---
title: The one which neither sinks nor comes to the surface is the cane tha… — The Crimson Fairy Book · tree and pragmatics
description: The one which neither sinks nor comes to the surface is the cane that is cut from the middle; and the one that floats is from the top.” Who acts: one. A sentence of «The Crimson Fairy Book» by Andrew Lang, The Crimson Fairy Book, part 7, with its dependency tree and the pragmatics of every clause.
---

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# The Crimson Fairy Book, The Crimson Fairy Book, part 7, sentence 78

<!-- .ven lang=en -->
The one which neither sinks nor comes to the surface is the cane that is cut from the middle; and the one that floats is from the top.”

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**Who acts:** one · **What happens:** sink, come, be, cut, float · **To what, where:** cane, middle, top

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This is a sentence of «The Crimson Fairy Book» by Andrew Lang, The Crimson Fairy Book, part 7. The page gives its syntax tree — a dependency tree in the style of Universal Dependencies — and its pragmatics clause by clause: who acts (one), 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:pg2435:7:78
# text = The one which neither sinks nor comes to the surface is the cane that is cut from the middle; and the one that floats is from the top.”
1	The	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	2	det	_	_
2	one	one	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	29	nsubj	_	_
3	which	which	PRON	WDT	PronType=Rel	5	nsubj	_	_
4	neither	neither	DET	DT	PronType=Neg	5	nsubj	_	_
5	sinks	sink	VERB	VBZ	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Fin	2	acl:relcl	_	_
6	nor	nor	CCONJ	CC	Polarity=Neg	7	cc	_	_
7	comes	come	VERB	VBZ	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Fin	5	conj	_	_
8	to	to	ADP	IN	_	10	case	_	_
9	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	10	det	_	_
10	surface	surface	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	13	obl	_	_
11	is	be	AUX	VBZ	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Fin	13	cop	_	_
12	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	13	det	_	_
13	cane	cane	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	7	obl	_	_
14	that	that	PRON	WDT	PronType=Rel	16	nsubj:pass	_	_
15	is	be	AUX	VBZ	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Fin	16	aux:pass	_	_
16	cut	cut	VERB	VBN	Tense=Past|VerbForm=Part|Voice=Pass	13	acl:relcl	_	_
17	from	from	ADP	IN	_	19	case	_	_
18	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	19	det	_	_
19	middle	middle	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	16	obl	_	SpaceAfter=No
20	;	;	PUNCT	:	_	23	punct	_	_
21	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	23	cc	_	_
22	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	23	det	_	_
23	one	one	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	29	nsubj	_	_
24	that	that	PRON	WDT	PronType=Rel	25	nsubj	_	_
25	floats	float	VERB	VBZ	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Fin	23	acl:relcl	_	_
26	is	be	AUX	VBZ	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Fin	29	cop	_	_
27	from	from	ADP	IN	_	29	case	_	_
28	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	29	det	_	_
29	top	top	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	0	root	_	SpaceAfter=No
30	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	29	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
31	”	"	PUNCT	''	_	29	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

<!-- .fr -->
| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **sink** | present | the one |  |  |  |  |  | vn other\_cos-45.4 «NP.patient V»: agent=Patient |
| 2 | **come** | present | the one *not said here* |  |  |  |  |  | vn escape-51.1-1 «NP V»: agent=Theme |
| 3 | **is a** | present |  | the cane |  |  |  | to the surface | tree rules |
| 4 | **cut** | present · passive |  | the cane |  | the middle |  |  | vn build-26.1-1 «NP.asset V PP»: subject=Product from middle=Material |
| 5 | **float** | present | the one |  |  |  |  |  | vn run-51.3.2-2 «NP V»: agent=Theme |
| 6 | **is** | present | the one |  |  | the top |  |  | tree rules |

<!-- .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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