---
title: He quickly found a sharp stone and cut the cords by which they were… — The Green Fairy Book · tree and pragmatics
description: He quickly found a sharp stone and cut the cords by which they were tied to a stake in the ground, and then all three started off together for Blacky’s house, where they lived happily ever after; and Browny quite gave up rolling in the mud, and Whitey ceased to be greedy, for they never forgot how n
---

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# The Green Fairy Book, The Three Little Pigs, sentence 80

<!-- .ven lang=en -->
He quickly found a sharp stone and cut the cords by which they were tied to a stake in the ground, and then all three started off together for Blacky’s house, where they lived happily ever after; and Browny quite gave up rolling in the mud, and Whitey ceased to be greedy, for they never forgot how nearly these faults had brought them to an untimely end.

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**Who acts:** Blacky, three, cords, Browny, Whitey · **What happens:** find, cut, tie, start off, live, give up · **To what, where:** sharp stone, cords, mud, faults

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This is a sentence of «The Green Fairy Book» by Andrew Lang, The Three Little Pigs. The page gives its syntax tree — a dependency tree in the style of Universal Dependencies — and its pragmatics clause by clause: who acts (Blacky, three, cords, Browny), 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:pg7277:13:80
# text = He quickly found a sharp stone and cut the cords by which they were tied to a stake in the ground, and then all three started off together for Blacky’s house, where they lived happily ever after; and Browny quite gave up rolling in the mud, and Whitey ceased to be greedy, for they never forgot how nearly these faults had brought them to an untimely end.
1	He	he	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	3	nsubj	_	_
2	quickly	quickly	ADV	RB	_	3	advmod	_	_
3	found	find	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	0	root	_	_
4	a	a	DET	DT	Definite=Ind|PronType=Art	6	det	_	_
5	sharp	sharp	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	6	amod	_	_
6	stone	stone	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	3	obj	_	_
7	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	8	cc	_	_
8	cut	cut	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	3	conj	_	_
9	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	10	det	_	_
10	cords	cord	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	8	obj	_	_
11	by	by	ADP	IN	_	12	case	_	_
12	which	which	PRON	WDT	PronType=Rel	15	obl	_	_
13	they	they	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Number=Plur|Person=3|PronType=Prs	15	nsubj:pass	_	_
14	were	be	AUX	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Plur|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	15	aux:pass	_	_
15	tied	tie	VERB	VBN	Tense=Past|VerbForm=Part|Voice=Pass	8	advcl	_	_
16	to	to	ADP	IN	_	18	case	_	_
17	a	a	DET	DT	Definite=Ind|PronType=Art	18	det	_	_
18	stake	stake	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	15	obl	_	_
19	in	in	ADP	IN	_	21	case	_	_
20	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	21	det	_	_
21	ground	ground	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	18	nmod	_	SpaceAfter=No
22	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	27	punct	_	_
23	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	27	cc	_	_
24	then	then	ADV	RB	PronType=Dem	27	advmod	_	_
25	all	all	DET	DT	PronType=Tot	26	det	_	_
26	three	three	NUM	CD	NumForm=Word|NumType=Card	27	nsubj	_	_
27	started	start	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	3	conj	_	_
28	off	off	ADP	RP	_	27	compound:prt	_	_
29	together	together	ADV	RB	_	27	advmod	_	_
30	for	for	ADP	IN	_	33	case	_	_
31	Blacky	Blacky	PROPN	NNP	Number=Sing	33	nmod:poss	_	SpaceAfter=No
32	’s	's	PART	POS	_	31	case	_	_
33	house	house	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	27	obl	_	SpaceAfter=No
34	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	37	punct	_	_
35	where	where	ADV	WRB	PronType=Rel	37	advmod	_	_
36	they	they	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Number=Plur|Person=3|PronType=Prs	37	nsubj	_	_
37	lived	live	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Plur|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	33	acl:relcl	_	_
38	happily	happily	ADV	RB	_	37	advmod	_	_
39	ever	ever	ADV	RB	PronType=Ind	40	advmod	_	_
40	after	after	ADV	RB	_	38	conj	_	SpaceAfter=No
41	;	;	PUNCT	,	_	45	punct	_	_
42	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	45	cc	_	_
43	Browny	Browny	PROPN	NNP	Number=Sing	45	nsubj	_	_
44	quite	quite	ADV	RB	_	45	advmod	_	_
45	gave	give	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	3	conj	_	_
46	up	up	ADP	RP	_	45	compound:prt	_	_
47	rolling	roll	VERB	VBG	Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Part	45	advcl	_	_
48	in	in	ADP	IN	_	50	case	_	_
49	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	50	det	_	_
50	mud	mud	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	47	obl	_	SpaceAfter=No
51	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	54	punct	_	_
52	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	54	cc	_	_
53	Whitey	Whitey	PROPN	NNP	Number=Sing	54	nsubj	_	_
54	ceased	cease	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	3	conj	_	_
55	to	to	PART	TO	_	57	mark	_	_
56	be	be	AUX	VB	VerbForm=Inf	57	cop	_	_
57	greedy	greedy	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	54	xcomp	_	SpaceAfter=No
58	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	62	punct	_	_
59	for	for	SCONJ	IN	_	62	mark	_	_
60	they	they	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Number=Plur|Person=3|PronType=Prs	62	nsubj	_	_
61	never	never	ADV	RB	PronType=Neg	62	advmod	_	_
62	forgot	forget	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Plur|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	68	advcl	_	_
63	how	how	ADV	WRB	PronType=Int	64	advmod	_	_
64	nearly	nearly	ADV	RB	_	62	advmod	_	_
65	these	this	DET	DT	Number=Plur|PronType=Dem	66	det	_	_
66	faults	fault	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	68	nsubj:pass	_	_
67	had	have	AUX	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Plur|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	68	aux	_	_
68	brought	bring	VERB	VBN	Tense=Past|VerbForm=Part|Voice=Pass	54	parataxis	_	_
69	them	they	PRON	PRP	Case=Acc|Number=Plur|Person=3|PronType=Prs	68	obj	_	_
70	to	to	ADP	IN	_	73	case	_	_
71	an	a	DET	DT	Definite=Ind|PronType=Art	73	det	_	_
72	untimely	untimely	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	73	amod	_	_
73	end	end	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	68	obl	_	SpaceAfter=No
74	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	3	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

<!-- .fr -->
| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **find** | past | Blacky | a sharp stone |  |  |  | quickly *property* | vn discover-84 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent stone=Topic |
| 2 | **cut** | infinitive | Blacky *not said here* | the cords |  |  |  |  | vn build-26.1-1 «NP.asset V NP»: agent=Asset cord=Product |
| 3 | **tie** | past · passive |  | cords *= cord* |  |  |  | to a stake in the ground | vn mix-22.1-2 «NP V NP PP.co-patient»: subject=Patient to stake=Co-Patient |
| 4 | **start off** | past | all three |  |  |  | then | for Blacky's house; together *property* | vn begin-55.1-1-1 «NP.eventuality V»: agent=Eventuality |
| 5 | **live** | past | cords *= cord* |  |  |  |  | happily *property* | vn exist-47.1-1 «NP V»: agent=Theme |
| 6 | **give up** | past | Browny |  |  |  |  |  | vn resign-10.11-2 «NP V»: agent=Agent |
| 7 | **roll** | gerund | Browny *not said here* |  |  | the mud |  |  | vn run-51.3.2-2 «NP V PP.location»: agent=Theme in mud=Trajectory |
| 8 | **cease** | past | Whitey |  |  |  |  |  | vn stop-55.4-1-1 «NP.eventuality V»: agent=Eventuality |
| 9 | **is** | to-infinitive | Whitey *not said here* |  |  |  |  | greedy *property* | tree rules |
| 10 | **not** **forget** | past | Browny |  |  |  |  | nearly *property* | tree rules |
| 11 | **bring** | past · perfect · passive |  | this faults |  |  | to a untimely end |  | vn bring-11.3-1 «NP V NP NP»: subject=Destination they=Theme |

<!-- .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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