---
title: Petru planted himself firmly in his stirrups, and began to lay about… — The Violet Fairy Book · tree and pragmatics
description: Petru planted himself firmly in his stirrups, and began to lay about him with his sword, but could feel nothing. Who acts: Petru. A sentence of «The Violet Fairy Book» by Andrew Lang, The Fairy of the Dawn, part 2, with its dependency tree and the pragmatics of every clause.
---

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# The Violet Fairy Book, The Fairy of the Dawn, part 2, sentence 17

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Petru planted himself firmly in his stirrups, and began to lay about him with his sword, but could feel nothing.

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**Who acts:** Petru · **What happens:** plant, begin, lay, feel · **To what, where:** Petru, stirrups, nothing

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This is a sentence of «The Violet Fairy Book» by Andrew Lang, The Fairy of the Dawn, 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 (Petru), 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:pg641:20:17
# text = Petru planted himself firmly in his stirrups, and began to lay about him with his sword, but could feel nothing.
1	Petru	Petru	PROPN	NNP	Number=Sing	2	nsubj	_	_
2	planted	plant	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	0	root	_	_
3	himself	himself	PRON	PRP	Case=Acc|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs|Reflex=Yes	2	obj	_	_
4	firmly	firmly	ADV	RB	_	2	advmod	_	_
5	in	in	ADP	IN	_	7	case	_	_
6	his	his	PRON	PRP$	Case=Gen|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|Poss=Yes|PronType=Prs	7	nmod:poss	_	_
7	stirrups	stirrup	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	2	obl	_	SpaceAfter=No
8	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	10	punct	_	_
9	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	10	cc	_	_
10	began	begin	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	2	conj	_	_
11	to	to	PART	TO	_	12	mark	_	_
12	lay	lay	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	10	xcomp	_	_
13	about	about	ADP	IN	_	14	case	_	_
14	him	he	PRON	PRP	Case=Acc|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	12	obl	_	_
15	with	with	ADP	IN	_	17	case	_	_
16	his	his	PRON	PRP$	Case=Gen|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|Poss=Yes|PronType=Prs	17	nmod:poss	_	_
17	sword	sword	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	12	obl	_	SpaceAfter=No
18	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	21	punct	_	_
19	but	but	CCONJ	CC	_	21	cc	_	_
20	could	could	AUX	MD	VerbForm=Fin	21	aux	_	_
21	feel	feel	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	2	conj	_	_
22	nothing	nothing	PRON	NN	Number=Sing|PronType=Neg	21	obj	_	SpaceAfter=No
23	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	2	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

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| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **plant** | past | Petru | Petru |  | Petru's stirrups |  | firmly *property* | vn put-9.1-1 «NP V NP PP.destination»: agent=Agent himself=Theme in stirrup=Destination |
| 2 | **begin** | past | Petru *not said here* |  |  |  |  |  | vn begin-55.1-1-1 «NP V S\_INF»: agent=Agent clause=Eventuality |
| 3 | **lay** | to-infinitive | Petru *not said here* |  |  |  |  | about Petru; with Petru's sword | vn put\_spatial-9.2 «NP V NP PP.destination»: agent=Agent about he=Destination |
| 4 | **feel** | could | Petru *not said here* | nothing |  |  |  |  | vn hunt-35.1 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent nothing=Theme |

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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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