---
title: Thousands of heads were reared, and tongues were stretched out to st… — The Violet Fairy Book · tree and pragmatics
description: Thousands of heads were reared, and tongues were stretched out to sting the intruder to death, but happily for him their bodies were so closely entwined one in the other that they could not disentangle themselves quickly. Who acts: Thousands. A sentence of «The Violet Fairy Book» by Andrew Lang, The
---

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# The Violet Fairy Book, The Young Man Who Would Have His Eyes Opened, sentence 26

<!-- .ven lang=en -->
Thousands of heads were reared, and tongues were stretched out to sting the intruder to death, but happily for him their bodies were so closely entwined one in the other that they could not disentangle themselves quickly.

<!-- .vintro -->
**Who acts:** Thousands · **What happens:** rear, stretch out, sting, entwine, not disentangle · **To what, where:** Thousands, tongues, intruder, noise

<!-- .vabout -->
This is a sentence of «The Violet Fairy Book» by Andrew Lang, The Young Man Who Would Have His Eyes Opened. The page gives its syntax tree — a dependency tree in the style of Universal Dependencies — and its pragmatics clause by clause: who acts (Thousands), 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:pg641:34:26
# text = Thousands of heads were reared, and tongues were stretched out to sting the intruder to death, but happily for him their bodies were so closely entwined one in the other that they could not disentangle themselves quickly.
1	Thousands	thousand	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	5	nsubj:pass	_	_
2	of	of	ADP	IN	_	3	case	_	_
3	heads	head	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	1	nmod	_	_
4	were	be	AUX	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Plur|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	5	aux:pass	_	_
5	reared	rear	VERB	VBN	Tense=Past|VerbForm=Part|Voice=Pass	0	root	_	SpaceAfter=No
6	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	10	punct	_	_
7	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	10	cc	_	_
8	tongues	tongue	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	10	nsubj:pass	_	_
9	were	be	AUX	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Plur|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	10	aux:pass	_	_
10	stretched	stretch	VERB	VBN	Tense=Past|VerbForm=Part|Voice=Pass	5	conj	_	_
11	out	out	ADP	RP	_	10	compound:prt	_	_
12	to	to	PART	TO	_	13	mark	_	_
13	sting	sting	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	10	advcl	_	_
14	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	15	det	_	_
15	intruder	intruder	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	13	obj	_	_
16	to	to	ADP	IN	_	17	case	_	_
17	death	death	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	13	obl	_	SpaceAfter=No
18	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	28	punct	_	_
19	but	but	CCONJ	CC	_	28	cc	_	_
20	happily	happily	ADV	RB	_	28	advmod	_	_
21	for	for	SCONJ	IN	_	28	mark	_	_
22	him	he	PRON	PRP	Case=Acc|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	28	nsubj:pass	_	_
23	their	their	PRON	PRP$	Case=Gen|Number=Plur|Person=3|Poss=Yes|PronType=Prs	24	nmod:poss	_	_
24	bodies	body	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	22	conj	_	_
25	were	be	AUX	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Plur|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	28	aux	_	_
26	so	so	ADV	RB	_	28	advmod	_	_
27	closely	closely	ADV	RB	_	28	advmod	_	_
28	entwined	entwine	VERB	VBN	Tense=Past|VerbForm=Part|Voice=Pass	5	conj	_	_
29	one	one	NUM	CD	NumForm=Word|NumType=Card	28	obj	_	_
30	in	in	ADP	IN	_	32	case	_	_
31	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	32	det	_	_
32	other	other	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	29	parataxis	_	_
33	that	that	SCONJ	IN	_	37	mark	_	_
34	they	they	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Number=Plur|Person=3|PronType=Prs	37	nsubj	_	_
35	could	could	AUX	MD	VerbForm=Fin	37	aux	_	_
36	not	not	PART	RB	Polarity=Neg	37	advmod	_	_
37	disentangle	disentangle	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	32	csubj	_	_
38	themselves	themselves	PRON	PRP	Case=Acc|Number=Plur|Person=3|PronType=Prs|Reflex=Yes	37	obj	_	_
39	quickly	quickly	ADV	RB	_	37	advmod	_	SpaceAfter=No
40	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	5	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

<!-- .fr -->
| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **rear** | past · passive |  | Thousands of heads |  |  |  |  | vn rear-26.2.2 «NP V NP»: subject=Patient |
| 2 | **stretch out** | past · passive |  | tongues |  |  |  |  | vn bend-45.2 «NP V NP.patient»: subject=Patient |
| 3 | **sting** | to-infinitive |  | the intruder |  |  |  | to death | vn amuse-31.1 «NP V NP»: agent=Stimulus intruder=Experiencer |
| 4 | **entwine** | past · passive |  | noise |  |  |  | closely, happily *property* | tree rules |
| 5 | **not** **disentangle** | could | Thousands *= thousand* | Thousands *= thousand* |  |  |  | quickly *property* | vn separate-23.1-1 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent themselves=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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