---
title: But a raven unexpectedly gave him this advice: ‘Ride upon the horse,… — The Yellow Fairy Book · tree and pragmatics
description: But a raven unexpectedly gave him this advice: ‘Ride upon the horse, and push the spear against the ground, as if you were pushing off a boat from the land.’ Who acts: raven, you. A sentence of «The Yellow Fairy Book» by Andrew Lang, The Dragon of the North(2), with its dependency tree and the pragm
---

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# The Yellow Fairy Book, The Dragon of the North(2), sentence 156

<!-- .ven lang=en -->
But a raven unexpectedly gave him this advice: ‘Ride upon the horse, and push the spear against the ground, as if you were pushing off a boat from the land.’

<!-- .vintro -->
**Who acts:** raven, you · **What happens:** give, ride, push, push off · **To what, where:** advice, wisdom, spear, ground, boat, land

<!-- .vabout -->
This is a sentence of «The Yellow Fairy Book» by Andrew Lang, The Dragon of the North(2). The page gives its syntax tree — a dependency tree in the style of Universal Dependencies — and its pragmatics clause by clause: who acts (raven, you), 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:pg640:5:156
# text = But a raven unexpectedly gave him this advice: ‘Ride upon the horse, and push the spear against the ground, as if you were pushing off a boat from the land.’
1	But	but	CCONJ	CC	_	5	cc	_	_
2	a	a	DET	DT	Definite=Ind|PronType=Art	3	det	_	_
3	raven	raven	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	5	nsubj	_	_
4	unexpectedly	unexpectedly	ADV	RB	_	5	advmod	_	_
5	gave	give	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	0	root	_	_
6	him	he	PRON	PRP	Case=Acc|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	5	iobj	_	_
7	this	this	DET	DT	Number=Sing|PronType=Dem	8	det	_	_
8	advice	advice	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	5	obj	_	SpaceAfter=No
9	:	:	PUNCT	:	_	11	punct	_	_
10	‘	'	PUNCT	``	_	11	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
11	Ride	ride	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	5	advcl	_	_
12	upon	upon	ADP	IN	_	14	case	_	_
13	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	14	det	_	_
14	horse	horse	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	11	obl	_	SpaceAfter=No
15	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	17	punct	_	_
16	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	17	cc	_	_
17	push	push	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	11	conj	_	_
18	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	19	det	_	_
19	spear	spear	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	17	obj	_	_
20	against	against	ADP	IN	_	22	case	_	_
21	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	22	det	_	_
22	ground	ground	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	17	obl	_	SpaceAfter=No
23	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	28	punct	_	_
24	as	as	SCONJ	IN	_	28	mark	_	_
25	if	if	SCONJ	IN	_	28	mark	_	_
26	you	you	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Person=2|PronType=Prs	28	nsubj	_	_
27	were	be	AUX	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=2|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	28	aux	_	_
28	pushing	push	VERB	VBG	Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Part	17	advcl	_	_
29	off	off	ADP	RP	_	28	compound:prt	_	_
30	a	a	DET	DT	Definite=Ind|PronType=Art	31	det	_	_
31	boat	boat	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	28	obj	_	_
32	from	from	ADP	IN	_	34	case	_	_
33	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	34	det	_	_
34	land	land	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	28	obl	_	SpaceAfter=No
35	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	11	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
36	’	'	PUNCT	''	_	11	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

<!-- .fr -->
| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **give** | past | a raven | this advice | wisdom |  |  | unexpectedly *property* | vn give-13.1-1 «NP V NP-Dative NP»: agent=Agent he=Recipient advice=Theme |
| 2 | **ride** | infinitive | a raven *not said here* |  |  |  |  | upon the horse | vn nonvehicle-51.4.2 «NP.agent V»: agent=Agent |
| 3 | **push** | infinitive | a raven *not said here* | the spear |  | the ground |  |  | vn funnel-9.3-1-1 «NP V NP PP.trajectory»: agent=Agent spear=Theme against ground=Trajectory |
| 4 | **push off** | past · progressive | you | a boat |  | the land |  |  | vn funnel-9.3-1-1 «NP V NP PP.trajectory»: agent=Agent boat=Theme from land=Trajectory |

<!-- .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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