---
title: At a word from him they rushed in a body to the unfortunate turtle,… — The Violet Fairy Book · tree and pragmatics
description: At a word from him they rushed in a body to the unfortunate turtle, threw him on his back, and tore off the shield that covered his body. Who acts: monkeys, shield. A sentence of «The Violet Fairy Book» by Andrew Lang, The Monkey and the Jelly-fish, with its dependency tree and the pragmatics of eve
---

<!-- md -->
[Mova](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/) · [this page in HTML](https://mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg641/32/38/)

<!-- 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 Monkey and the Jelly-fish](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg641/32/) / 38

# The Violet Fairy Book, The Monkey and the Jelly-fish, sentence 38

<!-- .ven lang=en -->
At a word from him they rushed in a body to the unfortunate turtle, threw him on his back, and tore off the shield that covered his body.

<!-- .vintro -->
**Who acts:** monkeys, shield · **What happens:** rush, throw, cover · **To what, where:** word, turtle, back, body

<!-- .vabout -->
This is a sentence of «The Violet Fairy Book» by Andrew Lang, The Monkey and the Jelly-fish. The page gives its syntax tree — a dependency tree in the style of Universal Dependencies — and its pragmatics clause by clause: who acts (monkeys, shield), 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:pg641:32:38
# text = At a word from him they rushed in a body to the unfortunate turtle, threw him on his back, and tore off the shield that covered his body.
1	At	at	ADP	IN	_	3	case	_	_
2	a	a	DET	DT	Definite=Ind|PronType=Art	3	det	_	_
3	word	word	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	7	obl	_	_
4	from	from	ADP	IN	_	5	case	_	_
5	him	he	PRON	PRP	Case=Acc|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	3	nmod	_	_
6	they	they	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Number=Plur|Person=3|PronType=Prs	7	nsubj	_	_
7	rushed	rush	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Plur|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	0	root	_	_
8	in	in	ADP	IN	_	10	case	_	_
9	a	a	DET	DT	Definite=Ind|PronType=Art	10	det	_	_
10	body	body	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	7	obl	_	_
11	to	to	ADP	IN	_	14	case	_	_
12	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	14	det	_	_
13	unfortunate	unfortunate	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	14	amod	_	_
14	turtle	turtle	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	7	obl	_	SpaceAfter=No
15	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	16	punct	_	_
16	threw	throw	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Plur|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	7	conj	_	_
17	him	he	PRON	PRP	Case=Acc|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	16	obj	_	_
18	on	on	ADP	IN	_	20	case	_	_
19	his	his	PRON	PRP$	Case=Gen|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|Poss=Yes|PronType=Prs	20	nmod:poss	_	_
20	back	back	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	16	obl	_	SpaceAfter=No
21	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	23	punct	_	_
22	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	23	cc	_	_
23	tore	tore	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	16	obl	_	_
24	off	off	ADP	IN	_	26	case	_	_
25	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	26	det	_	_
26	shield	shield	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	23	nmod	_	_
27	that	that	PRON	WDT	PronType=Rel	28	nsubj	_	_
28	covered	cover	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	26	acl:relcl	_	_
29	his	his	PRON	PRP$	Case=Gen|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|Poss=Yes|PronType=Prs	30	nmod:poss	_	_
30	body	body	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	28	obj	_	SpaceAfter=No
31	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	7	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

<!-- .fr -->
| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **rush** | past | monkeys *= monkey* |  |  | a word from turtle |  | in a body; to the unfortunate turtle *result* | vn run-51.3.2-2-1 «NP V PP.result»: agent=Theme to turtle=Result |
| 2 | **throw** | past | monkeys *= monkey* *not said here* | turtle |  | turtle's back |  | tore off the shield *obl* | vn throw-17.1-1-1 «NP V NP PP.destinations»: agent=Agent he=Theme on back=Destination |
| 3 | **cover** | past | the shield | turtle's body |  |  |  |  | vn fill-9.8-1 «NP V NP»: agent=Theme body=Destination |

<!-- .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 37](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg641/32/37/)
- next →: [sentence 39](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg641/32/39/)
- ↑ back to [The Monkey and the Jelly-fish](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg641/32/)