---
title: The herdsman laid hold of the nearest, and pulled at it with all his… — The Crimson Fairy Book · tree and pragmatics
description: The herdsman laid hold of the nearest, and pulled at it with all his might, but it was no use, for the stone and the rope held them all fast. Who acts: herdsman, hold, stone. A sentence of «The Crimson Fairy Book» by Andrew Lang, The Crimson Fairy Book, part 26, with its dependency tree and the prag
---

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# The Crimson Fairy Book, The Crimson Fairy Book, part 26, sentence 66

<!-- .ven lang=en -->
The herdsman laid hold of the nearest, and pulled at it with all his might, but it was no use, for the stone and the rope held them all fast.

<!-- .vintro -->
**Who acts:** herdsman, hold, stone · **What happens:** lay, pull, be, hold · **To what, where:** hold, use, ogre

<!-- .vabout -->
This is a sentence of «The Crimson Fairy Book» by Andrew Lang, The Crimson Fairy Book, part 26. The page gives its syntax tree — a dependency tree in the style of Universal Dependencies — and its pragmatics clause by clause: who acts (herdsman, hold, stone), 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:pg2435:26:66
# text = The herdsman laid hold of the nearest, and pulled at it with all his might, but it was no use, for the stone and the rope held them all fast.
1	The	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	2	det	_	_
2	herdsman	herdsman	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	3	nsubj	_	_
3	laid	lay	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	0	root	_	_
4	hold	hold	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	3	obj	_	_
5	of	of	ADP	IN	_	7	case	_	_
6	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	7	det	_	_
7	nearest	near	ADJ	JJS	Degree=Sup	4	amod	_	SpaceAfter=No
8	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	10	punct	_	_
9	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	10	cc	_	_
10	pulled	pull	VERB	VBN	Tense=Past|VerbForm=Part|Voice=Pass	3	parataxis	_	_
11	at	at	ADP	IN	_	12	case	_	_
12	it	it	PRON	PRP	Case=Acc|Gender=Neut|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	10	obl	_	_
13	with	with	SCONJ	IN	_	16	mark	_	_
14	all	all	DET	PDT	PronType=Tot	16	det:predet	_	_
15	his	his	PRON	PRP$	Case=Gen|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|Poss=Yes|PronType=Prs	16	nmod:poss	_	_
16	might	might	AUX	MD	VerbForm=Fin	10	advcl	_	SpaceAfter=No
17	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	22	punct	_	_
18	but	but	CCONJ	CC	_	22	cc	_	_
19	it	it	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Gender=Neut|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	22	nsubj	_	_
20	was	be	AUX	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	22	cop	_	_
21	no	no	DET	DT	PronType=Neg	22	det	_	_
22	use	use	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	3	obl	_	SpaceAfter=No
23	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	26	punct	_	_
24	for	for	ADP	IN	_	26	case	_	_
25	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	26	det	_	_
26	stone	stone	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	30	nsubj	_	_
27	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	29	cc	_	_
28	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	29	det	_	_
29	rope	rope	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	26	conj	_	_
30	held	hold	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	22	acl:relcl	_	_
31	them	they	PRON	PRP	Case=Acc|Number=Plur|Person=3|PronType=Prs	30	obj	_	_
32	all	all	ADV	RB	_	33	advmod	_	_
33	fast	fast	ADV	RB	Degree=Pos	30	advmod	_	SpaceAfter=No
34	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	3	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

<!-- .fr -->
| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **lay** | past | the herdsman | hold |  |  |  |  | vn create-26.4 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent hold=Result |
| 2 | **pull** | participle |  |  |  |  |  | at hold | vn push-12-1 «NP V PP-Conative»: agent=Agent at it=Theme |
| 3 | **is a** | past | hold | no use |  |  |  |  | tree rules |
| 4 | **hold** | past | the stone and the rope | ogre |  |  |  | fast *property* | vn keep-15.2 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent they=Theme |

<!-- .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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