---
title: He mounted his horse and took her in front of him, and, holding her… — The Red Fairy Book · tree and pragmatics
description: He mounted his horse and took her in front of him, and, holding her carefully in his arms, they began their journey. Who acts: father, arms. A sentence of «The Red Fairy Book» by Andrew Lang, The Enchanted Canary, with its dependency tree and the pragmatics of every clause.
---

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# The Red Fairy Book, The Enchanted Canary, sentence 140

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He mounted his horse and took her in front of him, and, holding her carefully in his arms, they began their journey.

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**Who acts:** father, arms · **What happens:** mount, take, hold, begin, journey · **To what, where:** horse, Zizi, front, arms, journey

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This is a sentence of «The Red Fairy Book» by Andrew Lang, The Enchanted Canary. The page gives its syntax tree — a dependency tree in the style of Universal Dependencies — and its pragmatics clause by clause: who acts (father, arms), 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:pg540:40:140
# text = He mounted his horse and took her in front of him, and, holding her carefully in his arms, they began their journey.
1	He	he	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	2	nsubj	_	_
2	mounted	mount	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	0	root	_	_
3	his	his	PRON	PRP$	Case=Gen|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|Poss=Yes|PronType=Prs	4	nmod:poss	_	_
4	horse	horse	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	2	obj	_	_
5	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	6	cc	_	_
6	took	take	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	2	conj	_	_
7	her	she	PRON	PRP	Case=Acc|Gender=Fem|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	6	obj	_	_
8	in	in	ADP	IN	_	9	case	_	_
9	front	front	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	6	obl	_	_
10	of	of	ADP	IN	_	11	case	_	_
11	him	he	PRON	PRP	Case=Acc|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	9	nmod	_	SpaceAfter=No
12	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	23	punct	_	_
13	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	23	cc	_	SpaceAfter=No
14	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	15	punct	_	_
15	holding	hold	VERB	VBG	Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Part	23	advcl	_	_
16	her	her	PRON	PRP$	Case=Gen|Gender=Fem|Number=Sing|Person=3|Poss=Yes|PronType=Prs	17	nmod:poss	_	_
17	carefully	carefully	ADV	RB	_	15	advmod	_	_
18	in	in	ADP	IN	_	20	case	_	_
19	his	his	PRON	PRP$	Case=Gen|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|Poss=Yes|PronType=Prs	20	nmod:poss	_	_
20	arms	arm	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	15	obl	_	SpaceAfter=No
21	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	15	punct	_	_
22	they	they	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Number=Plur|Person=3|PronType=Prs	23	nsubj	_	_
23	began	begin	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Plur|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	2	conj	_	_
24	their	their	PRON	PRP$	Case=Gen|Number=Plur|Person=3|Poss=Yes|PronType=Prs	25	nmod:poss	_	_
25	journey	journey	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	23	obj	_	SpaceAfter=No
26	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	2	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

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| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **mount** | past | father | father's horse |  |  |  |  | vn establish-55.5-1 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent horse=Patient |
| 2 | **take** | past | father *not said here* | Zizi |  | front of father |  |  | vn fit-54.3 «NP V NP PP.location»: agent=Agent she=Value in front=Location |
| 3 | **hold** | gerund | arms *= arm* *not said here* |  |  | father's arms |  | carefully *property* | vn exist-47.1 «NP V PP.location»: agent=Theme in arm=Location |
| 4 | **begin** | past | arms *= arm* | arms's journey |  |  |  |  | vn begin-55.1-1-1 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent journey=Eventuality |
| 5 | **journey** |  | arms *= arm* |  |  |  |  |  | nom journey «act transitive»: poss=agent |

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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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