---
title: There were several flails hanging there, and Hans took the one after… — The Pink Fairy Book · tree and pragmatics
description: There were several flails hanging there, and Hans took the one after the other, but they all went the same way, every one flying in splinters at the first stroke. Who acts: several flails, Hans, others, one. A sentence of «The Pink Fairy Book» by Andrew Lang, The Pink Fairy Book, part 12, with its d
---

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# The Pink Fairy Book, The Pink Fairy Book, part 12, sentence 68

<!-- .ven lang=en -->
There were several flails hanging there, and Hans took the one after the other, but they all went the same way, every one flying in splinters at the first stroke.

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**Who acts:** several flails, Hans, others, one · **What happens:** be, hang, take, go, fly · **To what, where:** one, same way, splinters

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This is a sentence of «The Pink Fairy Book» by Andrew Lang, The Pink Fairy Book, part 12. The page gives its syntax tree — a dependency tree in the style of Universal Dependencies — and its pragmatics clause by clause: who acts (several flails, Hans, others, one), 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:pg5615:12:68
# text = There were several flails hanging there, and Hans took the one after the other, but they all went the same way, every one flying in splinters at the first stroke.
1	There	there	PRON	EX	PronType=Dem	2	expl	_	_
2	were	be	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Plur|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	0	root	_	_
3	several	several	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	4	amod	_	_
4	flails	flail	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	2	nsubj	_	_
5	hanging	hang	VERB	VBG	VerbForm=Ger	4	acl	_	_
6	there	there	ADV	RB	PronType=Dem	5	advmod	_	SpaceAfter=No
7	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	10	punct	_	_
8	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	10	cc	_	_
9	Hans	Hans	PROPN	NNP	Number=Sing	10	nsubj	_	_
10	took	take	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	2	parataxis	_	_
11	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	12	det	_	_
12	one	one	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	10	obj	_	_
13	after	after	ADP	IN	_	15	case	_	_
14	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	15	det	_	_
15	other	other	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	12	nmod	_	SpaceAfter=No
16	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	20	punct	_	_
17	but	but	CCONJ	CC	_	20	cc	_	_
18	they	they	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Number=Plur|Person=3|PronType=Prs	20	nsubj	_	_
19	all	all	DET	DT	PronType=Tot	20	advmod	_	_
20	went	go	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Plur|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	10	conj	_	_
21	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	23	det	_	_
22	same	same	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	23	amod	_	_
23	way	way	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	20	obj	_	SpaceAfter=No
24	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	26	punct	_	_
25	every	every	DET	DT	PronType=Tot	26	det	_	_
26	one	one	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	23	appos	_	_
27	flying	fly	VERB	VBG	VerbForm=Ger	26	acl	_	_
28	in	in	ADP	IN	_	29	case	_	_
29	splinters	splinter	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	27	obl	_	_
30	at	at	ADP	IN	_	33	case	_	_
31	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	33	det	_	_
32	first	first	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos|NumForm=Word|NumType=Ord	33	amod	_	_
33	stroke	stroke	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	27	obl	_	SpaceAfter=No
34	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	2	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

<!-- .fr -->
| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **be** | past | several flails |  |  | there |  |  | vn exist-47.1 «NP V»: agent=Theme |
| 2 | **hang** | gerund | several flails *not said here* |  |  | there |  |  | vn assuming\_position-50 «NP V»: agent=Agent |
| 3 | **take** | past | Hans | the one |  |  | after the other |  | vn bring-11.3 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent one=Theme |
| 4 | **go** | past | others *= other* | the same way |  |  |  |  | vn meander-47.7 «PP.location V NP»: agent=Location way=Theme |
| 5 | **fly** | gerund | every one *not said here* |  |  | splinters |  | at the first stroke | vn spatial\_configuration-47.6-1 «NP V PP.location»: agent=Theme in splinter=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 Pink Fairy Book» by Andrew Lang, Project Gutenberg book 5615 (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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