---
title: The clock struck twelve, and crack! off flew the lid of the snuff-bo… — The Yellow Fairy Book · tree and pragmatics
description: The clock struck twelve, and crack! off flew the lid of the snuff-box; but there was no snuff inside, only a little black imp--that was the beauty of it. Who acts: clock, snuff, that. A sentence of «The Yellow Fairy Book» by Andrew Lang, The Steadfast Tin-soldier, with its dependency tree and the pr
---

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# The Yellow Fairy Book, The Steadfast Tin-soldier, sentence 22

<!-- .ven lang=en -->
The clock struck twelve, and crack! off flew the lid of the snuff-box; but there was no snuff inside, only a little black imp--that was the beauty of it.

<!-- .vintro -->
**Who acts:** clock, snuff, that · **What happens:** strike, fly, be · **To what, where:** twelve, crack, beauty

<!-- .vabout -->
This is a sentence of «The Yellow Fairy Book» by Andrew Lang, The Steadfast Tin-soldier. The page gives its syntax tree — a dependency tree in the style of Universal Dependencies — and its pragmatics clause by clause: who acts (clock, snuff, that), 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:pg640:50:22
# text = The clock struck twelve, and crack! off flew the lid of the snuff-box; but there was no snuff inside, only a little black imp--that was the beauty of it.
1	The	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	2	det	_	_
2	clock	clock	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	3	nsubj	_	_
3	struck	strike	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	0	root	_	_
4	twelve	twelve	NUM	CD	NumForm=Word|NumType=Card	3	obj	_	SpaceAfter=No
5	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	10	punct	_	_
6	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	10	cc	_	_
7	crack	crack	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	10	obl:unmarked	_	SpaceAfter=No
8	!	!	PUNCT	.	_	7	punct	_	_
9	off	off	ADV	RB	_	10	advmod	_	_
10	flew	fly	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	3	conj	_	_
11	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	12	det	_	_
12	lid	lid	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	10	obj	_	_
13	of	of	ADP	IN	_	17	case	_	_
14	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	17	det	_	_
15	snuff	snuff	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	17	compound	_	SpaceAfter=No
16	-	-	PUNCT	HYPH	_	15	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
17	box	box	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	12	nmod	_	SpaceAfter=No
18	;	;	PUNCT	,	_	21	punct	_	_
19	but	but	CCONJ	CC	_	21	cc	_	_
20	there	there	PRON	EX	PronType=Dem	21	expl	_	_
21	was	be	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	3	parataxis	_	_
22	no	no	DET	DT	PronType=Neg	23	det	_	_
23	snuff	snuff	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	21	nsubj	_	_
24	inside	inside	ADV	RB	_	21	advmod	_	SpaceAfter=No
25	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	30	punct	_	_
26	only	only	ADV	RB	_	30	advmod	_	_
27	a	a	DET	DT	Definite=Ind|PronType=Art	30	det	_	_
28	little	little	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	30	amod	_	_
29	black	black	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	30	amod	_	_
30	imp	imp	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	3	parataxis	_	SpaceAfter=No
31	--	--	PUNCT	,	_	35	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
32	that	that	PRON	WDT	PronType=Rel	35	nsubj	_	_
33	was	be	AUX	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	35	cop	_	_
34	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	35	det	_	_
35	beauty	beauty	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	30	appos	_	_
36	of	of	ADP	IN	_	37	case	_	_
37	it	it	PRON	PRP	Case=Acc|Gender=Neut|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	35	nmod	_	SpaceAfter=No
38	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	3	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

<!-- .fr -->
| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **strike** | past | the clock | twelve |  |  |  |  | vn hit-18.1-1 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent twelve=Patient |
| 2 | **fly** | past | the clock *not said here* | crack |  |  |  | off *property* | vn spatial\_configuration-47.6-1 «PP.location V NP»: agent=Location lid=Theme |
| 3 | **be** | past | no snuff |  |  | there |  | inside *property* | vn exist-47.1 «NP V»: agent=Theme |
| 4 | **is a** | past | that | the beauty |  |  |  | of snuff | tree rules |

<!-- .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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