---
title: They had hardly taken a couple of spoonfuls when they all fell down… — The Green Fairy Book · tree and pragmatics
description: They had hardly taken a couple of spoonfuls when they all fell down dead, for the poison had passed from the horse to the raven and so into the broth. Who acts: murderers, poison. A sentence of «The Green Fairy Book» by Andrew Lang, The Riddle, with its dependency tree and the pragmatics of every cl
---

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# The Green Fairy Book, The Riddle, sentence 26

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They had hardly taken a couple of spoonfuls when they all fell down dead, for the poison had passed from the horse to the raven and so into the broth.

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**Who acts:** murderers, poison · **What happens:** take, fall down, pass · **To what, where:** couple, raven

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This is a sentence of «The Green Fairy Book» by Andrew Lang, The Riddle. The page gives its syntax tree — a dependency tree in the style of Universal Dependencies — and its pragmatics clause by clause: who acts (murderers, poison), 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:pg7277:47:26
# text = They had hardly taken a couple of spoonfuls when they all fell down dead, for the poison had passed from the horse to the raven and so into the broth.
1	They	they	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Number=Plur|Person=3|PronType=Prs	4	nsubj	_	_
2	had	have	AUX	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Plur|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	4	aux	_	_
3	hardly	hardly	ADV	RB	_	4	advmod	_	_
4	taken	take	VERB	VBN	Tense=Past|VerbForm=Part	0	root	_	_
5	a	a	DET	DT	Definite=Ind|PronType=Art	6	det	_	_
6	couple	couple	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	4	obj	_	_
7	of	of	ADP	IN	_	8	case	_	_
8	spoonfuls	spoonful	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	6	nmod	_	_
9	when	when	ADV	WRB	PronType=Int	12	advmod	_	_
10	they	they	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Number=Plur|Person=3|PronType=Prs	12	nsubj	_	_
11	all	all	DET	DT	PronType=Tot	12	advmod	_	_
12	fell	fall	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Plur|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	4	conj	_	_
13	down	down	ADP	RP	_	12	compound:prt	_	_
14	dead	dead	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	12	xcomp	_	SpaceAfter=No
15	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	20	punct	_	_
16	for	for	SCONJ	IN	_	20	mark	_	_
17	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	18	det	_	_
18	poison	poison	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	20	nsubj	_	_
19	had	have	AUX	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	20	aux	_	_
20	passed	pass	VERB	VBN	Tense=Past|VerbForm=Part	12	parataxis	_	_
21	from	from	ADP	IN	_	23	case	_	_
22	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	23	det	_	_
23	horse	horse	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	20	obl	_	_
24	to	to	ADP	IN	_	26	case	_	_
25	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	26	det	_	_
26	raven	raven	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	20	obl	_	_
27	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	31	cc	_	_
28	so	so	ADV	RB	_	31	advmod	_	_
29	into	into	ADP	IN	_	31	case	_	_
30	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	31	det	_	_
31	broth	broth	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	20	conj	_	SpaceAfter=No
32	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	4	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

<!-- .fr -->
| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **take** | past · perfect | murderers *= murderer* | a couple of spoonfuls |  |  |  | hardly *property* | vn bring-11.3 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent couple=Theme |
| 2 | **fall down** | past | murderers *= murderer* |  |  |  |  | dead *property* | vn occur-48.3 «NP V»: agent=Theme |
| 3 | **pass** | past · perfect | the poison |  |  | the raven |  | from the horse | vn escape-51.1-1-3 «NP V PP.initial\_location PP.destination»: agent=Theme from horse=Initial\_Location to raven=Destination |

<!-- .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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