---
title: But when they caught sight of the carcasses of the oxen they began t… — The Red Fairy Book · tree and pragmatics
description: But when they caught sight of the carcasses of the oxen they began to fight for them till the blood flowed, and they entirely forgot Dapplegrim and the youth. Who acts: beasts, blood. A sentence of «The Red Fairy Book» by Andrew Lang, The Three Dwarfs, part 2, with its dependency tree and the pragma
---

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# The Red Fairy Book, The Three Dwarfs, part 2, sentence 75

<!-- .ven lang=en -->
But when they caught sight of the carcasses of the oxen they began to fight for them till the blood flowed, and they entirely forgot Dapplegrim and the youth.

<!-- .vintro -->
**Who acts:** beasts, blood · **What happens:** catch, begin, fight, flow, forget, sight · **To what, where:** sight, oxen, Dapplegrim, carcasses

<!-- .vabout -->
This is a sentence of «The Red Fairy Book» by Andrew Lang, The Three Dwarfs, part 2. The page gives its syntax tree — a dependency tree in the style of Universal Dependencies — and its pragmatics clause by clause: who acts (beasts, blood), 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:pg540:38:75
# text = But when they caught sight of the carcasses of the oxen they began to fight for them till the blood flowed, and they entirely forgot Dapplegrim and the youth.
1	But	but	CCONJ	CC	_	26	cc	_	_
2	when	when	SCONJ	WRB	_	4	mark	_	_
3	they	they	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Number=Plur|Person=3|PronType=Prs	4	nsubj	_	_
4	caught	catch	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Plur|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	26	advcl	_	_
5	sight	sight	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	4	obj	_	_
6	of	of	ADP	IN	_	8	case	_	_
7	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	8	det	_	_
8	carcasses	carcass	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	5	nmod	_	_
9	of	of	ADP	IN	_	11	case	_	_
10	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	11	det	_	_
11	oxen	ox	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	8	nmod	_	_
12	they	they	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Number=Plur|Person=3|PronType=Prs	13	nsubj	_	_
13	began	begin	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Plur|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	11	acl:relcl	_	_
14	to	to	PART	TO	_	15	mark	_	_
15	fight	fight	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	13	xcomp	_	_
16	for	for	ADP	IN	_	17	case	_	_
17	them	they	PRON	PRP	Case=Acc|Number=Plur|Person=3|PronType=Prs	15	obl	_	_
18	till	till	SCONJ	IN	_	21	mark	_	_
19	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	20	det	_	_
20	blood	blood	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	21	nsubj	_	_
21	flowed	flow	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	15	advcl	_	SpaceAfter=No
22	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	26	punct	_	_
23	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	26	cc	_	_
24	they	they	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Number=Plur|Person=3|PronType=Prs	26	nsubj	_	_
25	entirely	entirely	ADV	RB	_	26	advmod	_	_
26	forgot	forget	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Plur|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	0	root	_	_
27	Dapplegrim	Dapplegrim	PROPN	NNP	Number=Sing	26	obj	_	_
28	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	30	cc	_	_
29	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	30	det	_	_
30	youth	youth	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	27	conj	_	SpaceAfter=No
31	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	26	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

<!-- .fr -->
| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **catch** | past | beasts *= beast* | sight of the carcasses of the oxen |  |  |  |  | vn get-13.5.1 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent sight=Theme |
| 2 | **begin** | past | beasts *= beast* | the oxen *not said here* |  |  |  |  | tree rules |
| 3 | **fight** | to-infinitive | beasts *= beast* *not said here* |  |  |  |  | for beasts *= beast* | vn battle-36.4-1 «NP V»: agent=Agent |
| 4 | **flow** | past | the blood |  |  |  |  |  | vn appear-48.1.1 «NP V»: agent=Theme |
| 5 | **forget** | past | beasts *= beast* | Dapplegrim and the youth |  |  |  | entirely *property* | tree rules |
| 6 | **sight** |  |  | the carcasses of the oxen |  |  |  |  | nom sight «cognition transitive»: of=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 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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