---
title: The beast saw the sword, and shrank back, which was the best thing i… — The Violet Fairy Book · tree and pragmatics
description: The beast saw the sword, and shrank back, which was the best thing it could do, as now the girl’s blood was up, and the light of battle in her eyes. Who acts: beast, sword. A sentence of «The Violet Fairy Book» by Andrew Lang, The Girl Who Pretended to Be a Boy, part 1, with its dependency tree and 
---

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# The Violet Fairy Book, The Girl Who Pretended to Be a Boy, part 1, sentence 97

<!-- .ven lang=en -->
The beast saw the sword, and shrank back, which was the best thing it could do, as now the girl’s blood was up, and the light of battle in her eyes.

<!-- .vintro -->
**Who acts:** beast, sword · **What happens:** see, shrink back, be, do, light · **To what, where:** sword, best thing, battle

<!-- .vabout -->
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 (beast, sword), 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:pg641:38:97
# text = The beast saw the sword, and shrank back, which was the best thing it could do, as now the girl’s blood was up, and the light of battle in her eyes.
1	The	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	2	det	_	_
2	beast	beast	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	3	nsubj	_	_
3	saw	see	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	0	root	_	_
4	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	5	det	_	_
5	sword	sword	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	3	obj	_	SpaceAfter=No
6	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	8	punct	_	_
7	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	8	cc	_	_
8	shrank	shrink	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	3	conj	_	_
9	back	back	ADV	RB	_	8	advmod	_	SpaceAfter=No
10	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	15	punct	_	_
11	which	which	PRON	WDT	PronType=Rel	15	nsubj	_	_
12	was	be	AUX	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	15	cop	_	_
13	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	15	det	_	_
14	best	good	ADJ	JJS	Degree=Sup	15	amod	_	_
15	thing	thing	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	8	conj	_	_
16	it	it	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Gender=Neut|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	18	nsubj	_	_
17	could	could	AUX	MD	VerbForm=Fin	18	aux	_	_
18	do	do	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	15	acl:relcl	_	SpaceAfter=No
19	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	27	punct	_	_
20	as	as	ADP	IN	_	21	case	_	_
21	now	now	ADV	RB	PronType=Dem	27	obl	_	_
22	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	23	det	_	_
23	girl	girl	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	25	nmod:poss	_	SpaceAfter=No
24	’s	's	PART	POS	_	23	case	_	_
25	blood	blood	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	27	nsubj	_	_
26	was	be	AUX	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	27	cop	_	_
27	up	up	ADP	RP	_	8	compound:prt	_	SpaceAfter=No
28	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	31	punct	_	_
29	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	31	cc	_	_
30	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	31	det	_	_
31	light	light	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	3	obl	_	_
32	of	of	ADP	IN	_	33	case	_	_
33	battle	battle	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	31	nmod	_	_
34	in	in	ADP	IN	_	36	case	_	_
35	her	her	PRON	PRP$	Case=Gen|Gender=Fem|Number=Sing|Person=3|Poss=Yes|PronType=Prs	36	nmod:poss	_	_
36	eyes	eye	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	33	nmod	_	SpaceAfter=No
37	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	3	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

<!-- .fr -->
| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **see** | past | the beast | the sword |  |  |  | the light of battle in bade's eyes *obl* | vn comprehend-87.2-1-1 «NP V NP»: agent=Experiencer sword=Stimulus |
| 2 | **shrink back** | past | the beast *not said here* |  |  |  |  |  | vn bend-45.2 «NP.patient V»: agent=Patient |
| 3 | **is a** | past |  | the best thing |  |  |  |  | tree rules |
| 4 | **do** | could | sword | the best thing *not said here* |  |  |  |  | vn act-114-1 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent thing=Eventuality |
| 5 | **light** |  |  | battle in bade's eyes |  |  |  |  | nom light «phenomenon 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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