---
title: Then he threw a lock of wool into the river, and when it floated dow… — The Red Fairy Book · tree and pragmatics
description: Then he threw a lock of wool into the river, and when it floated down against the sword it was cut into two pieces. Who acts: Sigurd, lock, sword. A sentence of «The Red Fairy Book» by Andrew Lang, The Story of Sigurd, with its dependency tree and the pragmatics of every clause.
---

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# The Red Fairy Book, The Story of Sigurd, sentence 53

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Then he threw a lock of wool into the river, and when it floated down against the sword it was cut into two pieces.

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**Who acts:** Sigurd, lock, sword · **What happens:** throw, float down, cut · **To what, where:** lock, river, sword, two pieces

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This is a sentence of «The Red Fairy Book» by Andrew Lang, The Story of Sigurd. The page gives its syntax tree — a dependency tree in the style of Universal Dependencies — and its pragmatics clause by clause: who acts (Sigurd, lock, sword), 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:pg540:51:53
# text = Then he threw a lock of wool into the river, and when it floated down against the sword it was cut into two pieces.
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	threw	throw	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	0	root	_	_
4	a	a	DET	DT	Definite=Ind|PronType=Art	5	det	_	_
5	lock	lock	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	3	obj	_	_
6	of	of	ADP	IN	_	7	case	_	_
7	wool	wool	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	5	nmod	_	_
8	into	into	ADP	IN	_	10	case	_	_
9	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	10	det	_	_
10	river	river	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	3	obl	_	SpaceAfter=No
11	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	15	punct	_	_
12	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	15	cc	_	_
13	when	when	ADV	WRB	PronType=Int	15	advmod	_	_
14	it	it	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Gender=Neut|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	15	nsubj	_	_
15	floated	float	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	3	conj	_	_
16	down	down	ADV	RB	_	15	advmod	_	_
17	against	against	ADP	IN	_	19	case	_	_
18	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	19	det	_	_
19	sword	sword	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	15	obl	_	_
20	it	it	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Gender=Neut|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	22	nsubj:pass	_	_
21	was	be	AUX	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	22	aux:pass	_	_
22	cut	cut	VERB	VBN	Tense=Past|VerbForm=Part|Voice=Pass	19	acl:relcl	_	_
23	into	into	ADP	IN	_	25	case	_	_
24	two	two	NUM	CD	NumForm=Word|NumType=Card	25	nummod	_	_
25	pieces	piece	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	22	obl	_	SpaceAfter=No
26	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	3	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

<!-- .fr -->
| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **throw** | past | Sigurd | a lock of wool |  |  | then | into the river *result* | vn throw-17.1-1-1 «NP V NP PP.result»: agent=Causer lock=Theme into river=Result |
| 2 | **float down** | past | lock |  |  | the sword |  | down *property* | vn run-51.3.2-2 «NP V PP.location»: agent=Theme against sword=Trajectory |
| 3 | **cut** | past · passive | the sword *not said here* | lock |  | two pieces |  |  | vn build-26.1-1 «NP V NP.material PP.product»: subject=Material into piece=Product |

<!-- .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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