---
title: He held on to all the reeds and rushes, but it was of little good, f… — Grimms' Fairy Tales · tree and pragmatics
description: He held on to all the reeds and rushes, but it was of little good, for he was forced to follow the movements of the fish, and was in urgent danger of being dragged into the water. Who acts: creature, fish. A sentence of «Grimms' Fairy Tales» by Jacob Grimm, Snow-white and Rose-red, with its dependen
---

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# Grimms' Fairy Tales, Snow-white and Rose-red, sentence 67

<!-- .ven lang=en -->
He held on to all the reeds and rushes, but it was of little good, for he was forced to follow the movements of the fish, and was in urgent danger of being dragged into the water.

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**Who acts:** creature, fish · **What happens:** hold on, be, force, follow, drag, move · **To what, where:** creature, movements, urgent danger, water, fish

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This is a sentence of «Grimms' Fairy Tales» by Jacob Grimm, Snow-white and Rose-red. The page gives its syntax tree — a dependency tree in the style of Universal Dependencies — and its pragmatics clause by clause: who acts (creature, fish), 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:pg2591:60:67
# text = He held on to all the reeds and rushes, but it was of little good, for he was forced to follow the movements of the fish, and was in urgent danger of being dragged into the water.
1	He	he	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	2	nsubj	_	_
2	held	hold	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	0	root	_	_
3	on	on	ADP	RP	_	2	compound:prt	_	_
4	to	to	ADP	IN	_	7	case	_	_
5	all	all	DET	PDT	PronType=Tot	7	det:predet	_	_
6	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	7	det	_	_
7	reeds	reed	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	2	obl	_	_
8	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	9	cc	_	_
9	rushes	rush	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	7	conj	_	SpaceAfter=No
10	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	16	punct	_	_
11	but	but	CCONJ	CC	_	16	cc	_	_
12	it	it	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Gender=Neut|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	16	nsubj	_	_
13	was	be	AUX	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	16	cop	_	_
14	of	of	ADP	IN	_	16	case	_	_
15	little	little	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	16	amod	_	_
16	good	good	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	2	parataxis	_	SpaceAfter=No
17	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	21	punct	_	_
18	for	for	SCONJ	IN	_	21	mark	_	_
19	he	he	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	21	nsubj:pass	_	_
20	was	be	AUX	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	21	aux:pass	_	_
21	forced	force	VERB	VBN	Tense=Past|VerbForm=Part|Voice=Pass	16	parataxis	_	_
22	to	to	PART	TO	_	23	mark	_	_
23	follow	follow	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	21	xcomp	_	_
24	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	25	det	_	_
25	movements	movement	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	23	obj	_	_
26	of	of	ADP	IN	_	28	case	_	_
27	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	28	det	_	_
28	fish	fish	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	25	nmod	_	SpaceAfter=No
29	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	34	punct	_	_
30	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	34	cc	_	_
31	was	be	AUX	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	34	cop	_	_
32	in	in	ADP	IN	_	34	case	_	_
33	urgent	urgent	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	34	amod	_	_
34	danger	danger	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	2	obl	_	_
35	of	of	SCONJ	IN	_	37	mark	_	_
36	being	be	AUX	VBG	Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Part	37	aux:pass	_	_
37	dragged	drag	VERB	VBN	Tense=Past|VerbForm=Part|Voice=Pass	34	acl	_	_
38	into	into	ADP	IN	_	40	case	_	_
39	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	40	det	_	_
40	water	water	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	37	obl	_	SpaceAfter=No
41	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	2	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

<!-- .fr -->
| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **hold on** | past | creature |  |  |  |  | to all reeds and rushes | vn exist-47.1 «NP V»: agent=Theme |
| 2 | **is** | past | fish |  |  |  |  | good *property* | tree rules |
| 3 | **force** | past · passive |  | creature |  |  |  |  | vn urge-58.1-1 «NP V NP S\_ING»: subject=Recipient clause=Topic |
| 4 | **follow** | to-infinitive | creature *not said here* | the movements of the fish |  |  |  |  | vn chase-51.6 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent movement=Theme |
| 5 | **is** | past |  |  |  | urgent danger |  |  | tree rules |
| 6 | **drag** | gerund · passive |  | urgent danger *not said here* |  | the water |  |  | vn search-35.2 «NP V PP.location» |
| 7 | **move** |  |  | the fish |  |  |  |  | nom movement «act transitive»: of=patient |

<!-- .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:** «Grimms' Fairy Tales» by Jacob Grimm, Project Gutenberg book 2591 (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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