---
title: But the dragon made no reply to the horse’s words, but sprang on his… — The Violet Fairy Book · tree and pragmatics
description: But the dragon made no reply to the horse’s words, but sprang on his back and set off in chase of the fugitives. Who acts: dragon, horse. A sentence of «The Violet Fairy Book» by Andrew Lang, The Nine Pea-hens and the Golden Apples, with its dependency tree and the pragmatics of every clause.
---

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# The Violet Fairy Book, The Nine Pea-hens and the Golden Apples, sentence 154

<!-- .ven lang=en -->
But the dragon made no reply to the horse’s words, but sprang on his back and set off in chase of the fugitives.

<!-- .vintro -->
**Who acts:** dragon, horse · **What happens:** make, spring, set off, word, chase · **To what, where:** reply, back, chase, fugitives

<!-- .vabout -->
This is a sentence of «The Violet Fairy Book» by Andrew Lang, The Nine Pea-hens and the Golden Apples. The page gives its syntax tree — a dependency tree in the style of Universal Dependencies — and its pragmatics clause by clause: who acts (dragon, horse), 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:pg641:7:154
# text = But the dragon made no reply to the horse’s words, but sprang on his back and set off in chase of the fugitives.
1	But	but	CCONJ	CC	_	4	cc	_	_
2	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	3	det	_	_
3	dragon	dragon	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	4	nsubj	_	_
4	made	make	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	0	root	_	_
5	no	no	DET	DT	PronType=Neg	6	det	_	_
6	reply	reply	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	4	obj	_	_
7	to	to	ADP	IN	_	11	case	_	_
8	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	9	det	_	_
9	horse	horse	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	11	nmod:poss	_	SpaceAfter=No
10	’s	's	PART	POS	_	9	case	_	_
11	words	word	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	4	obl	_	SpaceAfter=No
12	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	14	punct	_	_
13	but	but	CCONJ	CC	_	14	cc	_	_
14	sprang	spring	VERB	VBG	Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Part	4	advcl	_	_
15	on	on	ADP	IN	_	17	case	_	_
16	his	his	PRON	PRP$	Case=Gen|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|Poss=Yes|PronType=Prs	17	nmod:poss	_	_
17	back	back	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	14	obl	_	_
18	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	19	cc	_	_
19	set	set	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Plur|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	4	conj	_	_
20	off	off	ADP	RP	_	19	compound:prt	_	_
21	in	in	ADP	IN	_	22	case	_	_
22	chase	chase	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	19	obl	_	_
23	of	of	ADP	IN	_	25	case	_	_
24	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	25	det	_	_
25	fugitives	fugitive	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	22	nmod	_	SpaceAfter=No
26	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	4	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

<!-- .fr -->
| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **make** | past | the dragon | no reply |  |  |  | to the horse's words | vn build-26.1-1 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent reply=Product |
| 2 | **spring** | gerund | the dragon *not said here* |  |  | dragon's back |  |  | vn run-51.3.2 «NP V PP.location»: agent=Theme on back=Trajectory |
| 3 | **set off** | past | the dragon *not said here* |  |  | chase of the fugitives |  |  | vn escape-51.1-1 «NP V»: agent=Theme |
| 4 | **word** |  | the horse |  |  |  |  |  | nom word «communication transitive»: poss=agent |
| 5 | **chase** |  |  | the fugitives |  |  |  |  | nom chase «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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