---
title: As the last one flies past you, catch hold of its robe of feathers,… — The Violet Fairy Book · tree and pragmatics
description: As the last one flies past you, catch hold of its robe of feathers, and refuse to give it back till the dove has promised you three things.’ Who acts: last one, you. A sentence of «The Violet Fairy Book» by Andrew Lang, The Prince Who Wanted to See the World, with its dependency tree and the pragmat
---

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# The Violet Fairy Book, The Prince Who Wanted to See the World, sentence 16

<!-- .ven lang=en -->
As the last one flies past you, catch hold of its robe of feathers, and refuse to give it back till the dove has promised you three things.’

<!-- .vintro -->
**Who acts:** last one, you · **What happens:** fly, catch, refuse, not give back, promise, hold · **To what, where:** hold, dove, you, robe

<!-- .vabout -->
This is a sentence of «The Violet Fairy Book» by Andrew Lang, The Prince Who Wanted to See the World. The page gives its syntax tree — a dependency tree in the style of Universal Dependencies — and its pragmatics clause by clause: who acts (last one, you), 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:pg641:42:16
# text = As the last one flies past you, catch hold of its robe of feathers, and refuse to give it back till the dove has promised you three things.’
1	As	as	SCONJ	IN	_	5	mark	_	_
2	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	4	det	_	_
3	last	last	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	4	amod	_	_
4	one	one	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	5	nsubj	_	_
5	flies	fly	VERB	VBZ	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Fin	9	advcl	_	_
6	past	past	ADP	IN	_	7	case	_	_
7	you	you	PRON	PRP	Case=Acc|Person=2|PronType=Prs	5	obl	_	SpaceAfter=No
8	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	9	punct	_	_
9	catch	catch	VERB	VB	Mood=Imp|VerbForm=Fin	0	root	_	_
10	hold	hold	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	9	obj	_	_
11	of	of	ADP	IN	_	13	case	_	_
12	its	its	PRON	PRP$	Case=Gen|Gender=Neut|Number=Sing|Person=3|Poss=Yes|PronType=Prs	13	nmod:poss	_	_
13	robe	robe	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	10	nmod	_	_
14	of	of	ADP	IN	_	15	case	_	_
15	feathers	feather	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	13	nmod	_	SpaceAfter=No
16	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	18	punct	_	_
17	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	18	cc	_	_
18	refuse	refuse	VERB	VB	Mood=Imp|VerbForm=Fin	9	conj	_	_
19	to	to	PART	TO	_	20	mark	_	_
20	give	give	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	18	xcomp	_	_
21	it	it	PRON	PRP	Case=Acc|Gender=Neut|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	20	obj	_	_
22	back	back	ADV	RB	_	20	advmod	_	_
23	till	till	SCONJ	IN	_	27	mark	_	_
24	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	25	det	_	_
25	dove	dove	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	27	nsubj:pass	_	_
26	has	have	AUX	VBZ	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Fin	27	aux	_	_
27	promised	promise	VERB	VBN	Tense=Past|VerbForm=Part|Voice=Pass	20	advcl	_	_
28	you	you	PRON	PRP	Case=Acc|Person=2|PronType=Prs	27	iobj	_	_
29	three	three	NUM	CD	NumForm=Word|NumType=Card	30	nummod	_	_
30	things	thing	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	27	obj	_	SpaceAfter=No
31	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	9	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
32	’	'	PUNCT	''	_	9	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

<!-- .fr -->
| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **fly** | present | the last one |  |  |  |  | past you | vn run-51.3.2-2-1 «NP V PP.location»: agent=Theme past you=Trajectory |
| 2 | **catch** | imperative | you *not said here* | hold of hold's robe of feathers |  |  |  |  | vn get-13.5.1 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent hold=Theme |
| 3 | **refuse** | infinitive | you *not said here* |  |  |  |  |  | vn reject-77.2 «NP V S\_ING»: agent=Agent clause=Theme |
| 4 | **not** **give back** | to-infinitive | you *not said here* | hold |  |  |  |  | vn give-13.1 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent it=Theme |
| 5 | **promise** *speech: promise* | present · perfect · passive |  | the dove | you |  |  |  | tree rules |
| 6 | **hold** |  |  | hold's robe of feathers |  |  |  |  | nom hold «act 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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