---
title: So much annoyed was he that he seized the clown by the hand and trie… — The Green Fairy Book · tree and pragmatics
description: So much annoyed was he that he seized the clown by the hand and tried to tear him away, in order to hand him over to the police. Who acts: clown. A sentence of «The Green Fairy Book» by Andrew Lang, The Magic Swan, with its dependency tree and the pragmatics of every clause.
---

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# The Green Fairy Book, The Magic Swan, sentence 48

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So much annoyed was he that he seized the clown by the hand and tried to tear him away, in order to hand him over to the police.

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**Who acts:** clown · **What happens:** be, seize, try, tear away, hand over · **To what, where:** clown, police

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This is a sentence of «The Green Fairy Book» by Andrew Lang, The Magic Swan. The page gives its syntax tree — a dependency tree in the style of Universal Dependencies — and its pragmatics clause by clause: who acts (clown), 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:pg7277:23:48
# text = So much annoyed was he that he seized the clown by the hand and tried to tear him away, in order to hand him over to the police.
1	So	so	ADV	RB	_	3	advmod	_	_
2	much	much	ADV	RB	_	3	advmod	_	_
3	annoyed	annoyed	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	0	root	_	_
4	was	be	AUX	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	5	cop	_	_
5	he	he	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	3	nsubj	_	_
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	seized	seize	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	3	advcl	_	_
9	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	10	det	_	_
10	clown	clown	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	8	obj	_	_
11	by	by	ADP	IN	_	13	case	_	_
12	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	13	det	_	_
13	hand	hand	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	8	obl	_	_
14	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	15	cc	_	_
15	tried	try	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	8	conj	_	_
16	to	to	PART	TO	_	17	mark	_	_
17	tear	tear	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	15	xcomp	_	_
18	him	he	PRON	PRP	Case=Acc|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	17	obj	_	_
19	away	away	ADV	RB	_	17	advmod	_	SpaceAfter=No
20	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	24	punct	_	_
21	in	in	SCONJ	IN	ExtPos=SCONJ	24	mark	_	_
22	order	order	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	21	fixed	_	_
23	to	to	PART	TO	_	24	mark	_	_
24	hand	hand	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	17	conj	_	_
25	him	he	PRON	PRP	Case=Acc|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	24	obj	_	_
26	over	over	ADP	RP	_	24	compound:prt	_	_
27	to	to	ADP	IN	_	29	case	_	_
28	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	29	det	_	_
29	police	police	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	24	obl	_	SpaceAfter=No
30	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	3	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

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| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **is a** | past |  | clown |  |  |  |  | tree rules |
| 2 | **seize** | past | clown | the clown |  |  |  | by the hand | vn obtain-13.5.2 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent clown=Theme |
| 3 | **try** | past | clown *not said here* |  |  |  |  |  | vn try-61.1 «NP V S\_INF»: agent=Agent clause=Eventuality |
| 4 | **tear away** *not said to happen* | to-infinitive | clown *not said here* | clown |  |  |  | away *property* | vn run-51.3.2 «PP.location V NP»: agent=Initial\_Location he=Theme |
| 5 | **hand over** | to-infinitive | clown *not said here* | clown |  | the police |  |  | vn send-11.1-1 «NP V NP PP.destination»: agent=Agent he=Theme to police=Destination |

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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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