---
title: He found all the guards fast asleep, and, slipping into the horse’s… — The Green Fairy Book · tree and pragmatics
description: He found all the guards fast asleep, and, slipping into the horse’s stall, he seized it by the bridle and led it out; but, unfortunately, before they had got quite clear of the stables a gadfly stung the horse and caused it to switch its tail, whereby it touched the wall. Who acts: horse, guards, ga
---

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# The Green Fairy Book, The Golden Mermaid, sentence 48

<!-- .ven lang=en -->
He found all the guards fast asleep, and, slipping into the horse’s stall, he seized it by the bridle and led it out; but, unfortunately, before they had got quite clear of the stables a gadfly stung the horse and caused it to switch its tail, whereby it touched the wall.

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**Who acts:** horse, guards, gadfly · **What happens:** find, slip, seize, lead out, get, sting · **To what, where:** guards, stall, horse, gadfly, tail, wall

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This is a sentence of «The Green Fairy Book» by Andrew Lang, The Golden Mermaid. The page gives its syntax tree — a dependency tree in the style of Universal Dependencies — and its pragmatics clause by clause: who acts (horse, guards, gadfly), what happens, when and where, as Mova's frames read it from the tree.

<!-- .note-en -->
**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:pg7277:52:48
# text = He found all the guards fast asleep, and, slipping into the horse’s stall, he seized it by the bridle and led it out; but, unfortunately, before they had got quite clear of the stables a gadfly stung the horse and caused it to switch its tail, whereby it touched the wall.
1	He	he	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	2	nsubj	_	_
2	found	find	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	0	root	_	_
3	all	all	DET	PDT	PronType=Tot	5	det:predet	_	_
4	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	5	det	_	_
5	guards	guard	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	2	obj	_	_
6	fast	fast	ADV	RB	Degree=Pos	7	advmod	_	_
7	asleep	asleep	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	5	amod	_	SpaceAfter=No
8	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	11	punct	_	_
9	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	11	cc	_	SpaceAfter=No
10	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	11	punct	_	_
11	slipping	slip	VERB	VBG	Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Part	2	advcl	_	_
12	into	into	ADP	IN	_	16	case	_	_
13	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	14	det	_	_
14	horse	horse	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	16	nmod:poss	_	SpaceAfter=No
15	’s	's	PART	POS	_	14	case	_	_
16	stall	stall	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	11	obl	_	SpaceAfter=No
17	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	19	punct	_	_
18	he	he	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	19	nsubj	_	_
19	seized	seize	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	2	parataxis	_	_
20	it	it	PRON	PRP	Case=Acc|Gender=Neut|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	19	obj	_	_
21	by	by	ADP	IN	_	23	case	_	_
22	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	23	det	_	_
23	bridle	bridle	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	19	obl	_	_
24	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	25	cc	_	_
25	led	lead	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	19	conj	_	_
26	it	it	PRON	PRP	Case=Acc|Gender=Neut|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	25	obj	_	_
27	out	out	ADP	RP	_	25	compound:prt	_	SpaceAfter=No
28	;	;	PUNCT	,	_	36	punct	_	_
29	but	but	CCONJ	CC	_	36	cc	_	SpaceAfter=No
30	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	31	punct	_	_
31	unfortunately	unfortunately	ADV	RB	_	36	advmod	_	SpaceAfter=No
32	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	36	punct	_	_
33	before	before	SCONJ	IN	_	36	mark	_	_
34	they	they	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Number=Plur|Person=3|PronType=Prs	36	nsubj	_	_
35	had	have	AUX	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Plur|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	36	aux	_	_
36	got	get	VERB	VBN	Tense=Past|VerbForm=Part	2	parataxis	_	_
37	quite	quite	ADV	RB	_	38	advmod	_	_
38	clear	clear	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	36	xcomp	_	_
39	of	of	ADP	IN	_	41	case	_	_
40	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	41	det	_	_
41	stables	stable	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	38	obl	_	_
42	a	a	DET	DT	Definite=Ind|PronType=Art	43	det	_	_
43	gadfly	gadfly	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	44	nsubj	_	_
44	stung	sting	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	41	acl:relcl	_	_
45	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	46	det	_	_
46	horse	horse	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	44	obj	_	_
47	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	48	cc	_	_
48	caused	cause	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	2	conj	_	_
49	it	it	PRON	PRP	Case=Acc|Gender=Neut|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	48	obj	_	_
50	to	to	PART	TO	_	51	mark	_	_
51	switch	switch	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	48	xcomp	_	_
52	its	its	PRON	PRP$	Case=Gen|Gender=Neut|Number=Sing|Person=3|Poss=Yes|PronType=Prs	53	nmod:poss	_	_
53	tail	tail	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	51	obj	_	SpaceAfter=No
54	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	57	punct	_	_
55	whereby	whereby	ADV	WRB	PronType=Int	57	advmod	_	_
56	it	it	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Gender=Neut|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	57	nsubj	_	_
57	touched	touch	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	53	acl:relcl	_	_
58	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	59	det	_	_
59	wall	wall	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	57	obj	_	SpaceAfter=No
60	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	2	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

<!-- .fr -->
| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **find** | past | horse | all guards |  |  |  |  | vn discover-84 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent guard=Topic |
| 2 | **slip** | gerund | horse *not said here* |  |  | the horse's stall |  |  | vn calibratable\_cos-45.6.1-1 «NP.attribute V»: agent=Attribute |
| 3 | **seize** | past | horse | stall |  |  |  | by the bridle | vn obtain-13.5.2 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent it=Theme |
| 4 | **lead out** | past | horse *not said here* | stall |  |  |  |  | vn accompany-51.7 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent it=Theme |
| 5 | **get** | past · perfect | guards *= guard* |  |  |  |  | clear, unfortunately *property* | vn comprehend-87.2-1 «NP V S\_ING»: agent=Experiencer |
| 6 | **sting** | past | a gadfly | the horse |  |  |  |  | vn amuse-31.1 «NP V NP»: agent=Stimulus horse=Experiencer |
| 7 | **cause** | past | horse *not said here* | gadfly |  |  |  |  | tree rules |
| 8 | **switch** | to-infinitive | gadfly *not said here* | gadfly's tail |  |  |  |  | vn convert-26.6.2-1-1 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent tail=Patient |
| 9 | **touch** | past | gadfly | the wall |  |  |  | whereby *property* | vn contiguous\_location-47.8-1 «NP V NP»: agent=Theme wall=Co-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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