---
title: He crept up the horse’s leg, sat down under the saddle, and then beg… — The Yellow Fairy Book · tree and pragmatics
description: He crept up the horse’s leg, sat down under the saddle, and then began to pinch the horse and to prick it with a pin. Who acts: messenger. A sentence of «The Yellow Fairy Book» by Andrew Lang, The Hazel-nut Child (29), with its dependency tree and the pragmatics of every clause.
---

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# The Yellow Fairy Book, The Hazel-nut Child (29), sentence 18

<!-- .ven lang=en -->
He crept up the horse’s leg, sat down under the saddle, and then began to pinch the horse and to prick it with a pin.

<!-- .vintro -->
**Who acts:** messenger · **What happens:** creep up, sit down, begin, pinch, prick · **To what, where:** leg, saddle, horse

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This is a sentence of «The Yellow Fairy Book» by Andrew Lang, The Hazel-nut Child (29). The page gives its syntax tree — a dependency tree in the style of Universal Dependencies — and its pragmatics clause by clause: who acts (messenger), 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:pg640:40:18
# text = He crept up the horse’s leg, sat down under the saddle, and then began to pinch the horse and to prick it with a pin.
1	He	he	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	2	nsubj	_	_
2	crept	creep	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	0	root	_	_
3	up	up	ADP	RP	_	2	compound:prt	_	_
4	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	5	det	_	_
5	horse	horse	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	7	nmod:poss	_	SpaceAfter=No
6	’s	's	PART	POS	_	5	case	_	_
7	leg	leg	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	2	obl	_	SpaceAfter=No
8	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	9	punct	_	_
9	sat	sit	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	2	parataxis	_	_
10	down	down	ADP	RP	_	9	compound:prt	_	_
11	under	under	ADP	IN	_	13	case	_	_
12	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	13	det	_	_
13	saddle	saddle	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	9	obl	_	SpaceAfter=No
14	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	17	punct	_	_
15	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	17	cc	_	_
16	then	then	ADV	RB	PronType=Dem	17	advmod	_	_
17	began	begin	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	2	parataxis	_	_
18	to	to	PART	TO	_	19	mark	_	_
19	pinch	pinch	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	17	xcomp	_	_
20	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	21	det	_	_
21	horse	horse	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	19	obj	_	_
22	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	24	cc	_	_
23	to	to	PART	TO	_	24	mark	_	_
24	prick	prick	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	19	conj	_	_
25	it	it	PRON	PRP	Case=Acc|Gender=Neut|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	24	obj	_	_
26	with	with	ADP	IN	_	28	case	_	_
27	a	a	DET	DT	Definite=Ind|PronType=Art	28	det	_	_
28	pin	pin	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	24	obl	_	SpaceAfter=No
29	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	2	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

<!-- .fr -->
| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **creep up** | past | messenger | the horse's leg |  |  |  |  | vn run-51.3.2 «NP V»: agent=Theme |
| 2 | **sit down** | past |  |  |  | the saddle |  |  | vn assuming\_position-50 «NP V PP.location»: agent=Agent under saddle=Location |
| 3 | **begin** | past |  |  |  |  | then |  | vn begin-55.1-1-1 «NP V S\_INF»: agent=Agent clause=Eventuality |
| 4 | **pinch** | to-infinitive |  | the horse |  |  |  |  | vn steal-10.5 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent horse=Theme |
| 5 | **prick** | to-infinitive |  | horse |  |  |  | with a pin | vn poke-19-1 «NP V NP PP.instrument»: agent=Agent it=Patient with pin=Instrument |

<!-- .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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