---
title: It was a lucky thing for the poor crab that she had some friends to… — The Crimson Fairy Book · tree and pragmatics
description: It was a lucky thing for the poor crab that she had some friends to come to her help or she certainly would have died then and there. Who acts: arm, few, friends. A sentence of «The Crimson Fairy Book» by Andrew Lang, The Crimson Fairy Book, part 32, with its dependency tree and the pragmatics of ev
---

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# The Crimson Fairy Book, The Crimson Fairy Book, part 32, sentence 83

<!-- .ven lang=en -->
It was a lucky thing for the poor crab that she had some friends to come to her help or she certainly would have died then and there.

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**Who acts:** arm, few, friends · **What happens:** be, have, come, die, help · **To what, where:** lucky thing, friends, help

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This is a sentence of «The Crimson Fairy Book» by Andrew Lang, The Crimson Fairy Book, part 32. The page gives its syntax tree — a dependency tree in the style of Universal Dependencies — and its pragmatics clause by clause: who acts (arm, few, friends), 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:pg2435:32:83
# text = It was a lucky thing for the poor crab that she had some friends to come to her help or she certainly would have died then and there.
1	It	it	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Gender=Neut|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	5	nsubj	_	_
2	was	be	AUX	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	5	cop	_	_
3	a	a	DET	DT	Definite=Ind|PronType=Art	5	det	_	_
4	lucky	lucky	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	5	amod	_	_
5	thing	thing	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	0	root	_	_
6	for	for	ADP	IN	_	9	case	_	_
7	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	9	det	_	_
8	poor	poor	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	9	amod	_	_
9	crab	crab	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	5	nmod	_	_
10	that	that	SCONJ	IN	_	12	mark	_	_
11	she	she	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Gender=Fem|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	12	nsubj	_	_
12	had	have	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	5	advcl	_	_
13	some	some	DET	DT	PronType=Ind	14	det	_	_
14	friends	friend	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	12	obj	_	_
15	to	to	PART	TO	_	16	mark	_	_
16	come	come	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	12	xcomp	_	_
17	to	to	ADP	IN	_	19	case	_	_
18	her	her	PRON	PRP$	Case=Gen|Gender=Fem|Number=Sing|Person=3|Poss=Yes|PronType=Prs	19	nmod:poss	_	_
19	help	help	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	16	obl	_	_
20	or	or	CCONJ	CC	_	25	cc	_	_
21	she	she	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Gender=Fem|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	25	nsubj	_	_
22	certainly	certainly	ADV	RB	_	25	advmod	_	_
23	would	would	AUX	MD	VerbForm=Fin	25	aux	_	_
24	have	have	AUX	VB	VerbForm=Inf	25	aux	_	_
25	died	die	VERB	VBN	Tense=Past|VerbForm=Part	19	acl:relcl	_	_
26	then	then	ADV	RB	PronType=Dem	25	advmod	_	_
27	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	28	cc	_	_
28	there	there	ADV	RB	PronType=Dem	26	conj	_	SpaceAfter=No
29	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	5	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

<!-- .fr -->
| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **is a** | past | arm | a lucky thing |  |  |  | for the poor crab | tree rules |
| 2 | **have** | past | few | some friends |  |  |  |  | tree rules |
| 3 | **come** | to-infinitive | some friends *not said here* |  |  | few's help |  |  | vn escape-51.1-1 «NP V PP.initial\_location»: agent=Theme to help=Initial\_Location |
| 4 | **die** | would · perfect | few | few's help *not said here* |  |  | then | certainly *property* | tree rules |
| 5 | **help** |  | few |  |  |  |  |  | nom help «act transitive»: poss=agent |

<!-- .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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