---
title: For three days and three nights the battle raged, and sometimes one… — The Violet Fairy Book · tree and pragmatics
description: For three days and three nights the battle raged, and sometimes one had the upper hand, and sometimes the other, till at length they both lay struggling on the ground, but Petru was on top, with the point of his sword at the giant’s throat. Who acts: battle, one, gardens, Petru. A sentence of «The V
---

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# The Violet Fairy Book, The Fairy of the Dawn, part 3, sentence 118

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For three days and three nights the battle raged, and sometimes one had the upper hand, and sometimes the other, till at length they both lay struggling on the ground, but Petru was on top, with the point of his sword at the giant’s throat.

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**Who acts:** battle, one, gardens, Petru · **What happens:** rage, have, lay, struggle, be, point · **To what, where:** upper hand, length, ground, top, sword, throat

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This is a sentence of «The Violet Fairy Book» by Andrew Lang, The Fairy of the Dawn, part 3. The page gives its syntax tree — a dependency tree in the style of Universal Dependencies — and its pragmatics clause by clause: who acts (battle, one, gardens, 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:pg641:21:118
# text = For three days and three nights the battle raged, and sometimes one had the upper hand, and sometimes the other, till at length they both lay struggling on the ground, but Petru was on top, with the point of his sword at the giant’s throat.
1	For	for	ADP	IN	_	3	case	_	_
2	three	three	NUM	CD	NumForm=Word|NumType=Card	3	nummod	_	_
3	days	day	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	9	obl	_	_
4	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	6	cc	_	_
5	three	three	NUM	CD	NumForm=Word|NumType=Card	6	nummod	_	_
6	nights	night	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	3	conj	_	_
7	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	8	det	_	_
8	battle	battle	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	9	nsubj	_	_
9	raged	rage	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	0	root	_	SpaceAfter=No
10	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	14	punct	_	_
11	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	14	cc	_	_
12	sometimes	sometimes	ADV	RB	PronType=Ind	13	advmod	_	_
13	one	one	NUM	CD	NumForm=Word|NumType=Card	14	nsubj	_	_
14	had	have	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	9	conj	_	_
15	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	17	det	_	_
16	upper	upper	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	17	amod	_	_
17	hand	hand	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	14	obj	_	SpaceAfter=No
18	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	22	punct	_	_
19	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	22	cc	_	_
20	sometimes	sometimes	ADV	RB	PronType=Ind	22	advmod	_	_
21	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	22	det	_	_
22	other	other	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	9	parataxis	_	SpaceAfter=No
23	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	29	punct	_	_
24	till	till	SCONJ	IN	_	29	mark	_	_
25	at	at	ADP	IN	_	26	case	_	_
26	length	length	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	29	obl	_	_
27	they	they	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Number=Plur|Person=3|PronType=Prs	29	nsubj	_	_
28	both	both	DET	DT	PronType=Tot	29	nsubj	_	_
29	lay	lay	VERB	VBP	Mood=Ind|Number=Plur|Person=3|Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Fin	9	advcl	_	_
30	struggling	struggle	VERB	VBG	VerbForm=Ger	29	xcomp	_	_
31	on	on	ADP	IN	_	33	case	_	_
32	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	33	det	_	_
33	ground	ground	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	30	obl	_	SpaceAfter=No
34	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	39	punct	_	_
35	but	but	CCONJ	CC	_	39	cc	_	_
36	Petru	Petru	PROPN	NNP	Number=Sing	39	nsubj	_	_
37	was	be	AUX	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	39	cop	_	_
38	on	on	ADP	IN	_	39	case	_	_
39	top	top	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	9	obl	_	SpaceAfter=No
40	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	43	punct	_	_
41	with	with	ADP	IN	_	43	case	_	_
42	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	43	det	_	_
43	point	point	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	9	parataxis	_	_
44	of	of	ADP	IN	_	46	case	_	_
45	his	his	PRON	PRP$	Case=Gen|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|Poss=Yes|PronType=Prs	46	nmod:poss	_	_
46	sword	sword	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	43	nmod	_	_
47	at	at	ADP	IN	_	51	case	_	_
48	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	49	det	_	_
49	giant	giant	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	51	nmod:poss	_	SpaceAfter=No
50	’s	's	PART	POS	_	49	case	_	_
51	throat	throat	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	43	nmod	_	SpaceAfter=No
52	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	9	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

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| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **rage** | past | the battle |  |  |  | day |  | vn entity\_specific\_modes\_being-47.2 «NP V»: agent=Theme |
| 2 | **have** | past | one | the upper hand |  |  |  |  | vn birth-28.2-1 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent hand=Patient |
| 3 | **lay** | present | gardens *= garden* |  |  | length |  |  | tree rules |
| 4 | **struggle** | gerund | gardens *= garden* *not said here* |  |  | the ground |  |  | vn battle-36.4 «NP V»: agent=Agent |
| 5 | **is** | past | Petru |  |  | top |  |  | tree rules |
| 6 | **point** |  |  | Petru's sword |  | the giant's throat |  |  | nom point «cognition transitive»: of=patient at=place |

<!-- .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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