---
title: This was drawn with great difficulty by forty-eight strong oxen; and… — The Green Fairy Book · tree and pragmatics
description: This was drawn with great difficulty by forty-eight strong oxen; and the Enchanter reclined at his ease, leaning upon his huge club, and holding carelessly upon his knee a tawny African lion, as if it had been a little lapdog. Who acts: forty strong oxen, Enchanter, knee. A sentence of «The Green Fa
---

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# The Green Fairy Book, Prince Narcissus and the Princess Potentilla, sentence 112

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This was drawn with great difficulty by forty-eight strong oxen; and the Enchanter reclined at his ease, leaning upon his huge club, and holding carelessly upon his knee a tawny African lion, as if it had been a little lapdog.

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**Who acts:** forty strong oxen, Enchanter, knee · **What happens:** draw, recline, lean, hold, be · **To what, where:** This, ease, huge club, tawny African lion, knee, little lapdog

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This is a sentence of «The Green Fairy Book» by Andrew Lang, Prince Narcissus and the Princess Potentilla. The page gives its syntax tree — a dependency tree in the style of Universal Dependencies — and its pragmatics clause by clause: who acts (forty strong oxen, Enchanter, knee), what happens, when and where, as Mova's frames read it from the tree.

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**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:pg7277:11:112
# text = This was drawn with great difficulty by forty-eight strong oxen; and the Enchanter reclined at his ease, leaning upon his huge club, and holding carelessly upon his knee a tawny African lion, as if it had been a little lapdog.
1	This	this	PRON	DT	Number=Sing|PronType=Dem	3	nsubj	_	_
2	was	be	AUX	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	3	aux:pass	_	_
3	drawn	draw	VERB	VBN	Tense=Past|VerbForm=Part|Voice=Pass	0	root	_	_
4	with	with	ADP	IN	_	6	case	_	_
5	great	great	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	6	amod	_	_
6	difficulty	difficulty	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	3	obl	_	_
7	by	by	ADP	IN	_	12	case	_	_
8	forty	forty	NUM	CD	NumForm=Word|NumType=Card	12	nummod	_	SpaceAfter=No
9	-	-	PUNCT	HYPH	_	10	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
10	eight	eight	NUM	CD	NumForm=Word|NumType=Card	8	conj	_	_
11	strong	strong	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	12	amod	_	_
12	oxen	ox	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	3	obl	_	SpaceAfter=No
13	;	;	PUNCT	:	_	17	punct	_	_
14	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	17	cc	_	_
15	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	16	det	_	_
16	Enchanter	Enchanter	PROPN	NNP	Number=Sing	17	nsubj	_	_
17	reclined	recline	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	3	conj	_	_
18	at	at	ADP	IN	_	20	case	_	_
19	his	his	PRON	PRP$	Case=Gen|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|Poss=Yes|PronType=Prs	20	nmod:poss	_	_
20	ease	ease	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	17	obl	_	SpaceAfter=No
21	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	22	punct	_	_
22	leaning	lean	VERB	VBG	Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Part	17	advcl	_	_
23	upon	upon	ADP	IN	_	26	case	_	_
24	his	his	PRON	PRP$	Case=Gen|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|Poss=Yes|PronType=Prs	26	nmod:poss	_	_
25	huge	huge	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	26	amod	_	_
26	club	club	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	22	obl	_	SpaceAfter=No
27	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	29	punct	_	_
28	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	29	cc	_	_
29	holding	hold	VERB	VBG	Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Part	3	advcl	_	_
30	carelessly	carelessly	ADV	RB	_	29	advmod	_	_
31	upon	upon	ADP	IN	_	33	case	_	_
32	his	his	PRON	PRP$	Case=Gen|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|Poss=Yes|PronType=Prs	33	nmod:poss	_	_
33	knee	knee	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	29	obl	_	_
34	a	a	DET	DT	Definite=Ind|PronType=Art	37	det	_	_
35	tawny	tawny	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	37	amod	_	_
36	African	African	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	37	amod	_	_
37	lion	lion	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	29	obj	_	SpaceAfter=No
38	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	46	punct	_	_
39	as	as	SCONJ	IN	_	46	mark	_	_
40	if	if	SCONJ	IN	_	46	mark	_	_
41	it	it	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Gender=Neut|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	46	nsubj	_	_
42	had	have	AUX	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	46	aux	_	_
43	been	be	AUX	VBN	Tense=Past|VerbForm=Part	46	cop	_	_
44	a	a	DET	DT	Definite=Ind|PronType=Art	46	det	_	_
45	little	little	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	46	amod	_	_
46	lapdog	lapdog	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	37	conj	_	SpaceAfter=No
47	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	3	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

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| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **draw** | past · passive | forty strong oxen | This |  |  |  | with great difficulty | vn scribble-25.2-1 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent subject=Theme |
| 2 | **recline** | past | the Enchanter |  |  | enchanter's ease |  |  | vn spatial\_configuration-47.6-1 «NP V NP.theme PP»: agent=Agent at ease=Location |
| 3 | **lean** | gerund | the Enchanter *not said here* |  |  | enchanter's huge club |  |  | vn assuming\_position-50 «NP V PP.location»: agent=Agent upon club=Location |
| 4 | **hold** | gerund | forty strong oxen *not said here* | a tawny African lion and a little lapdog |  | enchanter's knee |  | carelessly *property* | vn keep-15.2 «NP V NP PP.location»: agent=Agent lion=Theme upon knee=Location |
| 5 | **is a** *a condition, not said to happen* | past · perfect | knee | a little lapdog |  |  |  |  | tree rules |

<!-- .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 Green Fairy Book» by Andrew Lang, Project Gutenberg book 7277 (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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