---
title: Try as he might the butler could not leave hold, nor yet keep the sh… — More English Fairy Tales · tree and pragmatics
description: Try as he might the butler could not leave hold, nor yet keep the shutters from blowing open as he closed them. Who acts: you, John. A sentence of «More English Fairy Tales» by Joseph Jacobs, More English Fairy Tales, part 4, with its dependency tree and the pragmatics of every clause.
---

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[Mova](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/) · [this page in HTML](https://mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg14241/18/41/)

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# More English Fairy Tales, More English Fairy Tales, part 4, sentence 41

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Try as he might the butler could not leave hold, nor yet keep the shutters from blowing open as he closed them.

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**Who acts:** you, John · **What happens:** try, not leave, keep, blow, close · **To what, where:** hold, shutters

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This is a sentence of «More English Fairy Tales» by Joseph Jacobs, More English Fairy Tales, part 4. The page gives its syntax tree — a dependency tree in the style of Universal Dependencies — and its pragmatics clause by clause: who acts (you, John), 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:pg14241:18:41
# text = Try as he might the butler could not leave hold, nor yet keep the shutters from blowing open as he closed them.
1	Try	try	VERB	VB	Mood=Imp|VerbForm=Fin	0	root	_	_
2	as	as	SCONJ	IN	_	9	mark	_	_
3	he	he	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	9	nsubj	_	_
4	might	might	AUX	MD	VerbForm=Fin	9	aux	_	_
5	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	6	det	_	_
6	butler	butler	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	9	nsubj	_	_
7	could	could	AUX	MD	VerbForm=Fin	9	aux	_	_
8	not	not	PART	RB	Polarity=Neg	9	advmod	_	_
9	leave	leave	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	1	advcl	_	_
10	hold	hold	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	9	obj	_	SpaceAfter=No
11	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	14	punct	_	_
12	nor	nor	CCONJ	CC	Polarity=Neg	14	cc	_	_
13	yet	yet	ADV	RB	_	14	advmod	_	_
14	keep	keep	VERB	VB	Mood=Imp|VerbForm=Fin	1	parataxis	_	_
15	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	16	det	_	_
16	shutters	shutter	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	14	obj	_	_
17	from	from	SCONJ	IN	_	18	mark	_	_
18	blowing	blow	VERB	VBG	Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Part	14	advcl	_	_
19	open	open	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	18	xcomp	_	_
20	as	as	SCONJ	IN	_	22	mark	_	_
21	he	he	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	22	nsubj	_	_
22	closed	close	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	18	advcl	_	_
23	them	they	PRON	PRP	Case=Acc|Number=Plur|Person=3|PronType=Prs	22	obj	_	SpaceAfter=No
24	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	1	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

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| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **try** | imperative | you *not said here* |  |  |  |  |  | vn amuse-31.1 «NP V ADV-Middle»: agent=Experiencer |
| 2 | **not** **leave** | could | John | hold |  |  |  |  | vn keep-15.2 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent hold=Theme |
| 3 | **keep** | infinitive |  | the shutters |  |  | yet |  | vn keep-15.2 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent shutter=Theme |
| 4 | **blow** | gerund |  |  |  |  |  | open *property* | vn split-23.2 «NP V apart»: agent=Patient |
| 5 | **close** | past | John | shutters *= shutter* |  |  |  |  | vn crane-40.3.2 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent they=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.

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**Text:** «More English Fairy Tales» by Joseph Jacobs, Project Gutenberg book 14241 (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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