---
title: So at last he could hold back no longer, and he lifted up the cover… — More English Fairy Tales · tree and pragmatics
description: So at last he could hold back no longer, and he lifted up the cover a tiny bit; but he couldn't see anything. Who acts: harm. A sentence of «More English Fairy Tales» by Joseph Jacobs, More English Fairy Tales, part 11, with its dependency tree and the pragmatics of every clause.
---

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# More English Fairy Tales, More English Fairy Tales, part 11, sentence 24

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So at last he could hold back no longer, and he lifted up the cover a tiny bit; but he couldn't see anything.

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**Who acts:** harm · **What happens:** hold back, lift up, not see · **To what, where:** cover, anything

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This is a sentence of «More English Fairy Tales» by Joseph Jacobs, More English Fairy Tales, 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 (harm), 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:pg14241:25:24
# text = So at last he could hold back no longer, and he lifted up the cover a tiny bit; but he couldn't see anything.
1	So	so	ADV	RB	_	6	advmod	_	_
2	at	at	ADP	IN	_	3	case	_	_
3	last	last	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	1	obl	_	_
4	he	he	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	6	nsubj	_	_
5	could	could	AUX	MD	VerbForm=Fin	6	aux	_	_
6	hold	hold	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	0	root	_	_
7	back	back	ADV	RB	_	6	advmod	_	_
8	no	no	ADV	RB	_	9	advmod	_	_
9	longer	long	ADV	RBR	Degree=Cmp	6	advmod	_	SpaceAfter=No
10	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	13	punct	_	_
11	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	13	cc	_	_
12	he	he	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	13	nsubj	_	_
13	lifted	lift	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	6	advcl	_	_
14	up	up	ADP	RP	_	13	compound:prt	_	_
15	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	16	det	_	_
16	cover	cover	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	13	obj	_	_
17	a	a	DET	DT	Definite=Ind|PronType=Art	19	det	_	_
18	tiny	tiny	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	19	amod	_	_
19	bit	bit	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	13	obl:unmarked	_	SpaceAfter=No
20	;	;	PUNCT	:	_	25	punct	_	_
21	but	but	CCONJ	CC	_	25	cc	_	_
22	he	he	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	25	nsubj	_	_
23	could	could	AUX	MD	VerbForm=Fin	25	aux	_	SpaceAfter=No
24	n't	not	PART	RB	Polarity=Neg	25	advmod	_	_
25	see	see	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	6	conj	_	_
26	anything	anything	PRON	NN	Number=Sing|PronType=Ind	25	obj	_	SpaceAfter=No
27	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	6	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

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| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **hold back** | could | harm |  |  |  |  | long *property* | vn exist-47.1 «NP V»: agent=Theme |
| 2 | **lift up** | past | harm | the cover |  |  |  | a tiny bit *obl:unmarked* | vn put\_direction-9.4 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent cover=Theme |
| 3 | **not** **see** | could | harm | anything |  |  |  |  | vn comprehend-87.2-1-1 «NP V NP»: agent=Experiencer anything=Stimulus |

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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:** «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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