---
title: When thou hast cut off our heads, thou must take the greatest care t… — The Red Fairy Book · tree and pragmatics
description: When thou hast cut off our heads, thou must take the greatest care to lay each head at the tail of the body to which it belonged before, and then the spell which the Troll has cast upon us will lose all its power.’ Who acts: thou, head, spell. A sentence of «The Red Fairy Book» by Andrew Lang, The S
---

<!-- md -->
[Mova](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/) · [this page in HTML](https://mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg540/49/83/)

<!-- crumbs -->
[home](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/) / [corpora](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/) / [tales](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/) / [The Red Fairy Book](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg540/) / [The Seven Foals](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg540/49/) / 83

# The Red Fairy Book, The Seven Foals, sentence 83

<!-- .ven lang=en -->
When thou hast cut off our heads, thou must take the greatest care to lay each head at the tail of the body to which it belonged before, and then the spell which the Troll has cast upon us will lose all its power.’

<!-- .vintro -->
**Who acts:** thou, head, spell · **What happens:** cut off, take, lay, belong, cast, lose · **To what, where:** thou, greatest care, head, tail, spell, power

<!-- .vabout -->
This is a sentence of «The Red Fairy Book» by Andrew Lang, The Seven Foals. The page gives its syntax tree — a dependency tree in the style of Universal Dependencies — and its pragmatics clause by clause: who acts (thou, head, spell), 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:pg540:49:83
# text = When thou hast cut off our heads, thou must take the greatest care to lay each head at the tail of the body to which it belonged before, and then the spell which the Troll has cast upon us will lose all its power.’
1	When	when	ADV	WRB	PronType=Int	4	advmod	_	_
2	thou	thou	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Number=Sing|Person=2|PronType=Prs|Style=Arch	4	nsubj:pass	_	_
3	hast	have	AUX	VBP	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=2|Style=Arch|Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Fin	4	aux	_	_
4	cut	cut	VERB	VBN	Tense=Past|VerbForm=Part|Voice=Pass	11	advcl	_	_
5	off	off	ADP	RP	_	4	compound:prt	_	_
6	our	our	PRON	PRP$	Case=Gen|Number=Plur|Person=1|Poss=Yes|PronType=Prs	7	nmod:poss	_	_
7	heads	head	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	4	obj	_	SpaceAfter=No
8	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	4	punct	_	_
9	thou	thou	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Number=Sing|Person=2|PronType=Prs|Style=Arch	11	nsubj	_	_
10	must	must	AUX	MD	VerbForm=Fin	11	aux	_	_
11	take	take	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	0	root	_	_
12	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	14	det	_	_
13	greatest	great	ADJ	JJS	Degree=Sup	14	amod	_	_
14	care	care	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	11	obj	_	_
15	to	to	PART	TO	_	16	mark	_	_
16	lay	lay	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	11	advcl	_	_
17	each	each	DET	DT	PronType=Tot	18	det	_	_
18	head	head	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	16	obj	_	_
19	at	at	ADP	IN	_	21	case	_	_
20	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	21	det	_	_
21	tail	tail	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	16	obl	_	_
22	of	of	ADP	IN	_	24	case	_	_
23	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	24	det	_	_
24	body	body	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	21	nmod	_	_
25	to	to	ADP	IN	_	26	case	_	_
26	which	which	PRON	WDT	PronType=Rel	28	obl	_	_
27	it	it	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Gender=Neut|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	28	nsubj	_	_
28	belonged	belong	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	24	acl:relcl	_	_
29	before	before	ADV	RB	_	28	advmod	_	SpaceAfter=No
30	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	43	punct	_	_
31	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	43	cc	_	_
32	then	then	ADV	RB	PronType=Dem	43	advmod	_	_
33	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	34	det	_	_
34	spell	spell	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	43	nsubj	_	_
35	which	which	PRON	WDT	PronType=Rel	39	nsubj:pass	_	_
36	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	37	det	_	_
37	Troll	Troll	PROPN	NNP	Number=Sing	39	nsubj:pass	_	_
38	has	have	AUX	VBZ	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Fin	39	aux	_	_
39	cast	cast	VERB	VBN	Tense=Past|VerbForm=Part|Voice=Pass	34	acl:relcl	_	_
40	upon	upon	ADP	IN	_	41	case	_	_
41	us	we	PRON	PRP	Case=Acc|Number=Plur|Person=1|PronType=Prs	39	obl	_	_
42	will	will	AUX	MD	VerbForm=Fin	43	aux	_	_
43	lose	lose	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	11	conj	_	_
44	all	all	DET	PDT	PronType=Tot	46	det:predet	_	_
45	its	its	PRON	PRP$	Case=Gen|Gender=Neut|Number=Sing|Person=3|Poss=Yes|PronType=Prs	46	nmod:poss	_	_
46	power	power	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	43	obj	_	SpaceAfter=No
47	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	11	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
48	’	'	PUNCT	''	_	11	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

<!-- .fr -->
| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **cut off** | present · perfect · passive |  | thou |  |  |  |  | tree rules |
| 2 | **take** | must | thou | the greatest care |  |  |  |  | vn bring-11.3 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent care=Theme |
| 3 | **lay** | to-infinitive | thou *not said here* | each head |  | the tail of the body |  |  | vn put\_spatial-9.2 «NP V NP PP.destination»: agent=Agent head=Theme at tail=Destination |
| 4 | **belong** | past | head |  |  |  |  | to the body; before *property* | vn attend-107.4-2 «NP V PP»: agent=Theme |
| 5 | **cast** | present · perfect · passive |  | the spell |  |  |  | upon us | vn throw-17.1 «NP V NP PP.destinations»: subject=Theme upon we=Destination |
| 6 | **lose** | future | the spell | Troll's power |  |  | then |  | vn succeed-74-3-1 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent power=Eventuality |

<!-- .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.

<!-- div src -->

**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.

<!-- /div -->

<!-- pn -->
- ← previous: [sentence 82](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg540/49/82/)
- next →: [sentence 84](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg540/49/84/)
- ↑ back to [The Seven Foals](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg540/49/)