---
title: The words were hardly out of his mouth before the dragon had snatche… — The Violet Fairy Book · tree and pragmatics
description: The words were hardly out of his mouth before the dragon had snatched up the sacks and piled them on his back. Who acts: words. A sentence of «The Violet Fairy Book» by Andrew Lang, Stan Bolovan, with its dependency tree and the pragmatics of every clause.
---

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# The Violet Fairy Book, Stan Bolovan, sentence 187

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The words were hardly out of his mouth before the dragon had snatched up the sacks and piled them on his back.

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**Who acts:** words · **What happens:** be, snatch up, pile · **To what, where:** mouth, dragon, sacks, back

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This is a sentence of «The Violet Fairy Book» by Andrew Lang, Stan Bolovan. The page gives its syntax tree — a dependency tree in the style of Universal Dependencies — and its pragmatics clause by clause: who acts (words), 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:pg641:13:187
# text = The words were hardly out of his mouth before the dragon had snatched up the sacks and piled them on his back.
1	The	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	2	det	_	_
2	words	word	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	8	nsubj	_	_
3	were	be	AUX	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Plur|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	8	cop	_	_
4	hardly	hardly	ADV	RB	_	8	advmod	_	_
5	out	out	ADP	IN	_	8	case	_	_
6	of	of	ADP	IN	_	8	case	_	_
7	his	his	PRON	PRP$	Case=Gen|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|Poss=Yes|PronType=Prs	8	nmod:poss	_	_
8	mouth	mouth	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	0	root	_	_
9	before	before	SCONJ	IN	_	13	mark	_	_
10	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	11	det	_	_
11	dragon	dragon	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	13	nsubj:pass	_	_
12	had	have	AUX	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	13	aux	_	_
13	snatched	snatch	VERB	VBN	Tense=Past|VerbForm=Part|Voice=Pass	8	advcl	_	_
14	up	up	ADP	RP	_	13	compound:prt	_	_
15	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	16	det	_	_
16	sacks	sack	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	13	obj	_	_
17	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	18	cc	_	_
18	piled	pile	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	13	conj	_	_
19	them	they	PRON	PRP	Case=Acc|Number=Plur|Person=3|PronType=Prs	18	obj	_	_
20	on	on	ADP	IN	_	22	case	_	_
21	his	his	PRON	PRP$	Case=Gen|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|Poss=Yes|PronType=Prs	22	nmod:poss	_	_
22	back	back	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	18	obl	_	SpaceAfter=No
23	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	8	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

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| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **is** | past | the words |  |  | condition's mouth |  | hardly *property* | tree rules |
| 2 | **snatch up** | past · perfect · passive |  | the dragon |  |  |  |  | vn steal-10.5-1 «NP V NP NP»: subject=Beneficiary sack=Theme |
| 3 | **pile** | past |  | sacks *= sack* |  | condition's back |  |  | vn spray-9.7-1-1 «NP V NP PP.destination»: agent=Agent they=Theme on back=Destination |

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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 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.

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