---
title: "Catch hold of me," said the serpent, "and I'll take you, only tortu… — Cossack Fairy Tales and Folk Tales · tree and pragmatics
description: "Catch hold of me," said the serpent, "and I'll take you, only torture me no more." Who acts: serpent. A sentence of «Cossack Fairy Tales and Folk Tales», The Story of the Unlucky Days, part 3, with its dependency tree and the pragmatics of every clause.
---

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# Cossack Fairy Tales and Folk Tales, The Story of the Unlucky Days, part 3, sentence 38

<!-- .ven lang=en -->
"Catch hold of me," said the serpent, "and I'll take you, only torture me no more."

<!-- .vintro -->
**Who acts:** serpent · **What happens:** catch, say, take, torture, hold · **To what, where:** hold, you, serpent, me · **Speech:** someone speaks here

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This is a sentence of «Cossack Fairy Tales and Folk Tales», The Story of the Unlucky Days, part 3. The page gives its syntax tree — a dependency tree in the style of Universal Dependencies — and its pragmatics clause by clause: who acts (serpent), 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:pg29672:27:38
# text = "Catch hold of me," said the serpent, "and I'll take you, only torture me no more."
1	"	"	PUNCT	``	_	2	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
2	Catch	catch	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	8	ccomp	_	_
3	hold	hold	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	2	obj	_	_
4	of	of	ADP	IN	_	5	case	_	_
5	me	I	PRON	PRP	Case=Acc|Number=Sing|Person=1|PronType=Prs	3	nmod	_	SpaceAfter=No
6	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	2	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
7	"	"	PUNCT	''	_	2	punct	_	_
8	said	say	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=1|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	0	root	_	_
9	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	10	det	_	_
10	serpent	serpent	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	8	obj	_	SpaceAfter=No
11	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	8	punct	_	_
12	"	"	PUNCT	''	_	8	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
13	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	16	cc	_	_
14	I	I	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Number=Sing|Person=1|PronType=Prs	16	nsubj	_	SpaceAfter=No
15	'll	will	AUX	MD	VerbForm=Fin	16	aux	_	_
16	take	take	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	8	conj	_	_
17	you	you	PRON	PRP	Case=Acc|Person=2|PronType=Prs	16	obj	_	SpaceAfter=No
18	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	20	punct	_	_
19	only	only	ADV	RB	_	20	advmod	_	_
20	torture	torture	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	16	conj	_	_
21	me	I	PRON	PRP	Case=Acc|Number=Sing|Person=1|PronType=Prs	20	obj	_	_
22	no	no	ADV	RB	_	23	advmod	_	_
23	more	more	ADJ	JJR	Degree=Cmp	20	obj	_	SpaceAfter=No
24	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	16	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
25	"	"	PUNCT	''	_	16	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

<!-- .fr -->
| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **catch** *in a quote* | infinitive |  | hold of me |  |  |  |  | vn get-13.5.1 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent hold=Theme |
| 2 | **say** *speech: assert* | past | the serpent |  |  |  |  |  | vn say-37.7-1-1 «NP V that S»: agent=Agent clause=Topic |
| 3 | **take** *in a quote* | future | the serpent *= serpent* |  | you |  |  |  | vn bring-11.3 «NP V NP ADVP»: agent=Instrument you=Destination |
| 4 | **torture** *in a quote* | infinitive | the serpent *= serpent* *not said here* | the serpent *= serpent* |  |  |  |  | vn amuse-31.1 «NP V NP ADJ»: agent=Stimulus i=Experiencer more=Result |
| 5 | **hold** *in a quote* |  |  | me |  |  |  |  | nom hold «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:** «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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