---
title: The young man took the spade, and began to clean the floor of the ca… — The Crimson Fairy Book · tree and pragmatics
description: The young man took the spade, and began to clean the floor of the cave, but try as he would to move it the dirt still stuck to its place. Who acts: young man, man. A sentence of «The Crimson Fairy Book» by Andrew Lang, The Crimson Fairy Book, part 22, with its dependency tree and the pragmatics of e
---

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# The Crimson Fairy Book, The Crimson Fairy Book, part 22, sentence 1

<!-- .ven lang=en -->
The young man took the spade, and began to clean the floor of the cave, but try as he would to move it the dirt still stuck to its place.

<!-- .vintro -->
**Who acts:** young man, man · **What happens:** take, begin, clean, try, move · **To what, where:** spade, floor

<!-- .vabout -->
This is a sentence of «The Crimson Fairy Book» by Andrew Lang, The Crimson Fairy Book, part 22. The page gives its syntax tree — a dependency tree in the style of Universal Dependencies — and its pragmatics clause by clause: who acts (young man, man), 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:pg2435:22:1
# text = The young man took the spade, and began to clean the floor of the cave, but try as he would to move it the dirt still stuck to its place.
1	The	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	3	det	_	_
2	young	young	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	3	amod	_	_
3	man	man	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	4	nsubj	_	_
4	took	take	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	0	root	_	_
5	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	6	det	_	_
6	spade	spade	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	4	obj	_	SpaceAfter=No
7	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	9	punct	_	_
8	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	9	cc	_	_
9	began	begin	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	4	conj	_	_
10	to	to	PART	TO	_	11	mark	_	_
11	clean	clean	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	9	xcomp	_	_
12	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	13	det	_	_
13	floor	floor	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	11	obj	_	_
14	of	of	ADP	IN	_	16	case	_	_
15	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	16	det	_	_
16	cave	cave	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	13	nmod	_	SpaceAfter=No
17	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	19	punct	_	_
18	but	but	CCONJ	CC	_	19	cc	_	_
19	try	try	VERB	VBP	Mood=Ind|Number=Plur|Person=3|Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Fin	4	parataxis	_	_
20	as	as	SCONJ	IN	_	24	mark	_	_
21	he	he	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	24	nsubj	_	_
22	would	would	AUX	MD	VerbForm=Fin	24	aux	_	_
23	to	to	PART	TO	_	24	mark	_	_
24	move	move	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	19	xcomp	_	_
25	it	it	PRON	PRP	Case=Acc|Gender=Neut|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	24	obj	_	_
26	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	27	det	_	_
27	dirt	dirt	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	24	obj	_	_
28	still	still	ADV	RB	_	29	advmod	_	_
29	stuck	stuck	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	27	amod	_	_
30	to	to	ADP	IN	_	32	case	_	_
31	its	its	PRON	PRP$	Case=Gen|Gender=Neut|Number=Sing|Person=3|Poss=Yes|PronType=Prs	32	nmod:poss	_	_
32	place	place	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	29	obl	_	SpaceAfter=No
33	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	4	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

<!-- .fr -->
| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **take** | past | the young man | the spade |  |  |  |  | vn bring-11.3 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent spade=Theme |
| 2 | **begin** | past | the young man *not said here* |  |  |  |  |  | vn begin-55.1-1-1 «NP V S\_INF»: agent=Agent clause=Eventuality |
| 3 | **clean** | to-infinitive | the young man *not said here* | the floor of the cave |  |  |  |  | vn other\_cos-45.4 «NP V NP.patient»: agent=Agent floor=Patient |
| 4 | **try** | present |  |  |  |  |  |  | vn try-61.1 «NP V S\_INF»: agent=Agent clause=Eventuality |
| 5 | **move** *not said to happen* | would | man | floor |  |  |  |  | vn roll-51.3.1 «NP V NP ADJ.result»: agent=Agent it=Theme dirt=Result |

<!-- .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 Crimson Fairy Book» by Andrew Lang, Project Gutenberg book 2435 (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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