---
title: Nix Nought Nothing took her comb from her hair and threw it down, an… — English Fairy Tales · tree and pragmatics
description: Nix Nought Nothing took her comb from her hair and threw it down, and out of every one of its prongs there sprung up a fine thick briar in the way of the giant. Who acts: Nought, prongs. A sentence of «English Fairy Tales» by Joseph Jacobs, Nix Nought Nothing, with its dependency tree and the pragma
---

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# English Fairy Tales, Nix Nought Nothing, sentence 45

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Nix Nought Nothing took her comb from her hair and threw it down, and out of every one of its prongs there sprung up a fine thick briar in the way of the giant.

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**Who acts:** Nought, prongs · **What happens:** take, throw down, spring up · **To what, where:** comb, hair, fine thick briar

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This is a sentence of «English Fairy Tales» by Joseph Jacobs, Nix Nought Nothing. The page gives its syntax tree — a dependency tree in the style of Universal Dependencies — and its pragmatics clause by clause: who acts (Nought, prongs), 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:pg7439:12:45
# text = Nix Nought Nothing took her comb from her hair and threw it down, and out of every one of its prongs there sprung up a fine thick briar in the way of the giant.
1	Nix	Nix	PROPN	NNP	Number=Sing	2	compound	_	_
2	Nought	nought	PRON	NN	PronType=Neg	4	nsubj	_	_
3	Nothing	Nothing	PROPN	NNP	Number=Sing	2	appos	_	_
4	took	take	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	0	root	_	_
5	her	her	PRON	PRP$	Case=Gen|Gender=Fem|Number=Sing|Person=3|Poss=Yes|PronType=Prs	6	nmod:poss	_	_
6	comb	comb	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	4	obj	_	_
7	from	from	ADP	IN	_	9	case	_	_
8	her	her	PRON	PRP$	Case=Gen|Gender=Fem|Number=Sing|Person=3|Poss=Yes|PronType=Prs	9	nmod:poss	_	_
9	hair	hair	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	4	obl	_	_
10	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	11	cc	_	_
11	threw	throw	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	4	conj	_	_
12	it	it	PRON	PRP	Case=Acc|Gender=Neut|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	11	obj	_	_
13	down	down	ADP	RP	_	11	compound:prt	_	SpaceAfter=No
14	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	19	punct	_	_
15	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	19	cc	_	_
16	out	out	ADP	IN	_	19	case	_	_
17	of	of	ADP	IN	_	19	case	_	_
18	every	every	DET	DT	PronType=Tot	19	det	_	_
19	one	one	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	4	parataxis	_	_
20	of	of	ADP	IN	_	22	case	_	_
21	its	its	PRON	PRP$	Case=Gen|Gender=Neut|Number=Sing|Person=3|Poss=Yes|PronType=Prs	22	nmod:poss	_	_
22	prongs	prong	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	19	nmod	_	_
23	there	there	ADV	RB	PronType=Dem	22	advmod	_	_
24	sprung	spring	VERB	VBN	Tense=Past|VerbForm=Part|Voice=Pass	22	acl	_	_
25	up	up	ADP	RP	_	24	compound:prt	_	_
26	a	a	DET	DT	Definite=Ind|PronType=Art	29	det	_	_
27	fine	fine	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	29	amod	_	_
28	thick	thick	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	29	amod	_	_
29	briar	briar	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	24	nsubj:pass	_	_
30	in	in	ADP	IN	_	32	case	_	_
31	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	32	det	_	_
32	way	way	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	29	nmod	_	_
33	of	of	ADP	IN	_	35	case	_	_
34	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	35	det	_	_
35	giant	giant	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	32	nmod	_	SpaceAfter=No
36	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	4	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

<!-- .fr -->
| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **take** | past | Nought | Nothing's comb |  | Nothing's hair |  |  | vn bring-11.3 «NP V NP PP.initial\_location»: agent=Agent comb=Theme from hair=Initial\_Location |
| 2 | **throw down** | past | Nought *not said here* | comb |  |  |  |  | vn throw-17.1-1-1 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent it=Theme |
| 3 | **spring up** | participle · passive | comb's prongs *not said here* | a fine thick briar in the way of the giant |  |  |  |  | vn appear-48.1.1 «PP.location V NP»: subject=Theme |

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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:** «English Fairy Tales» by Joseph Jacobs, Project Gutenberg book 7439 (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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