---
title: At length one swimmer, stronger than the rest, seized hold of his tu… — The Orange Fairy Book · tree and pragmatics
description: At length one swimmer, stronger than the rest, seized hold of his tunic, and drew him to the bank, where a thousand eager hands were ready to haul him out. Who acts: thousand eager hands. A sentence of «The Orange Fairy Book» by Andrew Lang, Opening, part 37, with its dependency tree and the pragmat
---

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# The Orange Fairy Book, Opening, part 37, sentence 68

<!-- .ven lang=en -->
At length one swimmer, stronger than the rest, seized hold of his tunic, and drew him to the bank, where a thousand eager hands were ready to haul him out.

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**Who acts:** thousand eager hands · **What happens:** seize, draw, be, haul out, hold · **To what, where:** hold, swimmer, bank, tunic

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This is a sentence of «The Orange Fairy Book» by Andrew Lang, Opening, part 37. The page gives its syntax tree — a dependency tree in the style of Universal Dependencies — and its pragmatics clause by clause: who acts (thousand eager hands), 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:pg3027:37:68
# text = At length one swimmer, stronger than the rest, seized hold of his tunic, and drew him to the bank, where a thousand eager hands were ready to haul him out.
1	At	at	ADP	IN	_	2	case	_	_
2	length	length	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	6	obl	_	_
3	one	one	NUM	CD	NumForm=Word|NumType=Card	4	nummod	_	_
4	swimmer	swimmer	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	6	nsubj	_	SpaceAfter=No
5	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	6	punct	_	_
6	stronger	strong	ADJ	JJR	Degree=Cmp	0	root	_	_
7	than	than	ADP	IN	_	9	case	_	_
8	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	9	det	_	_
9	rest	rest	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	6	obl	_	SpaceAfter=No
10	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	11	punct	_	_
11	seized	seize	VERB	VBN	Tense=Past|VerbForm=Part|Voice=Pass	6	advcl	_	_
12	hold	hold	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	11	obj	_	_
13	of	of	ADP	IN	_	15	case	_	_
14	his	his	PRON	PRP$	Case=Gen|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|Poss=Yes|PronType=Prs	15	nmod:poss	_	_
15	tunic	tunic	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	12	nmod	_	SpaceAfter=No
16	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	18	punct	_	_
17	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	18	cc	_	_
18	drew	draw	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	6	conj	_	_
19	him	he	PRON	PRP	Case=Acc|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	18	obj	_	_
20	to	to	ADP	IN	_	22	case	_	_
21	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	22	det	_	_
22	bank	bank	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	18	obl	_	SpaceAfter=No
23	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	30	punct	_	_
24	where	where	ADV	WRB	PronType=Rel	30	advmod	_	_
25	a	a	DET	DT	Definite=Ind|PronType=Art	26	det	_	_
26	thousand	thousand	NUM	CD	NumForm=Word|NumType=Card	28	nummod	_	_
27	eager	eager	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	28	amod	_	_
28	hands	hand	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	30	nsubj	_	_
29	were	be	AUX	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Plur|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	30	cop	_	_
30	ready	ready	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	22	conj	_	_
31	to	to	PART	TO	_	32	mark	_	_
32	haul	haul	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	30	xcomp	_	_
33	him	he	PRON	PRP	Case=Acc|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	32	obj	_	_
34	out	out	ADP	RP	_	32	compound:prt	_	SpaceAfter=No
35	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	6	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

<!-- .fr -->
| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **seize** | participle |  | hold of swimmer's tunic |  |  |  |  | vn obtain-13.5.2 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent hold=Theme |
| 2 | **draw** | past |  | swimmer |  | the bank |  |  | vn carry-11.4 «NP V NP PP.destination»: agent=Agent he=Theme to bank=Destination |
| 3 | **is** | past | thousand eager hands |  |  |  |  | ready *property* | tree rules |
| 4 | **haul out** | to-infinitive | thousand eager hands *not said here* | swimmer |  |  |  |  | vn carry-11.4 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent he=Theme |
| 5 | **hold** |  |  | swimmer's tunic |  |  |  |  | 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:** «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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