---
title: Now Little Ease was an iron cage hung by four thick chains in the mi… — The Pink Fairy Book · tree and pragmatics
description: Now Little Ease was an iron cage hung by four thick chains in the middle of a great vaulted hall, and the prisoner inside could neither sit, nor stand, nor lie; and, besides that, he was made to suffer by turns unbearable heat and cold, while a hundred heavy bolts kept everything safe. Who acts: Lit
---

<!-- md -->
[Mova](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/) · [this page in HTML](https://mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg5615/30/80/)

<!-- 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 30](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg5615/30/) / 80

# The Pink Fairy Book, The Pink Fairy Book, part 30, sentence 80

<!-- .ven lang=en -->
Now Little Ease was an iron cage hung by four thick chains in the middle of a great vaulted hall, and the prisoner inside could neither sit, nor stand, nor lie; and, besides that, he was made to suffer by turns unbearable heat and cold, while a hundred heavy bolts kept everything safe.

<!-- .vintro -->
**Who acts:** Little Ease, prisoner, Ease, hundred heavy bolts · **What happens:** be, hang, vault, sit, stand, make · **To what, where:** iron cage, lie, Ease, unbearable heat, everything

<!-- .vabout -->
This is a sentence of «The Pink Fairy Book» by Andrew Lang, The Pink Fairy Book, part 30. The page gives its syntax tree — a dependency tree in the style of Universal Dependencies — and its pragmatics clause by clause: who acts (Little Ease, prisoner, Ease, hundred heavy bolts), 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:pg5615:30:80
# text = Now Little Ease was an iron cage hung by four thick chains in the middle of a great vaulted hall, and the prisoner inside could neither sit, nor stand, nor lie; and, besides that, he was made to suffer by turns unbearable heat and cold, while a hundred heavy bolts kept everything safe.
1	Now	now	ADV	RB	PronType=Dem	2	advmod	_	_
2	Little	little	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	3	amod	_	_
3	Ease	Ease	PROPN	NNP	Number=Sing	7	nsubj	_	_
4	was	be	AUX	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	7	cop	_	_
5	an	a	DET	DT	Definite=Ind|PronType=Art	7	det	_	_
6	iron	iron	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	7	compound	_	_
7	cage	cage	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	0	root	_	_
8	hung	hang	VERB	VBN	Tense=Past|VerbForm=Part|Voice=Pass	7	acl	_	_
9	by	by	ADP	IN	_	12	case	_	_
10	four	four	NUM	CD	NumForm=Word|NumType=Card	12	nummod	_	_
11	thick	thick	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	12	amod	_	_
12	chains	chain	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	8	obl	_	_
13	in	in	ADP	IN	_	15	case	_	_
14	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	15	det	_	_
15	middle	middle	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	12	nmod	_	_
16	of	of	ADP	IN	_	20	case	_	_
17	a	a	DET	DT	Definite=Ind|PronType=Art	20	det	_	_
18	great	great	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	20	amod	_	_
19	vaulted	vault	VERB	VBN	Tense=Past|VerbForm=Part|Voice=Pass	20	amod	_	_
20	hall	hall	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	15	nmod	_	SpaceAfter=No
21	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	28	punct	_	_
22	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	28	cc	_	_
23	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	24	det	_	_
24	prisoner	prisoner	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	28	nsubj	_	_
25	inside	inside	ADV	RB	_	24	advmod	_	_
26	could	could	AUX	MD	VerbForm=Fin	28	aux	_	_
27	neither	neither	ADV	RB	_	28	advmod	_	_
28	sit	sit	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	7	parataxis	_	SpaceAfter=No
29	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	31	punct	_	_
30	nor	nor	CCONJ	CC	Polarity=Neg	31	cc	_	_
31	stand	stand	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	28	conj	_	SpaceAfter=No
32	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	34	punct	_	_
33	nor	nor	CCONJ	CC	Polarity=Neg	34	cc	_	_
34	lie	lie	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	31	obl	_	SpaceAfter=No
35	;	;	PUNCT	:	_	43	punct	_	_
36	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	43	cc	_	SpaceAfter=No
37	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	36	punct	_	_
38	besides	besides	ADP	IN	_	39	case	_	_
39	that	that	PRON	DT	Number=Sing|PronType=Dem	43	obl	_	SpaceAfter=No
40	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	39	punct	_	_
41	he	he	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	43	nsubj	_	_
42	was	be	AUX	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	43	aux:pass	_	_
43	made	make	VERB	VBN	Tense=Past|VerbForm=Part|Voice=Pass	7	parataxis	_	_
44	to	to	PART	TO	_	45	mark	_	_
45	suffer	suffer	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	43	xcomp	_	_
46	by	by	ADP	IN	_	47	case	_	_
47	turns	turn	VERB	VBZ	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Fin	45	ccomp	_	_
48	unbearable	unbearable	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	49	amod	_	_
49	heat	heat	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	47	obj	_	_
50	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	51	cc	_	_
51	cold	cold	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	49	conj	_	SpaceAfter=No
52	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	58	punct	_	_
53	while	while	SCONJ	IN	_	58	mark	_	_
54	a	a	DET	DT	Definite=Ind|PronType=Art	55	det	_	_
55	hundred	hundred	NUM	CD	NumForm=Word|NumType=Card	57	nummod	_	_
56	heavy	heavy	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	57	amod	_	_
57	bolts	bolt	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	58	nsubj	_	_
58	kept	keep	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	43	conj	_	_
59	everything	everything	PRON	NN	Number=Sing|PronType=Tot	58	obj	_	_
60	safe	safe	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	58	xcomp	_	SpaceAfter=No
61	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	7	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

<!-- .fr -->
| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **is a** | past | Little Ease | a iron cage |  |  |  |  | tree rules |
| 2 | **hang** | participle |  | a iron cage *not said here* |  |  |  | by four thick chains in the middle of a great vaulted hall | vn assuming\_position-50 «NP V PP.location»: agent=Agent by chain=Location |
| 3 | **vault** | participle |  |  |  |  |  |  | vn run-51.3.2-1 «NP V»: agent=Theme |
| 4 | **sit** | could | the prisoner |  |  |  |  | neither *property* | vn assuming\_position-50 «NP V»: agent=Agent |
| 5 | **stand** | infinitive | the prisoner *not said here* | lie |  |  |  |  | vn assuming\_position-50 «NP V»: agent=Agent |
| 6 | **make** | past · passive |  | Ease |  |  |  | besides that | tree rules |
| 7 | **suffer** | to-infinitive | Ease *not said here* |  |  |  |  |  | vn admire-31.2 «NP V that S»: agent=Experiencer clause=Stimulus |
| 8 | **turn** | present | Ease *not said here* | unbearable heat |  |  |  |  | vn roll-51.3.1 «NP V NP.theme»: agent=Agent heat=Theme |
| 9 | **keep** | past | hundred heavy bolts | everything |  |  |  | safe *property* | vn keep-15.2 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent everything=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 79](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg5615/30/79/)
- next →: [sentence 81](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg5615/30/81/)
- ↑ back to [The Pink Fairy Book, part 30](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg5615/30/)