--- title: It is needless to say that he left the country as fast as horses cou… — The Green Fairy Book · tree and pragmatics description: It is needless to say that he left the country as fast as horses could carry him, but not before he had declared war, with the most terrible menaces, threatening to devastate the country with fire and sword. Who acts: It, Ambassador, horses. A sentence of «The Green Fairy Book» by Andrew Lang, Heart --- [Mova](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/) · [this page in HTML](https://mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg7277/16/73/) [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 Green Fairy Book](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg7277/) / [Heart of Ice, part 3](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg7277/16/) / 73 # The Green Fairy Book, Heart of Ice, part 3, sentence 73 It is needless to say that he left the country as fast as horses could carry him, but not before he had declared war, with the most terrible menaces, threatening to devastate the country with fire and sword. **Who acts:** It, Ambassador, horses · **What happens:** be, say, leave, carry, declare, threaten · **To what, where:** country, Ambassador, war · **Speech:** someone speaks here This is a sentence of «The Green Fairy Book» by Andrew Lang, Heart of Ice, part 3. The page gives its syntax tree — a dependency tree in the style of Universal Dependencies — and its pragmatics clause by clause: who acts (It, Ambassador, horses), 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:pg7277:16:73 # text = It is needless to say that he left the country as fast as horses could carry him, but not before he had declared war, with the most terrible menaces, threatening to devastate the country with fire and sword. 1 It it PRON PRP Case=Nom|Gender=Neut|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs 3 nsubj _ _ 2 is be AUX VBZ Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Fin 3 cop _ _ 3 needless needless ADJ JJ Degree=Pos 0 root _ _ 4 to to PART TO _ 5 mark _ _ 5 say say VERB VB VerbForm=Inf 3 csubj _ _ 6 that that SCONJ IN _ 8 mark _ _ 7 he he PRON PRP Case=Nom|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs 8 nsubj _ _ 8 left leave VERB VBD Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin 5 ccomp _ _ 9 the the DET DT Definite=Def|PronType=Art 10 det _ _ 10 country country NOUN NN Number=Sing 8 obj _ _ 11 as as ADV RB _ 12 advmod _ _ 12 fast fast ADV RB Degree=Pos 8 advmod _ _ 13 as as SCONJ IN _ 16 mark _ _ 14 horses horse NOUN NNS Number=Plur 16 nsubj _ _ 15 could could AUX MD VerbForm=Fin 16 aux _ _ 16 carry carry VERB VB VerbForm=Inf 12 advcl _ _ 17 him he PRON PRP Case=Acc|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs 16 obj _ SpaceAfter=No 18 , , PUNCT , _ 24 punct _ _ 19 but but CCONJ CC _ 24 cc _ _ 20 not not PART RB Polarity=Neg 21 advmod _ _ 21 before before SCONJ IN _ 24 mark _ _ 22 he he PRON PRP Case=Nom|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs 24 nsubj _ _ 23 had have AUX VBD Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin 24 aux _ _ 24 declared declare VERB VBN Tense=Past|VerbForm=Part 3 conj _ _ 25 war war NOUN NN Number=Sing 24 xcomp _ SpaceAfter=No 26 , , PUNCT , _ 31 punct _ _ 27 with with ADP IN _ 31 case _ _ 28 the the DET DT Definite=Def|PronType=Art 31 det _ _ 29 most most ADV RBS Degree=Sup 30 advmod _ _ 30 terrible terrible ADJ JJ Degree=Pos 31 amod _ _ 31 menaces menace NOUN NNS Number=Plur 24 obl _ SpaceAfter=No 32 , , PUNCT , _ 33 punct _ _ 33 threatening threaten VERB VBG Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Part 24 advcl _ _ 34 to to PART TO _ 35 mark _ _ 35 devastate devastate VERB VB VerbForm=Inf 33 xcomp _ _ 36 the the DET DT Definite=Def|PronType=Art 37 det _ _ 37 country country NOUN NN Number=Sing 35 obj _ _ 38 with with ADP IN _ 39 case _ _ 39 fire fire NOUN NN Number=Sing 35 obl _ _ 40 and and CCONJ CC _ 41 cc _ _ 41 sword sword NOUN NN Number=Sing 39 conj _ SpaceAfter=No 42 . . PUNCT . _ 3 punct _ _ ``` ## Pragmatics {#pragmatics} | # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by | | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | | 1 | **is** | present | It | | | | | needless *property* | tree rules | | 2 | **say** *speech: assert* | to-infinitive | | | | | | | vn say-37.7-1-1 «NP V that S»: agent=Agent clause=Topic | | 3 | **leave** | past | Ambassador | the country | | | | fast *property* | vn keep-15.2 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent country=Theme | | 4 | **carry** | could | horses | Ambassador | | | | | vn carry-11.4 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent he=Theme | | 5 | **declare** *speech: other* | past · perfect | Ambassador | war | | | | with the terrible menaces | vn declare-29.4-1-1-1 «NP V what S\_INF»: agent=Agent | | 6 | **threaten** | gerund | Ambassador *not said here* | | | | | | tree rules | | 7 | **devastate** *not said to happen* | to-infinitive | Ambassador *not said here* | the country | | | | with fire and sword | vn destroy-44 «NP V NP PP.instrument»: agent=Agent country=Patient with fire=Instrument | 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 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. - ← previous: [sentence 72](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg7277/16/72/) - next →: [sentence 74](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg7277/16/74/) - ↑ back to [Heart of Ice, part 3](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg7277/16/)