---
title: The princess saw her chance, and, with one swoop of her arm, severed… — The Violet Fairy Book · tree and pragmatics
description: The princess saw her chance, and, with one swoop of her arm, severed her enemy’s head from his body. Who acts: princess, one swoop, arm. A sentence of «The Violet Fairy Book» by Andrew Lang, The Girl Who Pretended to Be a Boy, part 3, with its dependency tree and the pragmatics of every clause.
---

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# The Violet Fairy Book, The Girl Who Pretended to Be a Boy, part 3, sentence 36

<!-- .ven lang=en -->
The princess saw her chance, and, with one swoop of her arm, severed her enemy’s head from his body.

<!-- .vintro -->
**Who acts:** princess, one swoop, arm · **What happens:** see, sever, chance, swoop · **To what, where:** chance, head, body

<!-- .vabout -->
This is a sentence of «The Violet Fairy Book» by Andrew Lang, The Girl Who Pretended to Be a Boy, part 3. The page gives its syntax tree — a dependency tree in the style of Universal Dependencies — and its pragmatics clause by clause: who acts (princess, one swoop, arm), 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:pg641:40:36
# text = The princess saw her chance, and, with one swoop of her arm, severed her enemy’s head from his body.
1	The	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	2	det	_	_
2	princess	princess	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	3	nsubj	_	_
3	saw	see	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	0	root	_	_
4	her	her	PRON	PRP$	Case=Gen|Gender=Fem|Number=Sing|Person=3|Poss=Yes|PronType=Prs	5	nmod:poss	_	_
5	chance	chance	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	3	obj	_	SpaceAfter=No
6	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	16	punct	_	_
7	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	16	cc	_	SpaceAfter=No
8	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	11	punct	_	_
9	with	with	ADP	IN	_	11	case	_	_
10	one	one	NUM	CD	NumForm=Word|NumType=Card	11	nummod	_	_
11	swoop	swoop	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	16	nsubj	_	_
12	of	of	ADP	IN	_	14	case	_	_
13	her	her	PRON	PRP$	Case=Gen|Gender=Fem|Number=Sing|Person=3|Poss=Yes|PronType=Prs	14	nmod:poss	_	_
14	arm	arm	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	11	nmod	_	SpaceAfter=No
15	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	11	punct	_	_
16	severed	sever	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	3	conj	_	_
17	her	her	PRON	PRP$	Case=Gen|Gender=Fem|Number=Sing|Person=3|Poss=Yes|PronType=Prs	18	nmod:poss	_	_
18	enemy	enemy	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	20	nmod:poss	_	SpaceAfter=No
19	’s	's	PART	POS	_	18	case	_	_
20	head	head	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	16	obj	_	_
21	from	from	ADP	IN	_	23	case	_	_
22	his	his	PRON	PRP$	Case=Gen|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|Poss=Yes|PronType=Prs	23	nmod:poss	_	_
23	body	body	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	16	obl	_	SpaceAfter=No
24	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	3	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

<!-- .fr -->
| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **see** | past | the princess | princess's chance |  |  |  |  | vn comprehend-87.2-1-1 «NP V NP»: agent=Experiencer chance=Stimulus |
| 2 | **sever** | past | one swoop of princess's arm | princess's enemy's head |  | swoop's body |  |  | vn remove-10.1 «NP V NP PP»: agent=Agent head=Theme from body=Initial\_Location |
| 3 | **chance** |  | princess |  |  |  |  |  | nom chance «state intransitive»: poss=agent |
| 4 | **swoop** |  | princess's arm |  |  |  |  |  | nom swoop «communication intransitive»: of=agent |

<!-- .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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