--- title: For a moment her heart failed her, but the next, touching the horse… — The Violet Fairy Book · tree and pragmatics description: For a moment her heart failed her, but the next, touching the horse lightly with her spur, she drew her sword from its sheath, ready to separate the wolf’s head from its body at a single blow. Who acts: heart, bade. A sentence of «The Violet Fairy Book» by Andrew Lang, The Girl Who Pretended to Be a --- [Mova](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/) · [this page in HTML](https://mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg641/38/96/) [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 Girl Who Pretended to Be a Boy, pa…](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg641/38/) / 96 # The Violet Fairy Book, The Girl Who Pretended to Be a Boy, part 1, sentence 96 For a moment her heart failed her, but the next, touching the horse lightly with her spur, she drew her sword from its sheath, ready to separate the wolf’s head from its body at a single blow. **Who acts:** heart, bade · **What happens:** fail, touch, draw, separate, spur · **To what, where:** bade, horse, sword, sheath, head This is a sentence of «The Violet Fairy Book» by Andrew Lang, The Girl Who Pretended to Be a Boy, part 1. The page gives its syntax tree — a dependency tree in the style of Universal Dependencies — and its pragmatics clause by clause: who acts (heart, bade), what happens, when and where, as Mova's frames read it from the tree. **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:pg641:38:96 # text = For a moment her heart failed her, but the next, touching the horse lightly with her spur, she drew her sword from its sheath, ready to separate the wolf’s head from its body at a single blow. 1 For for ADP IN _ 3 case _ _ 2 a a DET DT Definite=Ind|PronType=Art 3 det _ _ 3 moment moment NOUN NN Number=Sing 6 obl _ _ 4 her her PRON PRP$ Case=Gen|Gender=Fem|Number=Sing|Person=3|Poss=Yes|PronType=Prs 5 nmod:poss _ _ 5 heart heart NOUN NN Number=Sing 6 nsubj _ _ 6 failed fail VERB VBD Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin 0 root _ _ 7 her she PRON PRP Case=Acc|Gender=Fem|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs 6 obj _ SpaceAfter=No 8 , , PUNCT , _ 11 punct _ _ 9 but but CCONJ CC _ 11 cc _ _ 10 the the DET DT Definite=Def|PronType=Art 11 det _ _ 11 next next ADJ JJ Degree=Pos 6 conj _ SpaceAfter=No 12 , , PUNCT , _ 13 punct _ _ 13 touching touch VERB VBG Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Part 6 advcl _ _ 14 the the DET DT Definite=Def|PronType=Art 15 det _ _ 15 horse horse NOUN NN Number=Sing 13 obj _ _ 16 lightly lightly ADV RB _ 13 advmod _ _ 17 with with ADP IN _ 19 case _ _ 18 her her PRON PRP$ Case=Gen|Gender=Fem|Number=Sing|Person=3|Poss=Yes|PronType=Prs 19 nmod:poss _ _ 19 spur spur NOUN NN Number=Sing 13 obl _ SpaceAfter=No 20 , , PUNCT , _ 22 punct _ _ 21 she she PRON PRP Case=Nom|Gender=Fem|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs 22 nsubj _ _ 22 drew draw VERB VBD Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin 6 parataxis _ _ 23 her her PRON PRP$ Case=Gen|Gender=Fem|Number=Sing|Person=3|Poss=Yes|PronType=Prs 24 nmod:poss _ _ 24 sword sword NOUN NN Number=Sing 22 obj _ _ 25 from from ADP IN _ 27 case _ _ 26 its its PRON PRP$ Case=Gen|Gender=Neut|Number=Sing|Person=3|Poss=Yes|PronType=Prs 27 nmod:poss _ _ 27 sheath sheath NOUN NN Number=Sing 22 obl _ SpaceAfter=No 28 , , PUNCT , _ 29 punct _ _ 29 ready ready ADJ JJ Degree=Pos 22 conj _ _ 30 to to PART TO _ 31 mark _ _ 31 separate separate VERB VB VerbForm=Inf 29 xcomp _ _ 32 the the DET DT Definite=Def|PronType=Art 33 det _ _ 33 wolf wolf NOUN NN Number=Sing 35 nmod:poss _ SpaceAfter=No 34 ’s 's PART POS _ 33 case _ _ 35 head head NOUN NN Number=Sing 31 obj _ _ 36 from from ADP IN _ 38 case _ _ 37 its its PRON PRP$ Case=Gen|Gender=Neut|Number=Sing|Person=3|Poss=Yes|PronType=Prs 38 nmod:poss _ _ 38 body body NOUN NN Number=Sing 31 obl _ _ 39 at at ADP IN _ 42 case _ _ 40 a a DET DT Definite=Ind|PronType=Art 42 det _ _ 41 single single ADJ JJ Degree=Pos 42 amod _ _ 42 blow blow NOUN NN Number=Sing 31 obl _ SpaceAfter=No 43 . . PUNCT . _ 6 punct _ _ ``` ## Pragmatics {#pragmatics} | # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by | | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | | 1 | **fail** | past | bade's heart | bade | | | moment | | vn succeed-74-3-1-1 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent she=Eventuality | | 2 | **touch** | gerund | bade's heart *not said here* | the horse | | | | with bade's spur; lightly *property* | vn touch-20-1 «NP V NP PP.instrument»: agent=Agent horse=Experiencer with spur=Instrument | | 3 | **draw** | past | bade | bade's sword | | sword's sheath | | | vn carry-11.4 «NP V NP PP.initial\_location»: agent=Agent sword=Theme from sheath=Initial\_Location | | 4 | **separate** | to-infinitive | bade *not said here* | the wolf's head | | | | at a single blow; from sword's body | vn separate-23.1-1-1 «NP V NP PP.co-patient»: agent=Agent head=Patient from body=Co-Patient | | 5 | **spur** | | bade | | | | | | nom spur «communication transitive»: poss=agent | 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. **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. - ← previous: [sentence 95](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg641/38/95/) - next →: [sentence 97](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg641/38/97/) - ↑ back to [The Girl Who Pretended to Be a Boy, part 1](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg641/38/)