---
title: At length one man, bolder than the rest, struck his axe into a tree,… — The Violet Fairy Book · tree and pragmatics
description: At length one man, bolder than the rest, struck his axe into a tree, but his blow was followed by a stream of blood and shrieks as of a human creature in pain. Who acts: stream, man. A sentence of «The Violet Fairy Book» by Andrew Lang, A Tale of the Tontlawald, with its dependency tree and the prag
---

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# The Violet Fairy Book, A Tale of the Tontlawald, sentence 11

<!-- .ven lang=en -->
At length one man, bolder than the rest, struck his axe into a tree, but his blow was followed by a stream of blood and shrieks as of a human creature in pain.

<!-- .vintro -->
**Who acts:** stream, man · **What happens:** strike, follow, shriek, blow · **To what, where:** axe, length, blow

<!-- .vabout -->
This is a sentence of «The Violet Fairy Book» by Andrew Lang, A Tale of the Tontlawald. The page gives its syntax tree — a dependency tree in the style of Universal Dependencies — and its pragmatics clause by clause: who acts (stream, man), 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:pg641:2:11
# text = At length one man, bolder than the rest, struck his axe into a tree, but his blow was followed by a stream of blood and shrieks as of a human creature in pain.
1	At	at	ADP	IN	_	2	case	_	_
2	length	length	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	11	obl	_	_
3	one	one	NUM	CD	NumForm=Word|NumType=Card	4	nummod	_	_
4	man	man	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	2	conj	_	SpaceAfter=No
5	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	6	punct	_	_
6	bolder	bold	ADJ	JJR	Degree=Cmp	4	amod	_	_
7	than	than	ADP	IN	_	9	case	_	_
8	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	9	det	_	_
9	rest	rest	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	6	obl	_	SpaceAfter=No
10	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	2	punct	_	_
11	struck	strike	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=1|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	0	root	_	_
12	his	his	PRON	PRP$	Case=Gen|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|Poss=Yes|PronType=Prs	13	nmod:poss	_	_
13	axe	axe	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	11	obj	_	_
14	into	into	ADP	IN	_	16	case	_	_
15	a	a	DET	DT	Definite=Ind|PronType=Art	16	det	_	_
16	tree	tree	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	11	obl	_	SpaceAfter=No
17	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	22	punct	_	_
18	but	but	CCONJ	CC	_	22	cc	_	_
19	his	his	PRON	PRP$	Case=Gen|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|Poss=Yes|PronType=Prs	20	nmod:poss	_	_
20	blow	blow	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	22	nsubj:pass	_	_
21	was	be	AUX	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	22	aux:pass	_	_
22	followed	follow	VERB	VBN	Tense=Past|VerbForm=Part|Voice=Pass	11	parataxis	_	_
23	by	by	ADP	IN	_	25	case	_	_
24	a	a	DET	DT	Definite=Ind|PronType=Art	25	det	_	_
25	stream	stream	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	22	obl	_	_
26	of	of	ADP	IN	_	27	case	_	_
27	blood	blood	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	25	nmod	_	_
28	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	29	cc	_	_
29	shrieks	shriek	VERB	VBZ	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Fin	22	conj	_	_
30	as	as	ADP	IN	ExtPos=ADP	34	case	_	_
31	of	of	ADP	IN	_	30	fixed	_	_
32	a	a	DET	DT	Definite=Ind|PronType=Art	34	det	_	_
33	human	human	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	34	amod	_	_
34	creature	creature	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	29	obl	_	_
35	in	in	ADP	IN	_	36	case	_	_
36	pain	pain	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	34	nmod	_	SpaceAfter=No
37	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	11	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

<!-- .fr -->
| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **strike** | past |  | man's axe |  | length and one man |  | into a tree *result* | vn hit-18.1-1 «NP V NP PP.result»: agent=Agent axe=Patient into tree=Result |
| 2 | **follow** | past · passive | a stream of blood | man's blow |  |  |  |  | vn chase-51.6 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent subject=Theme |
| 3 | **shriek** | present | a stream of blood *not said here* |  |  |  |  | as a human creature in pain | vn sound\_emission-43.2 «NP V»: agent=Theme |
| 4 | **blow** |  | man |  |  |  |  |  | nom blow «act intransitive»: poss=agent |

<!-- .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 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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