---
title: The little soldier was seized with a wild desire to snatch the purse… — The Green Fairy Book · tree and pragmatics
description: The little soldier was seized with a wild desire to snatch the purse from her and proclaim her a thief, but he managed to control himself. Who acts: soldier. 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 284

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The little soldier was seized with a wild desire to snatch the purse from her and proclaim her a thief, but he managed to control himself.

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**Who acts:** soldier · **What happens:** seize, snatch, proclaim, manage, control · **To what, where:** little soldier, purse, curiosity, soldier

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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 (soldier), 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:pg7277:22:284
# text = The little soldier was seized with a wild desire to snatch the purse from her and proclaim her a thief, but he managed to control himself.
1	The	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	3	det	_	_
2	little	little	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	3	amod	_	_
3	soldier	soldier	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	5	nsubj:pass	_	_
4	was	be	AUX	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	5	aux:pass	_	_
5	seized	seize	VERB	VBN	Tense=Past|VerbForm=Part|Voice=Pass	0	root	_	_
6	with	with	ADP	IN	_	9	case	_	_
7	a	a	DET	DT	Definite=Ind|PronType=Art	9	det	_	_
8	wild	wild	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	9	amod	_	_
9	desire	desire	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	5	obl	_	_
10	to	to	PART	TO	_	11	mark	_	_
11	snatch	snatch	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	5	advcl	_	_
12	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	13	det	_	_
13	purse	purse	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	11	obj	_	_
14	from	from	ADP	IN	_	15	case	_	_
15	her	she	PRON	PRP	Case=Acc|Gender=Fem|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	11	obl	_	_
16	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	17	cc	_	_
17	proclaim	proclaim	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	11	conj	_	_
18	her	she	PRON	PRP	Case=Acc|Gender=Fem|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	17	obj	_	_
19	a	a	DET	DT	Definite=Ind|PronType=Art	20	det	_	_
20	thief	thief	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	17	obj	_	SpaceAfter=No
21	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	24	punct	_	_
22	but	but	CCONJ	CC	_	24	cc	_	_
23	he	he	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	24	nsubj	_	_
24	managed	manage	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	5	conj	_	_
25	to	to	PART	TO	_	26	mark	_	_
26	control	control	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	24	xcomp	_	_
27	himself	himself	PRON	PRP	Case=Acc|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs|Reflex=Yes	26	obj	_	SpaceAfter=No
28	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	5	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

<!-- .fr -->
| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **seize** | past · passive |  | the little soldier |  |  |  | with a wild desire | vn obtain-13.5.2 «NP V NP»: subject=Theme |
| 2 | **snatch** | to-infinitive |  | the purse |  |  |  | from curiosity | vn obtain-13.5.2 «NP V NP PP.source»: agent=Agent purse=Theme from she=Source |
| 3 | **proclaim** | infinitive |  | curiosity |  |  |  |  | vn appoint-29.1 «NP V NP NP»: agent=Agent she=Theme thief=Attribute |
| 4 | **manage** | past | soldier |  |  |  |  |  | vn succeed-74-1-1 «NP V S\_INF»: agent=Agent clause=Eventuality |
| 5 | **control** | to-infinitive | soldier *not said here* | soldier |  |  |  |  | vn enforce-63 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent himself=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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