---
title: I had bitten the youngest boy in the leg, because he took away the b… — The Pink Fairy Book · tree and pragmatics
description: I had bitten the youngest boy in the leg, because he took away the bone I was gnawing; a bone for a bone, I thought! Who acts: I, door. A sentence of «The Pink Fairy Book» by Andrew Lang, The Pink Fairy Book, part 5, with its dependency tree and the pragmatics of every clause.
---

<!-- md -->
[Mova](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/) · [this page in HTML](https://mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg5615/5/153/)

<!-- 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 5](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg5615/5/) / 153

# The Pink Fairy Book, The Pink Fairy Book, part 5, sentence 153

<!-- .ven lang=en -->
I had bitten the youngest boy in the leg, because he took away the bone I was gnawing; a bone for a bone, I thought!

<!-- .vintro -->
**Who acts:** I, door · **What happens:** bite, take away, gnaw, think · **To what, where:** youngest boy, leg, bone

<!-- .vabout -->
This is a sentence of «The Pink Fairy Book» by Andrew Lang, The Pink Fairy Book, part 5. The page gives its syntax tree — a dependency tree in the style of Universal Dependencies — and its pragmatics clause by clause: who acts (I, door), 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:pg5615:5:153
# text = I had bitten the youngest boy in the leg, because he took away the bone I was gnawing; a bone for a bone, I thought!
1	I	I	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Number=Sing|Person=1|PronType=Prs	3	nsubj	_	_
2	had	have	AUX	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=1|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	3	aux	_	_
3	bitten	bite	VERB	VBN	Tense=Past|VerbForm=Part	0	root	_	_
4	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	6	det	_	_
5	youngest	young	ADJ	JJS	Degree=Sup	6	amod	_	_
6	boy	boy	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	3	obj	_	_
7	in	in	ADP	IN	_	9	case	_	_
8	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	9	det	_	_
9	leg	leg	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	3	obl	_	SpaceAfter=No
10	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	13	punct	_	_
11	because	because	SCONJ	IN	_	13	mark	_	_
12	he	he	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	13	nsubj	_	_
13	took	take	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	3	parataxis	_	_
14	away	away	ADP	RP	_	13	compound:prt	_	_
15	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	16	det	_	_
16	bone	bone	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	13	obj	_	_
17	I	I	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Number=Sing|Person=1|PronType=Prs	19	nsubj	_	_
18	was	be	AUX	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=1|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	19	aux	_	_
19	gnawing	gnaw	VERB	VBG	Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Part	16	acl:relcl	_	SpaceAfter=No
20	;	;	PUNCT	,	_	22	punct	_	_
21	a	a	DET	DT	Definite=Ind|PronType=Art	22	det	_	_
22	bone	bone	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	13	parataxis	_	_
23	for	for	ADP	IN	_	25	case	_	_
24	a	a	DET	DT	Definite=Ind|PronType=Art	25	det	_	_
25	bone	bone	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	22	nmod	_	SpaceAfter=No
26	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	28	punct	_	_
27	I	I	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Number=Sing|Person=1|PronType=Prs	28	nsubj	_	_
28	thought	think	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=1|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	13	conj	_	SpaceAfter=No
29	!	!	PUNCT	.	_	3	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

<!-- .fr -->
| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **bite** | past · perfect | I | the youngest boy |  | the leg |  |  | vn swat-18.2 «NP V NP PP.location»: agent=Agent boy=Patient in leg=Location |
| 2 | **take away** | past | door | the bone |  |  |  |  | vn remove-10.1 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent bone=Theme |
| 3 | **gnaw** | past · progressive | I | the bone *not said here* |  |  |  |  | vn chew-39.2 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent bone=Patient |
| 4 | **think** *speech: other* | past | I |  |  |  |  |  | vn focus-87.1-1 «NP V»: agent=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.

<!-- 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 152](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg5615/5/152/)
- next →: [sentence 154](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg5615/5/154/)
- ↑ back to [The Pink Fairy Book, part 5](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg5615/5/)