---
title: So the Troll struck at him with a great thick iron bar which he had… — The Red Fairy Book · tree and pragmatics
description: So the Troll struck at him with a great thick iron bar which he had in his fist, till the sods flew five yards up into the air. Who acts: Troll, Minnikin, sods. A sentence of «The Red Fairy Book» by Andrew Lang, Mother Holle, part 2, with its dependency tree and the pragmatics of every clause.
---

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# The Red Fairy Book, Mother Holle, part 2, sentence 21

<!-- .ven lang=en -->
So the Troll struck at him with a great thick iron bar which he had in his fist, till the sods flew five yards up into the air.

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**Who acts:** Troll, Minnikin, sods · **What happens:** strike, have, fly · **To what, where:** great thick iron bar, fist, air

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This is a sentence of «The Red Fairy Book» by Andrew Lang, Mother Holle, 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 (Troll, Minnikin, sods), 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:pg540:45:21
# text = So the Troll struck at him with a great thick iron bar which he had in his fist, till the sods flew five yards up into the air.
1	So	so	ADV	RB	_	4	advmod	_	_
2	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	3	det	_	_
3	Troll	Troll	PROPN	NNP	Number=Sing	4	nsubj	_	_
4	struck	strike	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	0	root	_	_
5	at	at	ADP	IN	_	6	case	_	_
6	him	he	PRON	PRP	Case=Acc|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	4	obl	_	_
7	with	with	ADP	IN	_	12	case	_	_
8	a	a	DET	DT	Definite=Ind|PronType=Art	12	det	_	_
9	great	great	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	12	amod	_	_
10	thick	thick	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	12	amod	_	_
11	iron	iron	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	12	compound	_	_
12	bar	bar	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	4	obl	_	_
13	which	which	PRON	WDT	PronType=Rel	15	obj	_	_
14	he	he	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	15	nsubj	_	_
15	had	have	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	12	acl:relcl	_	_
16	in	in	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	fist	fist	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	15	obl	_	SpaceAfter=No
19	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	23	punct	_	_
20	till	till	SCONJ	IN	_	23	mark	_	_
21	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	22	det	_	_
22	sods	sod	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	23	nsubj	_	_
23	flew	fly	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Plur|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	4	conj	_	_
24	five	five	NUM	CD	NumForm=Word|NumType=Card	25	nummod	_	_
25	yards	yard	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	26	obl:unmarked	_	_
26	up	up	ADV	RB	_	23	advmod	_	_
27	into	into	ADP	IN	_	29	case	_	_
28	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	29	det	_	_
29	air	air	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	23	obl	_	SpaceAfter=No
30	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	4	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

<!-- .fr -->
| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **strike** | past | the Troll |  |  |  |  | at Minnikin; with a great thick iron bar | vn hit-18.1-1 «NP V PP PP»: agent=Agent at he=Patient with bar=Instrument |
| 2 | **have** | past | Minnikin | a great thick iron bar |  | Minnikin's fist |  |  | vn birth-28.2-1 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent which=Patient |
| 3 | **fly** | past | the sods |  |  |  |  | into the air *result* | vn run-51.3.2-2-1 «NP V PP.result»: agent=Theme into air=Result |

<!-- .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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