---
title: Then, standing in his car, he clutched the spear And tugged it thrice. — The foray of Queen Meave, and other legends of I… · tree and pragmatics
description: Then, standing in his car, he clutched the spear And tugged it thrice. Who acts: hand. A sentence of «The foray of Queen Meave, and other legends of Ireland's heroic age» by Aubrey De Vere, Opening, part 11, with its dependency tree and the pragmatics of every clause.
---

<!-- md -->
[Mova](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/) · [this page in HTML](https://mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg78491/11/166/)

<!-- crumbs -->
[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 foray of Queen Meave, and other le…](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg78491/) / [Opening, part 11](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg78491/11/) / 166

# The foray of Queen Meave, and other legends of Ireland's heroic age, Opening, part 11, sentence 166

<!-- .ven lang=en -->
Then, standing in his car, he clutched the spear And tugged it thrice.

<!-- .vintro -->
**Who acts:** hand · **What happens:** stand, clutch, tug · **To what, where:** car, spear, Task

<!-- .vabout -->
This is a sentence of «The foray of Queen Meave, and other legends of Ireland's heroic age» by Aubrey De Vere, Opening, part 11. The page gives its syntax tree — a dependency tree in the style of Universal Dependencies — and its pragmatics clause by clause: who acts (hand), what happens, when and where, as Mova's frames read it from the tree.

<!-- .note-en -->
**Mova's own parse.** This tree may be wrong.

## The tree {#tree}

```conllu
# sent_id = book:pg78491:11:168
# text = Then, standing in his car, he clutched the spear And tugged it thrice.
1	Then	then	ADV	RB	PronType=Dem	9	advmod	_	SpaceAfter=No
2	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	1	punct	_	_
3	standing	stand	VERB	VBG	Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Part	9	advcl	_	_
4	in	in	ADP	IN	_	6	case	_	_
5	his	his	PRON	PRP$	Case=Gen|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|Poss=Yes|PronType=Prs	6	nmod:poss	_	_
6	car	car	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	3	obl	_	SpaceAfter=No
7	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	3	punct	_	_
8	he	he	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	9	nsubj	_	_
9	clutched	clutch	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	0	root	_	_
10	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	11	det	_	_
11	spear	spear	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	9	obj	_	_
12	And	and	CCONJ	CC	_	13	cc	_	_
13	tugged	tug	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	9	conj	_	_
14	it	it	PRON	PRP	Case=Acc|Gender=Neut|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	13	obj	_	_
15	thrice	thrice	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	13	xcomp	_	SpaceAfter=No
16	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	9	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

<!-- .fr -->
| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **stand** | gerund | hand *not said here* |  |  | hand's car |  |  | vn assuming\_position-50 «NP V PP.location»: agent=Agent in car=Location |
| 2 | **clutch** | past | hand | the spear |  |  | then |  | vn hold-15.1-1 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent spear=Theme |
| 3 | **tug** | past | hand *not said here* | Task |  |  |  | thrice *property* | vn split-23.2 «NP V NP apart»: agent=Agent it=Patient |

<!-- .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.

<!-- div src -->

**Text:** «The foray of Queen Meave, and other legends of Ireland's heroic age» by Aubrey De Vere, Project Gutenberg book 78491 (public domain in the USA). **Tree:** Mova's own parse, Elamur Cosmic License. **Frames:** Mova's frames reader (`prag`), the chapter read in order.

<!-- /div -->

<!-- pn -->
- ← previous: [sentence 165](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg78491/11/165/)
- next →: [sentence 167](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg78491/11/167/)
- ↑ back to [Opening, part 11](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg78491/11/)