---
title: The young Prince pursued the little creature, and had almost overtak… — The Yellow Fairy Book · tree and pragmatics
description: The young Prince pursued the little creature, and had almost overtaken it, when the girth of his saddle suddenly broke in two and he fell heavily to the ground. Who acts: young Prince, girth. A sentence of «The Yellow Fairy Book» by Andrew Lang, The Glass Mountain(16), part 4, with its dependency tr
---

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# The Yellow Fairy Book, The Glass Mountain(16), part 4, sentence 43

<!-- .ven lang=en -->
The young Prince pursued the little creature, and had almost overtaken it, when the girth of his saddle suddenly broke in two and he fell heavily to the ground.

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**Who acts:** young Prince, girth · **What happens:** pursue, overtake, break, fall · **To what, where:** little creature, creature, two

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This is a sentence of «The Yellow Fairy Book» by Andrew Lang, The Glass Mountain(16), part 4. The page gives its syntax tree — a dependency tree in the style of Universal Dependencies — and its pragmatics clause by clause: who acts (young Prince, girth), 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:pg640:25:43
# text = The young Prince pursued the little creature, and had almost overtaken it, when the girth of his saddle suddenly broke in two and he fell heavily to the ground.
1	The	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	3	det	_	_
2	young	young	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	3	amod	_	_
3	Prince	Prince	PROPN	NNP	Number=Sing	4	nsubj	_	_
4	pursued	pursue	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	0	root	_	_
5	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	7	det	_	_
6	little	little	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	7	amod	_	_
7	creature	creature	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	4	obj	_	SpaceAfter=No
8	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	12	punct	_	_
9	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	12	cc	_	_
10	had	have	AUX	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	12	aux	_	_
11	almost	almost	ADV	RB	_	12	advmod	_	_
12	overtaken	overtake	VERB	VBN	Tense=Past|VerbForm=Part	4	conj	_	_
13	it	it	PRON	PRP	Case=Acc|Gender=Neut|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	12	obj	_	SpaceAfter=No
14	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	22	punct	_	_
15	when	when	ADV	WRB	PronType=Int	22	advmod	_	_
16	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	17	det	_	_
17	girth	girth	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	22	nsubj	_	_
18	of	of	ADP	IN	_	20	case	_	_
19	his	his	PRON	PRP$	Case=Gen|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|Poss=Yes|PronType=Prs	20	nmod:poss	_	_
20	saddle	saddle	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	17	nmod	_	_
21	suddenly	suddenly	ADV	RB	_	22	advmod	_	_
22	broke	break	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	4	parataxis	_	_
23	in	in	ADP	IN	_	24	case	_	_
24	two	two	NUM	CD	NumForm=Word|NumType=Card	22	obl	_	_
25	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	27	cc	_	_
26	he	he	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	27	nsubj	_	_
27	fell	fall	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	22	conj	_	_
28	heavily	heavily	ADV	RB	_	27	advmod	_	_
29	to	to	ADP	IN	_	31	case	_	_
30	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	31	det	_	_
31	ground	ground	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	27	obl	_	SpaceAfter=No
32	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	4	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

<!-- .fr -->
| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **pursue** | past | the young Prince | the little creature |  |  |  |  | vn chase-51.6 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent creature=Theme |
| 2 | **overtake** | past · perfect | the young Prince *not said here* | creature |  |  |  | almost *property* | tree rules |
| 3 | **break** | past | the girth of Prince's saddle |  |  | two |  | suddenly *property* | vn appear-48.1.1 «NP V PP.location»: agent=Theme in two=Location |
| 4 | **fall** | past | girth |  |  |  |  | to the ground; heavily *property* | vn acquiesce-95.1-1 «NP V PP.theme»: agent=Agent to ground=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.

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**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.

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