---
title: All at once one of the little boys took up the Tin-soldier, and thre… — The Yellow Fairy Book · tree and pragmatics
description: All at once one of the little boys took up the Tin-soldier, and threw him into the stove, giving no reasons; but doubtless the little black imp in the snuff-box was at the bottom of this too. Who acts: little boys, little black imp. A sentence of «The Yellow Fairy Book» by Andrew Lang, The Steadfast
---

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# The Yellow Fairy Book, The Steadfast Tin-soldier, sentence 74

<!-- .ven lang=en -->
All at once one of the little boys took up the Tin-soldier, and threw him into the stove, giving no reasons; but doubtless the little black imp in the snuff-box was at the bottom of this too.

<!-- .vintro -->
**Who acts:** little boys, little black imp · **What happens:** take up, throw, give, be · **To what, where:** Tin soldier, boy, stove, reasons, doubtless bottom

<!-- .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 (little boys, little black imp), 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:pg640:50:74
# text = All at once one of the little boys took up the Tin-soldier, and threw him into the stove, giving no reasons; but doubtless the little black imp in the snuff-box was at the bottom of this too.
1	All	all	DET	DT	PronType=Tot	4	nsubj	_	_
2	at	at	ADP	IN	_	4	case	_	_
3	once	once	ADV	RB	NumForm=Word|NumType=Mult	4	advmod	_	_
4	one	one	NUM	CD	NumForm=Word|NumType=Card	9	obl	_	_
5	of	of	ADP	IN	_	8	case	_	_
6	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	8	det	_	_
7	little	little	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	8	amod	_	_
8	boys	boy	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	9	nsubj	_	_
9	took	take	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Plur|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	0	root	_	_
10	up	up	ADP	RP	_	9	compound:prt	_	_
11	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	14	det	_	_
12	Tin	Tin	PROPN	NNP	Number=Sing	14	compound	_	SpaceAfter=No
13	-	-	PUNCT	HYPH	_	12	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
14	soldier	soldier	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	9	obj	_	SpaceAfter=No
15	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	17	punct	_	_
16	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	17	cc	_	_
17	threw	throw	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Plur|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	9	conj	_	_
18	him	he	PRON	PRP	Case=Acc|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	17	obj	_	_
19	into	into	ADP	IN	_	21	case	_	_
20	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	21	det	_	_
21	stove	stove	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	17	obl	_	SpaceAfter=No
22	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	23	punct	_	_
23	giving	give	VERB	VBG	Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Part	17	advcl	_	_
24	no	no	DET	DT	PronType=Neg	25	det	_	_
25	reasons	reason	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	23	obj	_	SpaceAfter=No
26	;	;	PUNCT	:	_	41	punct	_	_
27	but	but	CCONJ	CC	_	41	cc	_	_
28	doubtless	doubtless	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	41	amod	_	_
29	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	32	det	_	_
30	little	little	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	32	amod	_	_
31	black	black	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	32	amod	_	_
32	imp	imp	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	41	nsubj	_	_
33	in	in	ADP	IN	_	37	case	_	_
34	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	37	det	_	_
35	snuff	snuff	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	37	compound	_	SpaceAfter=No
36	-	-	PUNCT	HYPH	_	35	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
37	box	box	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	32	nmod	_	_
38	was	be	AUX	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	41	cop	_	_
39	at	at	ADP	IN	_	41	case	_	_
40	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	41	det	_	_
41	bottom	bottom	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	9	obl	_	_
42	of	of	ADP	IN	_	43	case	_	_
43	this	this	PRON	DT	Number=Sing|PronType=Dem	41	nmod	_	_
44	too	too	ADV	RB	_	9	advmod	_	SpaceAfter=No
45	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	9	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

<!-- .fr -->
| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **take up** | past | the little boys | the Tin soldier |  |  |  | at one | vn get-13.5.1 «NP V NP PP.source NP.asset»: agent=Agent soldier=Theme at one=Asset |
| 2 | **throw** | past | the little boys *not said here* | boy |  |  |  | into the stove *result* | vn throw-17.1-1-1 «NP V NP PP.result»: agent=Causer he=Theme into stove=Result |
| 3 | **give** | gerund | the little boys *not said here* | no reasons |  |  |  |  | vn give-13.1-1 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent reason=Theme |
| 4 | **is** | past | the little black imp in the snuff box |  |  | the doubtless bottom |  | of this | 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.

<!-- /div -->

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