---
title: Then he grasped his sword and struck at the Troll, so that all his t… — The Red Fairy Book · tree and pragmatics
description: Then he grasped his sword and struck at the Troll, so that all his ten heads danced away over the sands. Who acts: Minnikin, ten heads. 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 51

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Then he grasped his sword and struck at the Troll, so that all his ten heads danced away over the sands.

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**Who acts:** Minnikin, ten heads · **What happens:** grasp, strike, dance away · **To what, where:** sword, sands

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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 (Minnikin, ten heads), 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:pg540:45:51
# text = Then he grasped his sword and struck at the Troll, so that all his ten heads danced away over the sands.
1	Then	then	ADV	RB	PronType=Dem	3	advmod	_	_
2	he	he	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	3	nsubj	_	_
3	grasped	grasp	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	0	root	_	_
4	his	his	PRON	PRP$	Case=Gen|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|Poss=Yes|PronType=Prs	5	nmod:poss	_	_
5	sword	sword	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	3	obj	_	_
6	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	7	cc	_	_
7	struck	strike	VERB	VBN	Tense=Past|VerbForm=Part|Voice=Pass	3	conj	_	_
8	at	at	ADP	IN	_	10	case	_	_
9	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	10	det	_	_
10	Troll	Troll	PROPN	NNP	Number=Sing	7	obl	_	SpaceAfter=No
11	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	18	punct	_	_
12	so	so	ADV	RB	_	18	advmod	_	_
13	that	that	SCONJ	IN	_	18	mark	_	_
14	all	all	DET	PDT	PronType=Tot	17	det:predet	_	_
15	his	his	PRON	PRP$	Case=Gen|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|Poss=Yes|PronType=Prs	17	nmod:poss	_	_
16	ten	ten	NUM	CD	NumForm=Word|NumType=Card	17	nummod	_	_
17	heads	head	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	18	nsubj	_	_
18	danced	dance	VERB	VBN	Tense=Past|VerbForm=Part|Voice=Pass	3	conj	_	_
19	away	away	ADV	RB	_	18	advmod	_	_
20	over	over	ADP	IN	_	22	case	_	_
21	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	22	det	_	_
22	sands	sand	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	18	obl	_	SpaceAfter=No
23	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	3	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

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| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **grasp** | past | Minnikin | Minnikin's sword |  |  | then |  | vn comprehend-87.2-1 «NP V NP»: agent=Experiencer sword=Stimulus |
| 2 | **strike** | participle | Minnikin *not said here* |  |  |  |  | at the Troll | vn hit-18.1-1 «NP V PP»: agent=Agent at troll=Patient |
| 3 | **dance away** | participle | Minnikin's ten heads |  |  | the sands |  | away *property* | vn modes\_of\_being\_with\_motion-47.3 «NP V PP.location»: agent=Theme over sand=Location |

<!-- .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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