---
title: But, if he could swim well, the duck could swim better, and at lengt… — The Orange Fairy Book · tree and pragmatics
description: But, if he could swim well, the duck could swim better, and at length his strength failed him, and he was forced to seek the land. Who acts: duck, length. A sentence of «The Orange Fairy Book» by Andrew Lang, Opening, part 31, with its dependency tree and the pragmatics of every clause.
---

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# The Orange Fairy Book, Opening, part 31, sentence 32

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But, if he could swim well, the duck could swim better, and at length his strength failed him, and he was forced to seek the land.

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**Who acts:** duck, length · **What happens:** swim, fail, force, seek · **To what, where:** duck, land

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This is a sentence of «The Orange Fairy Book» by Andrew Lang, Opening, part 31. The page gives its syntax tree — a dependency tree in the style of Universal Dependencies — and its pragmatics clause by clause: who acts (duck, length), 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:pg3027:31:32
# text = But, if he could swim well, the duck could swim better, and at length his strength failed him, and he was forced to seek the land.
1	But	but	CCONJ	CC	_	12	cc	_	SpaceAfter=No
2	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	1	punct	_	_
3	if	if	SCONJ	IN	_	6	mark	_	_
4	he	he	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	6	nsubj	_	_
5	could	could	AUX	MD	VerbForm=Fin	6	aux	_	_
6	swim	swim	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	12	advcl	_	_
7	well	well	ADV	RB	Degree=Pos	6	advmod	_	SpaceAfter=No
8	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	6	punct	_	_
9	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	10	det	_	_
10	duck	duck	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	12	nsubj	_	_
11	could	could	AUX	MD	VerbForm=Fin	12	aux	_	_
12	swim	swim	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	0	root	_	_
13	better	well	ADV	RBR	Degree=Cmp	12	advmod	_	SpaceAfter=No
14	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	20	punct	_	_
15	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	20	cc	_	_
16	at	at	ADP	IN	_	17	case	_	_
17	length	length	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	20	nsubj	_	_
18	his	his	PRON	PRP$	Case=Gen|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|Poss=Yes|PronType=Prs	19	nmod:poss	_	_
19	strength	strength	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	17	obj	_	_
20	failed	fail	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	12	parataxis	_	_
21	him	he	PRON	PRP	Case=Acc|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	20	obj	_	SpaceAfter=No
22	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	26	punct	_	_
23	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	26	cc	_	_
24	he	he	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	26	nsubj:pass	_	_
25	was	be	AUX	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	26	aux:pass	_	_
26	forced	force	VERB	VBN	Tense=Past|VerbForm=Part|Voice=Pass	20	conj	_	_
27	to	to	PART	TO	_	28	mark	_	_
28	seek	seek	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	26	xcomp	_	_
29	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	30	det	_	_
30	land	land	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	28	obj	_	SpaceAfter=No
31	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	12	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

<!-- .fr -->
| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **swim** *a condition, not said to happen* | could | duck |  |  |  |  | well *property* | vn run-51.3.2-1 «NP V»: agent=Theme |
| 2 | **swim** | could | the duck |  |  |  |  | well *property* | vn run-51.3.2-1 «NP V»: agent=Theme |
| 3 | **fail** | past | length | duck |  |  |  |  | vn succeed-74-3-1-1 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent he=Eventuality |
| 4 | **force** | past · passive |  | duck |  |  |  |  | vn urge-58.1-1 «NP V NP S\_ING»: subject=Recipient clause=Topic |
| 5 | **seek** | to-infinitive | duck *not said here* | the land |  |  |  |  | vn hunt-35.1 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent land=Theme |

<!-- .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 Orange Fairy Book» by Andrew Lang, Project Gutenberg book 3027 (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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