---
title: The word ‘wolf’ was hardly out of his mouth than the white horse was… — The Violet Fairy Book · tree and pragmatics
description: The word ‘wolf’ was hardly out of his mouth than the white horse was off like the wind, so that in the twinkling of an eye it had reached the shed, dragging the hay-stack behind it. Who acts: word. A sentence of «The Violet Fairy Book» by Andrew Lang, The Grateful Prince, part 2, with its dependency
---

<!-- md -->
[Mova](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/) · [this page in HTML](https://mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg641/10/69/)

<!-- crumbs -->
[home](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/) / [corpora](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/) / [tales](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/) / [The Violet Fairy Book](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg641/) / [The Grateful Prince, part 2](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg641/10/) / 69

# The Violet Fairy Book, The Grateful Prince, part 2, sentence 69

<!-- .ven lang=en -->
The word ‘wolf’ was hardly out of his mouth than the white horse was off like the wind, so that in the twinkling of an eye it had reached the shed, dragging the hay-stack behind it.

<!-- .vintro -->
**Who acts:** word · **What happens:** be, reach, drag · **To what, where:** mouth, many, twinkling, hay stack

<!-- .vabout -->
This is a sentence of «The Violet Fairy Book» by Andrew Lang, The Grateful Prince, part 2. The page gives its syntax tree — a dependency tree in the style of Universal Dependencies — and its pragmatics clause by clause: who acts (word), 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:pg641:10:69
# text = The word ‘wolf’ was hardly out of his mouth than the white horse was off like the wind, so that in the twinkling of an eye it had reached the shed, dragging the hay-stack behind it.
1	The	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	2	det	_	_
2	word	word	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	11	nsubj	_	_
3	‘	'	PUNCT	``	_	4	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
4	wolf	wolf	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	2	appos	_	SpaceAfter=No
5	’	'	PUNCT	''	_	4	punct	_	_
6	was	be	AUX	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	11	cop	_	_
7	hardly	hardly	ADV	RB	_	11	advmod	_	_
8	out	out	ADP	IN	_	11	case	_	_
9	of	of	ADP	IN	_	11	case	_	_
10	his	his	PRON	PRP$	Case=Gen|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|Poss=Yes|PronType=Prs	11	nmod:poss	_	_
11	mouth	mouth	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	0	root	_	_
12	than	than	ADP	IN	_	15	case	_	_
13	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	15	det	_	_
14	white	white	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	15	amod	_	_
15	horse	horse	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	11	nmod	_	_
16	was	be	AUX	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	11	cop	_	_
17	off	off	ADP	RP	_	16	compound:prt	_	_
18	like	like	ADP	IN	_	20	case	_	_
19	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	20	det	_	_
20	wind	wind	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	16	obl	_	SpaceAfter=No
21	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	32	punct	_	_
22	so	so	SCONJ	IN	_	32	mark	_	_
23	that	that	SCONJ	IN	_	32	mark	_	_
24	in	in	ADP	IN	_	26	case	_	_
25	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	26	det	_	_
26	twinkling	twinkling	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	32	obl	_	_
27	of	of	ADP	IN	_	29	case	_	_
28	an	a	DET	DT	Definite=Ind|PronType=Art	29	det	_	_
29	eye	eye	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	26	nmod	_	_
30	it	it	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Gender=Neut|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	32	nsubj:pass	_	_
31	had	have	AUX	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	32	aux	_	_
32	reached	reach	VERB	VBN	Tense=Past|VerbForm=Part|Voice=Pass	16	parataxis	_	_
33	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	34	det	_	_
34	shed	shed	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	32	obj	_	SpaceAfter=No
35	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	36	punct	_	_
36	dragging	drag	VERB	VBG	Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Part	32	advcl	_	_
37	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	40	det	_	_
38	hay	hay	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	40	compound	_	SpaceAfter=No
39	-	-	PUNCT	HYPH	_	38	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
40	stack	stack	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	36	obj	_	_
41	behind	behind	ADP	IN	_	42	case	_	_
42	it	it	PRON	PRP	Case=Acc|Gender=Neut|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	36	obl	_	SpaceAfter=No
43	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	11	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

<!-- .fr -->
| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **is** | past | the word |  |  | prince's mouth |  | than the white horse; hardly *property* | tree rules |
| 2 | **reach** | past · perfect · passive |  | many |  | the twinkling of a eye |  |  | vn get-13.5.1 «NP V NP.beneficiary NP»: subject=Beneficiary shed=Theme |
| 3 | **drag** | gerund |  | the hay stack |  | many |  |  | vn carry-11.4 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent stack=Theme |

<!-- .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.

<!-- div src -->

**Text:** «The Violet Fairy Book» by Andrew Lang, Project Gutenberg book 641 (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 -->

<!-- pn -->
- ← previous: [sentence 68](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg641/10/68/)
- next →: [sentence 70](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg641/10/70/)
- ↑ back to [The Grateful Prince, part 2](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg641/10/)