--- title: For some time it appeared quite uncertain which would be the victor,… — The Green Fairy Book · tree and pragmatics description: For some time it appeared quite uncertain which would be the victor, but at length the stag drove his antlers with such force into his opponent’s body that the bull fell to the ground with a terrific roar, and a few more strokes finished him. Who acts: it, bull, few more strokes. A sentence of «The --- [Mova](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/) · [this page in HTML](https://mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg7277/45/21/) [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/) / [The Crystal Coffin](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg7277/45/) / 21 # The Green Fairy Book, The Crystal Coffin, sentence 21 For some time it appeared quite uncertain which would be the victor, but at length the stag drove his antlers with such force into his opponent’s body that the bull fell to the ground with a terrific roar, and a few more strokes finished him. **Who acts:** it, bull, few more strokes · **What happens:** appear, be, drive, fall, finish · **To what, where:** uncertain victor, antlers, length, body, bull This is a sentence of «The Green Fairy Book» by Andrew Lang, The Crystal Coffin. The page gives its syntax tree — a dependency tree in the style of Universal Dependencies — and its pragmatics clause by clause: who acts (it, bull, few more strokes), 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:pg7277:45:21 # text = For some time it appeared quite uncertain which would be the victor, but at length the stag drove his antlers with such force into his opponent’s body that the bull fell to the ground with a terrific roar, and a few more strokes finished him. 1 For for ADP IN _ 3 case _ _ 2 some some DET DT PronType=Ind 3 det _ _ 3 time time NOUN NN Number=Sing 5 obl _ _ 4 it it PRON PRP Case=Nom|Gender=Neut|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs 5 nsubj _ _ 5 appeared appear VERB VBD Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin 0 root _ _ 6 quite quite ADV RB _ 7 advmod _ _ 7 uncertain uncertain ADJ JJ Degree=Pos 12 amod _ _ 8 which which PRON WDT PronType=Rel 12 nsubj _ _ 9 would would AUX MD VerbForm=Fin 12 aux _ _ 10 be be AUX VB VerbForm=Inf 12 cop _ _ 11 the the DET DT Definite=Def|PronType=Art 12 det _ _ 12 victor victor NOUN NN Number=Sing 5 obj _ SpaceAfter=No 13 , , PUNCT , _ 19 punct _ _ 14 but but CCONJ CC _ 19 cc _ _ 15 at at ADP IN _ 16 case _ _ 16 length length NOUN NN Number=Sing 19 obl _ _ 17 the the DET DT Definite=Def|PronType=Art 18 det _ _ 18 stag stag NOUN NN Number=Sing 16 nmod:unmarked _ _ 19 drove drive VERB VBD Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin 5 conj _ _ 20 his his PRON PRP$ Case=Gen|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|Poss=Yes|PronType=Prs 21 nmod:poss _ _ 21 antlers antler NOUN NNS Number=Plur 19 obj _ _ 22 with with ADP IN _ 24 case _ _ 23 such such ADJ JJ Degree=Pos 24 amod _ _ 24 force force NOUN NN Number=Sing 19 obl _ _ 25 into into ADP IN _ 29 case _ _ 26 his his PRON PRP$ Case=Gen|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|Poss=Yes|PronType=Prs 27 nmod:poss _ _ 27 opponent opponent NOUN NN Number=Sing 29 nmod:poss _ SpaceAfter=No 28 ’s 's PART POS _ 27 case _ _ 29 body body NOUN NN Number=Sing 19 obl _ _ 30 that that PRON WDT PronType=Rel 33 obl:unmarked _ _ 31 the the DET DT Definite=Def|PronType=Art 32 det _ _ 32 bull bull NOUN NN Number=Sing 33 nsubj _ _ 33 fell fall VERB VBD Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin 29 acl:relcl _ _ 34 to to ADP IN _ 36 case _ _ 35 the the DET DT Definite=Def|PronType=Art 36 det _ _ 36 ground ground NOUN NN Number=Sing 33 obl _ _ 37 with with ADP IN _ 40 case _ _ 38 a a DET DT Definite=Ind|PronType=Art 40 det _ _ 39 terrific terrific ADJ JJ Degree=Pos 40 amod _ _ 40 roar roar NOUN NN Number=Sing 33 obl _ SpaceAfter=No 41 , , PUNCT , _ 47 punct _ _ 42 and and CCONJ CC _ 47 cc _ _ 43 a a DET DT Definite=Ind|PronType=Art 46 det _ _ 44 few few ADJ JJ Degree=Pos 46 amod _ _ 45 more more ADJ JJR Degree=Cmp 46 amod _ _ 46 strokes stroke NOUN NNS Number=Plur 47 nsubj _ _ 47 finished finish VERB VBD Mood=Ind|Number=Plur|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin 5 conj _ _ 48 him he PRON PRP Case=Acc|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs 47 obj _ SpaceAfter=No 49 . . PUNCT . _ 5 punct _ _ ``` ## Pragmatics {#pragmatics} | # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by | | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | | 1 | **appear** | past | it | | | | time | | vn appear-48.1.1 «NP V»: agent=Theme | | 2 | **is a** | would | | the uncertain victor | | | | | tree rules | | 3 | **drive** | past | | tailor's antlers | | length the stag | | with such force; into tailor's opponent's body | vn put\_direction-9.4 «NP V NP PP.initial\_location PP.destination»: agent=Agent antler=Theme at length=Destination into body=Initial\_Location | | 4 | **fall** | past | the bull | tailor's opponent's body | | | | to the ground; with a terrific roar | vn acquiesce-95.1-1 «NP V PP.theme»: agent=Agent to ground=Theme | | 5 | **finish** | past | a few more strokes | bull | | | | | vn stop-55.4-1-1 «NP V NP.eventuality»: agent=Subeventuality he=Eventuality | 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 20](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg7277/45/20/) - next →: [sentence 22](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg7277/45/22/) - ↑ back to [The Crystal Coffin](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg7277/45/)