---
title: He shut himself up in a little room and knocked his head against the… — The Green Fairy Book · tree and pragmatics
description: He shut himself up in a little room and knocked his head against the walls for grief, until his courtiers were really afraid that he would hurt himself. Who acts: King, courtiers. A sentence of «The Green Fairy Book» by Andrew Lang, The Blue Bird, part 1, with its dependency tree and the pragmatics 
---

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# The Green Fairy Book, The Blue Bird, part 1, sentence 3

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He shut himself up in a little room and knocked his head against the walls for grief, until his courtiers were really afraid that he would hurt himself.

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**Who acts:** King, courtiers · **What happens:** shut up, knock, be, hurt · **To what, where:** King, little room, head, walls

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This is a sentence of «The Green Fairy Book» by Andrew Lang, The Blue Bird, part 1. The page gives its syntax tree — a dependency tree in the style of Universal Dependencies — and its pragmatics clause by clause: who acts (King, courtiers), 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:pg7277:2:3
# text = He shut himself up in a little room and knocked his head against the walls for grief, until his courtiers were really afraid that he would hurt himself.
1	He	he	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	2	nsubj	_	_
2	shut	shut	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	0	root	_	_
3	himself	himself	PRON	PRP	Case=Acc|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs|Reflex=Yes	2	obj	_	_
4	up	up	ADP	RP	_	2	compound:prt	_	_
5	in	in	ADP	IN	_	8	case	_	_
6	a	a	DET	DT	Definite=Ind|PronType=Art	8	det	_	_
7	little	little	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	8	amod	_	_
8	room	room	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	2	obl	_	_
9	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	10	cc	_	_
10	knocked	knock	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	2	conj	_	_
11	his	his	PRON	PRP$	Case=Gen|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|Poss=Yes|PronType=Prs	12	nmod:poss	_	_
12	head	head	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	10	obj	_	_
13	against	against	ADP	IN	_	15	case	_	_
14	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	15	det	_	_
15	walls	wall	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	10	obl	_	_
16	for	for	ADP	IN	_	17	case	_	_
17	grief	grief	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	10	obl	_	SpaceAfter=No
18	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	24	punct	_	_
19	until	until	SCONJ	IN	_	24	mark	_	_
20	his	his	PRON	PRP$	Case=Gen|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|Poss=Yes|PronType=Prs	21	nmod:poss	_	_
21	courtiers	courtier	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	24	nsubj	_	_
22	were	be	AUX	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Plur|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	24	cop	_	_
23	really	really	ADV	RB	_	24	advmod	_	_
24	afraid	afraid	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	10	parataxis	_	_
25	that	that	SCONJ	IN	_	28	mark	_	_
26	he	he	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	28	nsubj	_	_
27	would	would	AUX	MD	VerbForm=Fin	28	aux	_	_
28	hurt	hurt	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	24	advcl	_	_
29	himself	himself	PRON	PRP	Case=Acc|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs|Reflex=Yes	28	obj	_	SpaceAfter=No
30	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	2	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

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| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **shut up** | past | King | King |  | a little room |  |  | vn subjugate-42.3 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent himself=Patient |
| 2 | **knock** | past | King *not said here* | King's head |  | the walls |  | for grief | vn throw-17.1-1 «NP V NP PP.destinations»: agent=Agent head=Theme against wall=Destination |
| 3 | **is** | past | King's courtiers |  |  |  |  | afraid *property* | tree rules |
| 4 | **hurt** | would | King | King |  |  |  |  | vn hurt-40.8.3-2 «NP V NP»: agent=Experiencer himself=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 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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