---
title: Then they clutched tight hold of the trees to stop themselves from d… — Cossack Fairy Tales and Folk Tales · tree and pragmatics
description: Then they clutched tight hold of the trees to stop themselves from dancing; but it was of no use, dance they must. Who acts: bears, hold. A sentence of «Cossack Fairy Tales and Folk Tales», The Two Princes, part 2, with its dependency tree and the pragmatics of every clause.
---

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# Cossack Fairy Tales and Folk Tales, The Two Princes, part 2, sentence 71

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Then they clutched tight hold of the trees to stop themselves from dancing; but it was of no use, dance they must.

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**Who acts:** bears, hold · **What happens:** clutch, stop, dance, be, hold · **To what, where:** tight hold, bears, trees

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This is a sentence of «Cossack Fairy Tales and Folk Tales», The Two Princes, part 2. The page gives its syntax tree — a dependency tree in the style of Universal Dependencies — and its pragmatics clause by clause: who acts (bears, hold), 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:pg29672:23:71
# text = Then they clutched tight hold of the trees to stop themselves from dancing; but it was of no use, dance they must.
1	Then	then	ADV	RB	PronType=Dem	3	advmod	_	_
2	they	they	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Number=Plur|Person=3|PronType=Prs	3	nsubj	_	_
3	clutched	clutch	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Plur|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	0	root	_	_
4	tight	tight	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	5	amod	_	_
5	hold	hold	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	3	obj	_	_
6	of	of	ADP	IN	_	8	case	_	_
7	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	8	det	_	_
8	trees	tree	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	5	nmod	_	_
9	to	to	PART	TO	_	10	mark	_	_
10	stop	stop	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	3	advcl	_	_
11	themselves	themselves	PRON	PRP	Case=Acc|Number=Plur|Person=3|PronType=Prs|Reflex=Yes	10	obj	_	_
12	from	from	SCONJ	IN	_	13	mark	_	_
13	dancing	dance	VERB	VBG	Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Part	10	advcl	_	SpaceAfter=No
14	;	;	PUNCT	,	_	20	punct	_	_
15	but	but	CCONJ	CC	_	20	cc	_	_
16	it	it	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Gender=Neut|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	20	nsubj	_	_
17	was	be	AUX	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	20	cop	_	_
18	of	of	ADP	IN	_	20	case	_	_
19	no	no	DET	DT	PronType=Neg	20	det	_	_
20	use	use	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	3	advcl	_	SpaceAfter=No
21	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	22	punct	_	_
22	dance	dance	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	20	conj	_	_
23	they	they	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Number=Plur|Person=3|PronType=Prs	24	nsubj	_	_
24	must	must	AUX	MD	VerbForm=Fin	22	acl:relcl	_	SpaceAfter=No
25	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	3	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

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| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **clutch** | past | bears *= bear* | tight hold of the trees |  |  | then |  | vn hold-15.1-1 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent hold=Theme |
| 2 | **stop** | to-infinitive | bears *= bear* *not said here* | bears *= bear* |  |  |  |  | vn stop-55.4-1-1 «NP V NP.eventuality»: agent=Subeventuality themselves=Eventuality |
| 3 | **dance** | gerund | bears *= bear* *not said here* |  |  |  |  |  | vn modes\_of\_being\_with\_motion-47.3 «NP V»: agent=Theme |
| 4 | **is** | past | hold |  |  |  |  | of no use and dance | tree rules |
| 5 | **hold** |  |  | the trees |  |  |  |  | nom hold «act transitive»: of=patient |

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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:** «Cossack Fairy Tales and Folk Tales», Project Gutenberg book 29672 (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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