---
title: When he at length lost power to move his tail, the youth with the he… — The Yellow Fairy Book · tree and pragmatics
description: When he at length lost power to move his tail, the youth with the help of the ring took up a stone which twenty ordinary men could not have moved, and beat the Dragon so hard about the head with it that very soon the monster lay lifeless before him. Who acts: wisdom, youth, twenty ordinary men, mons
---

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[Mova](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/) · [this page in HTML](https://mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg640/5/166/)

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# The Yellow Fairy Book, The Dragon of the North(2), sentence 166

<!-- .ven lang=en -->
When he at length lost power to move his tail, the youth with the help of the ring took up a stone which twenty ordinary men could not have moved, and beat the Dragon so hard about the head with it that very soon the monster lay lifeless before him.

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**Who acts:** wisdom, youth, twenty ordinary men, monster · **What happens:** lose, move, take up, not move, beat, lie · **To what, where:** power, tail, stone, Dragon, ring

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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 (wisdom, youth, twenty ordinary men, monster), 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:pg640:5:166
# text = When he at length lost power to move his tail, the youth with the help of the ring took up a stone which twenty ordinary men could not have moved, and beat the Dragon so hard about the head with it that very soon the monster lay lifeless before him.
1	When	when	SCONJ	WRB	_	5	mark	_	_
2	he	he	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	5	nsubj	_	_
3	at	at	ADP	IN	_	4	case	_	_
4	length	length	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	2	nmod	_	_
5	lost	lose	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	20	advcl	_	_
6	power	power	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	5	obj	_	_
7	to	to	PART	TO	_	8	mark	_	_
8	move	move	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	5	xcomp	_	_
9	his	his	PRON	PRP$	Case=Gen|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|Poss=Yes|PronType=Prs	10	nmod:poss	_	_
10	tail	tail	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	8	obj	_	SpaceAfter=No
11	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	5	punct	_	_
12	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	13	det	_	_
13	youth	youth	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	20	nsubj	_	_
14	with	with	ADP	IN	_	16	case	_	_
15	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	16	det	_	_
16	help	help	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	13	nmod	_	_
17	of	of	ADP	IN	_	19	case	_	_
18	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	19	det	_	_
19	ring	ring	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	16	nmod	_	_
20	took	take	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	0	root	_	_
21	up	up	ADP	RP	_	20	compound:prt	_	_
22	a	a	DET	DT	Definite=Ind|PronType=Art	23	det	_	_
23	stone	stone	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	20	obj	_	_
24	which	which	PRON	WDT	PronType=Rel	31	obj	_	_
25	twenty	twenty	NUM	CD	NumForm=Word|NumType=Card	27	nummod	_	_
26	ordinary	ordinary	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	27	amod	_	_
27	men	man	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	31	nsubj	_	_
28	could	could	AUX	MD	VerbForm=Fin	31	aux	_	_
29	not	not	PART	RB	Polarity=Neg	31	advmod	_	_
30	have	have	AUX	VB	VerbForm=Inf	31	aux	_	_
31	moved	move	VERB	VBN	Tense=Past|VerbForm=Part	23	acl:relcl	_	SpaceAfter=No
32	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	34	punct	_	_
33	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	34	cc	_	_
34	beat	beat	VERB	VB	Mood=Imp|VerbForm=Fin	20	parataxis	_	_
35	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	36	det	_	_
36	Dragon	Dragon	PROPN	NNP	Number=Sing	34	obj	_	_
37	so	so	ADV	RB	_	38	advmod	_	_
38	hard	hard	ADV	RB	Degree=Pos	34	advmod	_	_
39	about	about	ADP	IN	_	41	case	_	_
40	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	41	det	_	_
41	head	head	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	34	obl	_	_
42	with	with	ADP	IN	_	43	case	_	_
43	it	it	PRON	PRP	Case=Acc|Gender=Neut|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	41	nmod	_	_
44	that	that	SCONJ	IN	_	49	mark	_	_
45	very	very	ADV	RB	_	46	advmod	_	_
46	soon	soon	ADV	RB	Degree=Pos	49	advmod	_	_
47	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	48	det	_	_
48	monster	monster	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	49	nsubj	_	_
49	lay	lie	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	34	advcl	_	_
50	lifeless	lifeless	ADV	RB	_	49	advmod	_	_
51	before	before	ADP	IN	_	52	case	_	_
52	him	he	PRON	PRP	Case=Acc|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	49	obl	_	SpaceAfter=No
53	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	20	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

<!-- .fr -->
| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **lose** | past | wisdom | power |  |  |  |  | tree rules |
| 2 | **move** | to-infinitive | wisdom *not said here* | wisdom's tail |  |  |  |  | vn roll-51.3.1 «NP V NP.theme»: agent=Agent tail=Theme |
| 3 | **take up** | past | the youth with the help of the ring | a stone |  |  |  |  | vn bring-11.3 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent stone=Theme |
| 4 | **not** **move** | could · perfect | twenty ordinary men | a stone |  |  |  |  | vn roll-51.3.1 «NP V NP.theme»: agent=Agent which=Theme |
| 5 | **beat** | infinitive |  | the Dragon |  |  |  | about the head with tail; hard *property* | tree rules |
| 6 | **lie** | past | the monster |  |  |  | before wisdom | lifeless, soon *property* | vn assuming\_position-50 «NP V PP.location»: agent=Agent before he=Location |
| 7 | **help** |  |  | the ring |  |  |  |  | nom help «act transitive»: of=patient |

<!-- .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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