--- title: The men did as they were ordered, and soon the tower was glowing lik… — The Violet Fairy Book · tree and pragmatics description: The men did as they were ordered, and soon the tower was glowing like coral, but when they flung themselves against it to overthrow it, they caught themselves on fire and were burnt to death. Who acts: men, tower, relations. A sentence of «The Violet Fairy Book» by Andrew Lang, The Story of Halfman, --- [Mova](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/) · [this page in HTML](https://mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg641/41/106/) [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 Story of Halfman](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg641/41/) / 106 # The Violet Fairy Book, The Story of Halfman, sentence 106 The men did as they were ordered, and soon the tower was glowing like coral, but when they flung themselves against it to overthrow it, they caught themselves on fire and were burnt to death. **Who acts:** men, tower, relations · **What happens:** do, order, glow, fling, overthrow, catch · **To what, where:** relations, tower, fire This is a sentence of «The Violet Fairy Book» by Andrew Lang, The Story of Halfman. The page gives its syntax tree — a dependency tree in the style of Universal Dependencies — and its pragmatics clause by clause: who acts (men, tower, relations), 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:pg641:41:106 # text = The men did as they were ordered, and soon the tower was glowing like coral, but when they flung themselves against it to overthrow it, they caught themselves on fire and were burnt to death. 1 The the DET DT Definite=Def|PronType=Art 2 det _ _ 2 men man NOUN NNS Number=Plur 3 nsubj _ _ 3 did do VERB VBD Mood=Ind|Number=Plur|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin 0 root _ _ 4 as as SCONJ IN _ 7 mark _ _ 5 they they PRON PRP Case=Nom|Number=Plur|Person=3|PronType=Prs 7 nsubj _ _ 6 were be AUX VBD Mood=Ind|Number=Plur|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin 7 aux:pass _ _ 7 ordered order VERB VBN Tense=Past|VerbForm=Part|Voice=Pass 3 advcl _ SpaceAfter=No 8 , , PUNCT , _ 14 punct _ _ 9 and and CCONJ CC _ 14 cc _ _ 10 soon soon ADV RB Degree=Pos 14 advmod _ _ 11 the the DET DT Definite=Def|PronType=Art 12 det _ _ 12 tower tower NOUN NN Number=Sing 14 nsubj _ _ 13 was be AUX VBD Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin 14 aux _ _ 14 glowing glow VERB VBG Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Part 3 advcl _ _ 15 like like ADP IN _ 16 case _ _ 16 coral coral NOUN NN Number=Sing 14 obl _ SpaceAfter=No 17 , , PUNCT , _ 30 punct _ _ 18 but but CCONJ CC _ 30 cc _ _ 19 when when ADV WRB PronType=Int 21 advmod _ _ 20 they they PRON PRP Case=Nom|Number=Plur|Person=3|PronType=Prs 21 nsubj _ _ 21 flung fling VERB VBD Mood=Ind|Number=Plur|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin 30 advcl _ _ 22 themselves themselves PRON PRP Case=Acc|Number=Plur|Person=3|PronType=Prs|Reflex=Yes 21 obj _ _ 23 against against ADP IN _ 24 case _ _ 24 it it PRON PRP Case=Acc|Gender=Neut|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs 21 obl _ _ 25 to to PART TO _ 26 mark _ _ 26 overthrow overthrow VERB VB VerbForm=Inf 21 advcl _ _ 27 it it PRON PRP Case=Acc|Gender=Neut|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs 26 obj _ SpaceAfter=No 28 , , PUNCT , _ 21 punct _ _ 29 they they PRON PRP Case=Nom|Number=Plur|Person=3|PronType=Prs 30 nsubj _ _ 30 caught catch VERB VBD Mood=Ind|Number=Plur|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin 3 parataxis _ _ 31 themselves themselves PRON PRP Case=Acc|Number=Plur|Person=3|PronType=Prs|Reflex=Yes 30 obj _ _ 32 on on ADP IN _ 33 case _ _ 33 fire fire NOUN NN Number=Sing 30 obl _ _ 34 and and CCONJ CC _ 36 cc _ _ 35 were be AUX VBD Mood=Ind|Number=Plur|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin 36 aux:pass _ _ 36 burnt burnt VERB VBN Tense=Past|VerbForm=Part|Voice=Pass 30 conj _ _ 37 to to ADP IN _ 38 case _ _ 38 death death NOUN NN Number=Sing 36 obl _ SpaceAfter=No 39 . . PUNCT . _ 3 punct _ _ ``` ## Pragmatics {#pragmatics} | # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by | | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | | 1 | **do** | past | the men | | | | | | vn act-114-1 «NP V»: agent=Agent | | 2 | **order** | past · passive | | relations *= relation* | | | | | vn get-13.5.1 «NP V NP»: subject=Theme | | 3 | **glow** | past · progressive | the tower | | | | | like coral; soon *property* | vn light\_emission-43.1 «NP V»: agent=Theme | | 4 | **fling** | past | relations *= relation* | relations *= relation* | | tower | | | vn throw-17.1-1 «NP V NP PP.destinations»: agent=Agent themselves=Theme against it=Destination | | 5 | **overthrow** | to-infinitive | relations *= relation* *not said here* | tower | | | | | tree rules | | 6 | **catch** | past | relations *= relation* | relations *= relation* | | fire | | | vn get-13.5.1 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent themselves=Theme | | 7 | **burnt** | past · passive | relations *= relation* *not said here* | | | | | to death | tree rules | 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 105](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg641/41/105/) - next →: [sentence 107](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg641/41/107/) - ↑ back to [The Story of Halfman](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg641/41/)