---
title: In spite of having their horses shod with sharp nails, no one manage… — The Yellow Fairy Book · tree and pragmatics
description: In spite of having their horses shod with sharp nails, no one managed to get more than half-way up, and then they all fell back right down to the bottom of the steep slippery hill. Who acts: knights. A sentence of «The Yellow Fairy Book» by Andrew Lang, The Glass Mountain(16), part 1, with its depen
---

<!-- md -->
[Mova](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/) · [this page in HTML](https://mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg640/22/7/)

<!-- 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 Yellow Fairy Book](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg640/) / [The Glass Mountain(16), part 1](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg640/22/) / 7

# The Yellow Fairy Book, The Glass Mountain(16), part 1, sentence 7

<!-- .ven lang=en -->
In spite of having their horses shod with sharp nails, no one managed to get more than half-way up, and then they all fell back right down to the bottom of the steep slippery hill.

<!-- .vintro -->
**Who acts:** knights · **What happens:** have, shoe, manage, get, fall back · **To what, where:** horses, spite, one, more

<!-- .vabout -->
This is a sentence of «The Yellow Fairy Book» by Andrew Lang, The Glass Mountain(16), part 1. The page gives its syntax tree — a dependency tree in the style of Universal Dependencies — and its pragmatics clause by clause: who acts (knights), 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:pg640:22:7
# text = In spite of having their horses shod with sharp nails, no one managed to get more than half-way up, and then they all fell back right down to the bottom of the steep slippery hill.
1	In	in	ADP	IN	_	2	case	_	_
2	spite	spite	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	7	obl	_	_
3	of	of	SCONJ	IN	_	4	mark	_	_
4	having	have	VERB	VBG	Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Part	7	advcl	_	_
5	their	their	PRON	PRP$	Case=Gen|Number=Plur|Person=3|Poss=Yes|PronType=Prs	6	nmod:poss	_	_
6	horses	horse	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	4	obj	_	_
7	shod	shoe	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=1|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	0	root	_	_
8	with	with	ADP	IN	_	10	case	_	_
9	sharp	sharp	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	10	amod	_	_
10	nails	nail	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	7	obl	_	SpaceAfter=No
11	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	13	punct	_	_
12	no	no	DET	DT	PronType=Neg	13	det	_	_
13	one	one	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	7	conj	_	_
14	managed	manage	VERB	VBN	Tense=Past|VerbForm=Part|Voice=Pass	13	acl	_	_
15	to	to	PART	TO	_	16	mark	_	_
16	get	get	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	14	xcomp	_	_
17	more	more	ADJ	JJR	Degree=Cmp	16	obj	_	_
18	than	than	ADP	IN	_	21	case	_	_
19	half	half	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing|NumForm=Word|NumType=Frac	21	compound	_	SpaceAfter=No
20	-	-	PUNCT	HYPH	_	19	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
21	way	way	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	17	obl	_	_
22	up	up	ADV	RB	_	21	advmod	_	SpaceAfter=No
23	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	28	punct	_	_
24	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	28	cc	_	_
25	then	then	ADV	RB	PronType=Dem	28	advmod	_	_
26	they	they	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Number=Plur|Person=3|PronType=Prs	28	nsubj	_	_
27	all	all	DET	DT	PronType=Tot	26	det	_	_
28	fell	fall	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	7	conj	_	_
29	back	back	ADV	RB	_	28	advmod	_	_
30	right	right	ADV	RB	_	31	advmod	_	_
31	down	down	ADV	RB	_	28	advmod	_	_
32	to	to	ADP	IN	_	34	case	_	_
33	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	34	det	_	_
34	bottom	bottom	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	28	obl	_	_
35	of	of	ADP	IN	_	39	case	_	_
36	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	39	det	_	_
37	steep	steep	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	39	amod	_	_
38	slippery	slippery	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	39	amod	_	_
39	hill	hill	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	34	nmod	_	SpaceAfter=No
40	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	7	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

<!-- .fr -->
| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **have** | gerund |  | knights's horses |  |  |  |  | vn birth-28.2-1 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent horse=Patient |
| 2 | **shoe** | past |  |  |  | spite |  | with sharp nails | vn butter-9.9 «NP V NP PP.theme»: agent=Agent with nail=Theme |
| 3 | **manage** | participle |  | no one *not said here* |  |  |  |  | vn succeed-74-1-1 «NP V S\_INF»: agent=Agent clause=Eventuality |
| 4 | **get** | to-infinitive |  | more |  |  |  |  | vn comprehend-87.2-1 «NP V NP»: agent=Experiencer more=Stimulus |
| 5 | **fall back** | past | knights *= knight* |  |  |  | then | to the bottom of the steep slippery hill; down *property* | vn acquiesce-95.1-1 «NP V PP.theme»: agent=Agent to bottom=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 Yellow Fairy Book» by Andrew Lang, Project Gutenberg book 640 (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 6](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg640/22/6/)
- next →: [sentence 8](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg640/22/8/)
- ↑ back to [The Glass Mountain(16), part 1](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg640/22/)