	_	_
38	knight	knight	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	35	conj	_	SpaceAfter=No
39	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	2	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

<!-- .fr -->
| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **flee** | past | Jack |  |  |  |  | like lightning; with the harp | vn escape-51.1-1-1 «NP V»: agent=Theme |
| 2 | **talk** | gerund | Jack *not said here* |  | harp |  |  |  | vn talk-37.5 «NP V PP.co-agent»: agent=Agent to it=Co-Agent |
| 3 | **go** | past | Jack |  |  |  |  |  | vn disappearance-48.2-1 «NP V»: agent=Theme |
| 4 | **see** | past | Jack |  |  |  |  |  | vn comprehend-87.2-1-1 «NP V»: agent=Experiencer |
| 5 | **is a** | past | harp | a fairy |  |  |  |  | tree rules |
| 6 | **tell** *speech: assert* | gerund |  |  | fairy |  |  |  | vn transfer\_mesg-37.1.1-1-1 «NP V NP.recipient»: agent=Agent it=Recipient |
| 7 | **is a** | past | Jack | the son |  |  |  | of harp's old master and the knight | 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 Red Fairy Book» by Andrew Lang, Project Gutenberg book 540 (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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