---
title: Perhaps we may be caught by the thorns, or perhaps we may have to ru… — The Violet Fairy Book · tree and pragmatics
description: Perhaps we may be caught by the thorns, or perhaps we may have to run before the Nunda, and the cloth might bind our legs, and cause us to fall before it.’ Who acts: thorns, we, cloth, us. A sentence of «The Violet Fairy Book» by Andrew Lang, The Nunda, Eater of People, with its dependency tree and 
---

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# The Violet Fairy Book, The Nunda, Eater of People, sentence 212

<!-- .ven lang=en -->
Perhaps we may be caught by the thorns, or perhaps we may have to run before the Nunda, and the cloth might bind our legs, and cause us to fall before it.’

<!-- .vintro -->
**Who acts:** thorns, we, cloth, us · **What happens:** catch, have, run, bind, cause, fall · **To what, where:** we, Nunda, legs, us, cloth

<!-- .vabout -->
This is a sentence of «The Violet Fairy Book» by Andrew Lang, The Nunda, Eater of People. The page gives its syntax tree — a dependency tree in the style of Universal Dependencies — and its pragmatics clause by clause: who acts (thorns, we, cloth, us), 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:pg641:29:212
# text = Perhaps we may be caught by the thorns, or perhaps we may have to run before the Nunda, and the cloth might bind our legs, and cause us to fall before it.’
1	Perhaps	perhaps	ADV	RB	_	5	advmod	_	_
2	we	we	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Number=Plur|Person=1|PronType=Prs	5	nsubj:pass	_	_
3	may	may	AUX	MD	VerbForm=Fin	5	aux	_	_
4	be	be	AUX	VB	VerbForm=Inf	5	aux:pass	_	_
5	caught	catch	VERB	VBN	Tense=Past|VerbForm=Part|Voice=Pass	0	root	_	_
6	by	by	ADP	IN	_	8	case	_	_
7	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	8	det	_	_
8	thorns	thorn	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	5	obl	_	SpaceAfter=No
9	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	14	punct	_	_
10	or	or	CCONJ	CC	_	14	cc	_	_
11	perhaps	perhaps	ADV	RB	_	14	advmod	_	_
12	we	we	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Number=Plur|Person=1|PronType=Prs	14	nsubj	_	_
13	may	may	AUX	MD	VerbForm=Fin	14	aux	_	_
14	have	have	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	5	conj	_	_
15	to	to	PART	TO	_	16	mark	_	_
16	run	run	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	14	xcomp	_	_
17	before	before	ADP	IN	_	19	case	_	_
18	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	19	det	_	_
19	Nunda	Nunda	PROPN	NNP	Number=Sing	16	obl	_	SpaceAfter=No
20	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	25	punct	_	_
21	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	25	cc	_	_
22	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	23	det	_	_
23	cloth	cloth	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	25	nsubj	_	_
24	might	might	AUX	MD	VerbForm=Fin	25	aux	_	_
25	bind	bind	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	14	parataxis	_	_
26	our	our	PRON	PRP$	Case=Gen|Number=Plur|Person=1|Poss=Yes|PronType=Prs	27	nmod:poss	_	_
27	legs	leg	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	25	obj	_	SpaceAfter=No
28	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	30	punct	_	_
29	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	30	cc	_	_
30	cause	cause	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	25	conj	_	_
31	us	we	PRON	PRP	Case=Acc|Number=Plur|Person=1|PronType=Prs	30	obj	_	_
32	to	to	PART	TO	_	33	mark	_	_
33	fall	fall	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	30	xcomp	_	_
34	before	before	ADP	IN	_	35	case	_	_
35	it	it	PRON	PRP	Case=Acc|Gender=Neut|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	33	obl	_	SpaceAfter=No
36	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	5	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
37	’	'	PUNCT	''	_	5	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

<!-- .fr -->
| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **catch** | may · passive | the thorns | we |  |  |  | perhaps *property* | vn get-13.5.1 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent subject=Theme |
| 2 | **have** | may | we |  |  |  |  | perhaps *property* | tree rules |
| 3 | **run** | to-infinitive | we *not said here* |  |  | the Nunda |  |  | vn run-51.3.2-2-1 «NP V PP.location»: agent=Theme before nunda=Trajectory |
| 4 | **bind** | might | the cloth | our legs |  |  |  |  | vn shake-22.3-2-1 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent leg=Patient |
| 5 | **cause** | infinitive | the cloth *not said here* | us |  |  |  |  | tree rules |
| 6 | **fall** | to-infinitive | us *not said here* |  |  | cloth |  |  | vn occur-48.3 «NP V PP»: agent=Theme before it=Location |

<!-- .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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