---
title: Alas! there was no escape: two charming little horns, that would not… — The Green Fairy Book · tree and pragmatics
description: Alas! there was no escape: two charming little horns, that would not have disgraced the head of a goat. Who acts: escape, that. A sentence of «The Green Fairy Book» by Andrew Lang, The Little Soldier, with its dependency tree and the pragmatics of every clause.
---

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# The Green Fairy Book, The Little Soldier, sentence 251

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Alas! there was no escape: two charming little horns, that would not have disgraced the head of a goat.

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**Who acts:** escape, that · **What happens:** be, not disgrace · **To what, where:** head

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This is a sentence of «The Green Fairy Book» by Andrew Lang, The Little Soldier. The page gives its syntax tree — a dependency tree in the style of Universal Dependencies — and its pragmatics clause by clause: who acts (escape, that), 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:pg7277:22:251
# text = Alas! there was no escape: two charming little horns, that would not have disgraced the head of a goat.
1	Alas	alas	INTJ	UH	_	4	discourse	_	SpaceAfter=No
2	!	!	PUNCT	.	_	1	punct	_	_
3	there	there	PRON	EX	PronType=Dem	4	expl	_	_
4	was	be	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	0	root	_	_
5	no	no	DET	DT	PronType=Neg	6	det	_	_
6	escape	escape	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	4	nsubj	_	SpaceAfter=No
7	:	:	PUNCT	:	_	11	punct	_	_
8	two	two	NUM	CD	NumForm=Word|NumType=Card	11	nummod	_	_
9	charming	charming	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	11	amod	_	_
10	little	little	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	11	amod	_	_
11	horns	horn	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	6	nmod	_	SpaceAfter=No
12	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	17	punct	_	_
13	that	that	PRON	DT	Number=Sing|PronType=Dem	17	nsubj	_	_
14	would	would	AUX	MD	VerbForm=Fin	17	aux	_	_
15	not	not	PART	RB	Polarity=Neg	17	advmod	_	_
16	have	have	AUX	VB	VerbForm=Inf	17	aux	_	_
17	disgraced	disgrace	VERB	VBN	Tense=Past|VerbForm=Part|Voice=Pass	11	conj	_	_
18	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	19	det	_	_
19	head	head	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	17	obj	_	_
20	of	of	ADP	IN	_	22	case	_	_
21	a	a	DET	DT	Definite=Ind|PronType=Art	22	det	_	_
22	goat	goat	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	19	nmod	_	SpaceAfter=No
23	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	4	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

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| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **be** | past | no escape  two charming little horns |  |  | there |  |  | vn exist-47.1 «NP V»: agent=Theme |
| 2 | **not** **disgrace** | would · perfect | that | the head of a goat |  |  |  |  | vn amuse-31.1 «NP V NP»: agent=Stimulus head=Experiencer |

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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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