---
title: The headless man thanked him humbly, slid hastily down the bell rope… — The Violet Fairy Book · tree and pragmatics
description: The headless man thanked him humbly, slid hastily down the bell rope, and ran down the steps of the tower as if he had left a fire behind him. Who acts: headless man, kick. A sentence of «The Violet Fairy Book» by Andrew Lang, The Headless Dwarfs, with its dependency tree and the pragmatics of every
---

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# The Violet Fairy Book, The Headless Dwarfs, sentence 37

<!-- .ven lang=en -->
The headless man thanked him humbly, slid hastily down the bell rope, and ran down the steps of the tower as if he had left a fire behind him.

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**Who acts:** headless man, kick · **What happens:** thank, slide, run down, leave, step · **To what, where:** kick, bell rope, steps, fire, tower

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This is a sentence of «The Violet Fairy Book» by Andrew Lang, The Headless Dwarfs. The page gives its syntax tree — a dependency tree in the style of Universal Dependencies — and its pragmatics clause by clause: who acts (headless man, kick), 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:pg641:33:37
# text = The headless man thanked him humbly, slid hastily down the bell rope, and ran down the steps of the tower as if he had left a fire behind him.
1	The	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	3	det	_	_
2	headless	headless	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	3	amod	_	_
3	man	man	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	4	nsubj	_	_
4	thanked	thank	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	0	root	_	_
5	him	he	PRON	PRP	Case=Acc|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	4	obj	_	_
6	humbly	humbly	ADV	RB	_	4	advmod	_	SpaceAfter=No
7	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	8	punct	_	_
8	slid	slide	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	4	conj	_	_
9	hastily	hastily	ADV	RB	_	8	advmod	_	_
10	down	down	ADP	IN	_	13	case	_	_
11	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	13	det	_	_
12	bell	bell	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	13	compound	_	_
13	rope	rope	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	8	obl	_	SpaceAfter=No
14	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	16	punct	_	_
15	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	16	cc	_	_
16	ran	run	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	4	conj	_	_
17	down	down	ADP	RP	_	16	compound:prt	_	_
18	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	19	det	_	_
19	steps	step	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	16	obj	_	_
20	of	of	ADP	IN	_	22	case	_	_
21	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	22	det	_	_
22	tower	tower	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	19	nmod	_	_
23	as	as	SCONJ	IN	_	27	mark	_	_
24	if	if	SCONJ	IN	_	27	mark	_	_
25	he	he	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	27	nsubj	_	_
26	had	have	AUX	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	27	aux	_	_
27	left	leave	VERB	VBN	Tense=Past|VerbForm=Part	16	advcl	_	_
28	a	a	DET	DT	Definite=Ind|PronType=Art	29	det	_	_
29	fire	fire	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	27	obj	_	_
30	behind	behind	ADP	IN	_	31	case	_	_
31	him	he	PRON	PRP	Case=Acc|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	27	obl	_	SpaceAfter=No
32	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	4	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

<!-- .fr -->
| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **thank** *speech: thank* | past | the headless man |  | kick |  |  | humbly *property* | vn judgment-33.1-1 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent he=Theme |
| 2 | **slide** | past | the headless man *not said here* |  |  | the bell rope |  | hastily *property* | vn run-51.3.2-2 «NP V PP.location»: agent=Theme down rope=Trajectory |
| 3 | **run down** | past | the headless man *not said here* | the steps of the tower |  |  |  |  | vn run-51.3.2-2-1 «NP V NP»: agent=Theme step=Trajectory |
| 4 | **leave** | past · perfect | kick | a fire |  |  |  | behind dwarf | vn keep-15.2 «NP V NP PP.location»: agent=Agent fire=Theme behind he=Location |
| 5 | **step** |  |  | the tower |  |  |  |  | nom step «act transitive»: of=patient |

<!-- .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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