---
title: I seized a knife and cut off a large lock, which I plaited together,… — The Violet Fairy Book · tree and pragmatics
description: I seized a knife and cut off a large lock, which I plaited together, and when night came tied it into a knot, and prepared to use it for a pillow. Who acts: I, large lock. A sentence of «The Violet Fairy Book» by Andrew Lang, The Finest Liar in the World, with its dependency tree and the pragmatics 
---

<!-- md -->
[Mova](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/) · [this page in HTML](https://mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg641/3/49/)

<!-- crumbs -->
[home](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/) / [corpora](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/) / [tales](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/) / [The Violet Fairy Book](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg641/) / [The Finest Liar in the World](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg641/3/) / 49

# The Violet Fairy Book, The Finest Liar in the World, sentence 49

<!-- .ven lang=en -->
I seized a knife and cut off a large lock, which I plaited together, and when night came tied it into a knot, and prepared to use it for a pillow.

<!-- .vintro -->
**Who acts:** I, large lock · **What happens:** seize, cut off, plait, tie, use · **To what, where:** knife, large lock, night, knot, lock

<!-- .vabout -->
This is a sentence of «The Violet Fairy Book» by Andrew Lang, The Finest Liar in the World. The page gives its syntax tree — a dependency tree in the style of Universal Dependencies — and its pragmatics clause by clause: who acts (I, large lock), 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:pg641:3:49
# text = I seized a knife and cut off a large lock, which I plaited together, and when night came tied it into a knot, and prepared to use it for a pillow.
1	I	I	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Number=Sing|Person=1|PronType=Prs	2	nsubj	_	_
2	seized	seize	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=1|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	0	root	_	_
3	a	a	DET	DT	Definite=Ind|PronType=Art	4	det	_	_
4	knife	knife	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	2	obj	_	_
5	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	6	cc	_	_
6	cut	cut	VERB	VBN	Tense=Past|VerbForm=Part|Voice=Pass	2	conj	_	_
7	off	off	ADP	RP	_	6	compound:prt	_	_
8	a	a	DET	DT	Definite=Ind|PronType=Art	10	det	_	_
9	large	large	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	10	amod	_	_
10	lock	lock	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	6	obj	_	SpaceAfter=No
11	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	14	punct	_	_
12	which	which	PRON	WDT	PronType=Rel	14	nsubj	_	_
13	I	I	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Number=Sing|Person=1|PronType=Prs	14	nsubj	_	_
14	plaited	plait	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	10	acl:relcl	_	_
15	together	together	ADV	RB	_	14	advmod	_	SpaceAfter=No
16	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	21	punct	_	_
17	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	21	cc	_	_
18	when	when	ADV	WRB	PronType=Int	21	advmod	_	_
19	night	night	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	21	nsubj:pass	_	_
20	came	come	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	21	aux:pass	_	_
21	tied	tie	VERB	VBN	Tense=Past|VerbForm=Part|Voice=Pass	2	conj	_	_
22	it	it	PRON	PRP	Case=Acc|Gender=Neut|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	21	obj	_	_
23	into	into	ADP	IN	_	25	case	_	_
24	a	a	DET	DT	Definite=Ind|PronType=Art	25	det	_	_
25	knot	knot	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	21	obl	_	SpaceAfter=No
26	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	28	punct	_	_
27	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	28	cc	_	_
28	prepared	prepared	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	2	parataxis	_	_
29	to	to	PART	TO	_	30	mark	_	_
30	use	use	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	28	xcomp	_	_
31	it	it	PRON	PRP	Case=Acc|Gender=Neut|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	30	obj	_	_
32	for	for	ADP	IN	_	34	case	_	_
33	a	a	DET	DT	Definite=Ind|PronType=Art	34	det	_	_
34	pillow	pillow	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	30	obl	_	SpaceAfter=No
35	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	2	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

<!-- .fr -->
| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **seize** | past | I | a knife |  |  |  |  | vn obtain-13.5.2 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent knife=Theme |
| 2 | **cut off** | participle | I *not said here* | a large lock |  |  |  |  | vn stop-55.4-1 «NP V NP.eventuality»: agent=Affector lock=Eventuality |
| 3 | **plait** | past | a large lock |  |  |  |  | together *property* | vn braid-41.2.2 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent |
| 4 | **tie** | past · passive |  | night |  | a knot |  |  | vn tape-22.4 «NP V NP ADJP»: subject=Patient it=Result |
| 5 | **use** | to-infinitive | I *not said here* | lock |  |  |  | for a pillow | vn use-105.1 «NP V NP PP.predicate»: agent=Agent it=Theme for pillow=Eventuality |

<!-- .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.

<!-- div src -->

**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.

<!-- /div -->

<!-- pn -->
- ← previous: [sentence 48](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg641/3/48/)
- next →: [sentence 50](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg641/3/50/)
- ↑ back to [The Finest Liar in the World](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg641/3/)