---
title: With that he caught Old Eric by the back of the neck with one hand,… — The Pink Fairy Book · tree and pragmatics
description: With that he caught Old Eric by the back of the neck with one hand, and hammered away on his back with the staff, till he beat him out as flat as a pancake. Who acts: Hans. A sentence of «The Pink Fairy Book» by Andrew Lang, The Pink Fairy Book, part 13, with its dependency tree and the pragmatics o
---

<!-- md -->
[Mova](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/) · [this page in HTML](https://mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg5615/13/59/)

<!-- 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 Pink Fairy Book](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg5615/) / [The Pink Fairy Book, part 13](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg5615/13/) / 59

# The Pink Fairy Book, The Pink Fairy Book, part 13, sentence 59

<!-- .ven lang=en -->
With that he caught Old Eric by the back of the neck with one hand, and hammered away on his back with the staff, till he beat him out as flat as a pancake.

<!-- .vintro -->
**Who acts:** Hans · **What happens:** catch, hammer away, beat out · **To what, where:** Old Eric, back, Eric

<!-- .vabout -->
This is a sentence of «The Pink Fairy Book» by Andrew Lang, The Pink Fairy Book, part 13. The page gives its syntax tree — a dependency tree in the style of Universal Dependencies — and its pragmatics clause by clause: who acts (Hans), 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:pg5615:13:59
# text = With that he caught Old Eric by the back of the neck with one hand, and hammered away on his back with the staff, till he beat him out as flat as a pancake.
1	With	with	ADP	IN	_	2	case	_	_
2	that	that	PRON	DT	Number=Sing|PronType=Dem	4	obl	_	_
3	he	he	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	4	nsubj	_	_
4	caught	catch	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	0	root	_	_
5	Old	old	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	6	amod	_	_
6	Eric	Eric	PROPN	NNP	Number=Sing	4	obj	_	_
7	by	by	ADP	IN	_	9	case	_	_
8	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	9	det	_	_
9	back	back	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	4	obl	_	_
10	of	of	ADP	IN	_	12	case	_	_
11	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	12	det	_	_
12	neck	neck	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	9	nmod	_	_
13	with	with	ADP	IN	_	15	case	_	_
14	one	one	NUM	CD	NumForm=Word|NumType=Card	15	nummod	_	_
15	hand	hand	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	12	nmod	_	SpaceAfter=No
16	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	18	punct	_	_
17	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	18	cc	_	_
18	hammered	hammer	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	4	conj	_	_
19	away	away	ADV	RB	_	18	advmod	_	_
20	on	on	ADP	IN	_	22	case	_	_
21	his	his	PRON	PRP$	Case=Gen|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|Poss=Yes|PronType=Prs	22	nmod:poss	_	_
22	back	back	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	18	obl	_	_
23	with	with	ADP	IN	_	25	case	_	_
24	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	25	det	_	_
25	staff	staff	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	22	nmod	_	SpaceAfter=No
26	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	29	punct	_	_
27	till	till	SCONJ	IN	_	29	mark	_	_
28	he	he	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	29	nsubj	_	_
29	beat	beat	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	18	conj	_	_
30	him	he	PRON	PRP	Case=Acc|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	29	obj	_	_
31	out	out	ADP	RP	_	29	compound:prt	_	_
32	as	as	ADV	RB	_	33	advmod	_	_
33	flat	flat	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	29	xcomp	_	_
34	as	as	ADP	IN	_	36	case	_	_
35	a	a	DET	DT	Definite=Ind|PronType=Art	36	det	_	_
36	pancake	pancake	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	33	obl	_	SpaceAfter=No
37	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	4	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

<!-- .fr -->
| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **catch** | past | Hans | Old Eric |  |  |  | with that; by the back of the neck with one hand | vn get-13.5.1 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent eric=Theme |
| 2 | **hammer away** | past | Hans *not said here* |  |  | Hans's back with the staff |  | away *property* | vn bump-18.4-1 «NP V together»: agent=Theme |
| 3 | **beat out** | past | Hans | Eric |  |  |  | flat *property* | vn sound\_emission-43.2 «PP.location V NP»: agent=Location he=Theme |

<!-- .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 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.

<!-- /div -->

<!-- pn -->
- ← previous: [sentence 58](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg5615/13/58/)
- next →: [sentence 60](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg5615/13/60/)
- ↑ back to [The Pink Fairy Book, part 13](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg5615/13/)