---
title: They were driving their spurs into the partition till the splinters… — The Red Fairy Book · tree and pragmatics
description: They were driving their spurs into the partition till the splinters flew about, and some of the boys fell off, and some still hung on and sat looking like fools. Who acts: thieves, splinters, some. A sentence of «The Red Fairy Book» by Andrew Lang, The Master Thief, with its dependency tree and the 
---

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[Mova](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/) · [this page in HTML](https://mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg540/9/197/)

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# The Red Fairy Book, The Master Thief, sentence 197

<!-- .ven lang=en -->
They were driving their spurs into the partition till the splinters flew about, and some of the boys fell off, and some still hung on and sat looking like fools.

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**Who acts:** thieves, splinters, some · **What happens:** drive, fly, fall off, hang on, sit, look · **To what, where:** spurs, partition, some

<!-- .vabout -->
This is a sentence of «The Red Fairy Book» by Andrew Lang, The Master Thief. The page gives its syntax tree — a dependency tree in the style of Universal Dependencies — and its pragmatics clause by clause: who acts (thieves, splinters, some), 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:pg540:9:197
# text = They were driving their spurs into the partition till the splinters flew about, and some of the boys fell off, and some still hung on and sat looking like fools.
1	They	they	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Number=Plur|Person=3|PronType=Prs	3	nsubj	_	_
2	were	be	AUX	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Plur|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	3	aux	_	_
3	driving	drive	VERB	VBG	Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Part	0	root	_	_
4	their	their	PRON	PRP$	Case=Gen|Number=Plur|Person=3|Poss=Yes|PronType=Prs	5	nmod:poss	_	_
5	spurs	spur	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	3	obj	_	_
6	into	into	ADP	IN	_	8	case	_	_
7	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	8	det	_	_
8	partition	partition	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	3	obl	_	_
9	till	till	SCONJ	IN	_	12	mark	_	_
10	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	11	det	_	_
11	splinters	splinter	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	12	nsubj	_	_
12	flew	fly	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Plur|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	3	advcl	_	_
13	about	about	ADV	RB	_	12	advmod	_	SpaceAfter=No
14	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	20	punct	_	_
15	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	20	cc	_	_
16	some	some	DET	DT	PronType=Ind	20	nsubj	_	_
17	of	of	ADP	IN	_	19	case	_	_
18	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	19	det	_	_
19	boys	boy	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	16	nmod	_	_
20	fell	fall	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	12	conj	_	_
21	off	off	ADP	RP	_	20	compound:prt	_	SpaceAfter=No
22	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	26	punct	_	_
23	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	26	cc	_	_
24	some	some	DET	DT	PronType=Ind	26	nsubj:pass	_	_
25	still	still	ADV	RB	_	26	advmod	_	_
26	hung	hang	VERB	VBN	Tense=Past|VerbForm=Part|Voice=Pass	20	parataxis	_	_
27	on	on	ADP	RP	_	26	compound:prt	_	_
28	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	29	cc	_	_
29	sat	sit	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	26	conj	_	_
30	looking	look	VERB	VBG	Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Part	29	advcl	_	_
31	like	like	ADP	IN	_	32	case	_	_
32	fools	fool	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	30	obl	_	SpaceAfter=No
33	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	3	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

<!-- .fr -->
| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **drive** | past · progressive | thieves *= thief* | thieves's spurs |  | the partition |  |  | vn nonvehicle-51.4.2-1 «NP V NP PP.location»: agent=Agent spur=Theme into partition=Trajectory |
| 2 | **fly** | past | the splinters |  |  |  |  | about *property* | vn spatial\_configuration-47.6-1 «NP V»: agent=Theme |
| 3 | **fall off** | past | some |  |  |  |  |  | vn calibratable\_cos-45.6.1-1 «NP.attribute V»: agent=Attribute |
| 4 | **hang on** | participle · passive |  | some |  |  | still |  | vn poison-42.2 «NP V NP»: subject=Patient |
| 5 | **sit** | past |  |  |  |  |  |  | vn assuming\_position-50 «NP V»: agent=Agent |
| 6 | **look** | gerund |  |  |  |  |  | like fools | vn stimulus\_subject-30.4 «NP V PP.attribute»: agent=Stimulus |
| 7 | **spur** |  | thieves *= thief* |  |  |  |  |  | nom spur «communication transitive»: poss=agent |

<!-- .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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