---
title: Esben watched his chance, seized the lamp, and gave her a push from… — The Pink Fairy Book · tree and pragmatics
description: Esben watched his chance, seized the lamp, and gave her a push from behind, so that she plumped head first into the well. Who acts: Esben, his. A sentence of «The Pink Fairy Book» by Andrew Lang, The Pink Fairy Book, part 29, with its dependency tree and the pragmatics of every clause.
---

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# The Pink Fairy Book, The Pink Fairy Book, part 29, sentence 7

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Esben watched his chance, seized the lamp, and gave her a push from behind, so that she plumped head first into the well.

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**Who acts:** Esben, his · **What happens:** watch, seize, give, plump, chance · **To what, where:** chance, lamp, push, Esben, head, well

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This is a sentence of «The Pink Fairy Book» by Andrew Lang, The Pink Fairy Book, part 29. The page gives its syntax tree — a dependency tree in the style of Universal Dependencies — and its pragmatics clause by clause: who acts (Esben, his), 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:pg5615:29:7
# text = Esben watched his chance, seized the lamp, and gave her a push from behind, so that she plumped head first into the well.
1	Esben	Esben	PROPN	NNP	Number=Sing	2	nsubj	_	_
2	watched	watch	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	0	root	_	_
3	his	his	PRON	PRP$	Case=Gen|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|Poss=Yes|PronType=Prs	4	nmod:poss	_	_
4	chance	chance	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	2	obj	_	SpaceAfter=No
5	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	6	punct	_	_
6	seized	seize	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	2	conj	_	_
7	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	8	det	_	_
8	lamp	lamp	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	6	obj	_	SpaceAfter=No
9	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	11	punct	_	_
10	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	11	cc	_	_
11	gave	give	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	2	parataxis	_	_
12	her	she	PRON	PRP	Case=Acc|Gender=Fem|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	11	iobj	_	_
13	a	a	DET	DT	Definite=Ind|PronType=Art	14	det	_	_
14	push	push	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	11	obj	_	_
15	from	from	ADP	IN	_	16	case	_	_
16	behind	behind	ADV	RB	_	14	nmod	_	SpaceAfter=No
17	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	21	punct	_	_
18	so	so	SCONJ	IN	ExtPos=SCONJ	21	mark	_	_
19	that	that	SCONJ	IN	_	18	fixed	_	_
20	she	she	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Gender=Fem|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	21	nsubj	_	_
21	plumped	plump	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	11	conj	_	_
22	head	head	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	21	obj	_	_
23	first	first	ADV	RB	NumForm=Word|NumType=Ord	21	advmod	_	_
24	into	into	ADP	IN	_	26	case	_	_
25	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	26	det	_	_
26	well	well	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	21	obl	_	SpaceAfter=No
27	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	2	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

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| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **watch** | past | Esben | his chance |  |  |  |  | vn assessment-34.1 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent chance=Theme |
| 2 | **seize** | past | Esben *not said here* | the lamp |  |  |  |  | vn obtain-13.5.2 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent lamp=Theme |
| 3 | **give** | past |  | a push | Esben |  |  |  | vn give-13.1-1 «NP V NP-Dative NP»: agent=Agent she=Recipient push=Theme |
| 4 | **plump** | past | Esben | head |  | the well |  | first *property* | vn other\_cos-45.4 «NP V NP.patient»: agent=Agent head=Patient |
| 5 | **chance** |  | his *= he* |  |  |  |  |  | nom chance «state intransitive»: 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 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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