---
title: There was no time to call back the whales, so, holding the net tight… — The Brown Fairy Book · tree and pragmatics
description: There was no time to call back the whales, so, holding the net tight in his mouth, he wished himself across the river. Who acts: time, Hare. A sentence of «The Brown Fairy Book» by Andrew Lang, The Brown Fairy Book, part 11, with its dependency tree and the pragmatics of every clause.
---

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# The Brown Fairy Book, The Brown Fairy Book, part 11, sentence 76

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There was no time to call back the whales, so, holding the net tight in his mouth, he wished himself across the river.

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**Who acts:** time, Hare · **What happens:** be, call back, hold, wish · **To what, where:** whales, net, mouth, Hare, river

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This is a sentence of «The Brown Fairy Book» by Andrew Lang, The Brown Fairy Book, part 11. The page gives its syntax tree — a dependency tree in the style of Universal Dependencies — and its pragmatics clause by clause: who acts (time, Hare), 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:pg3282:11:76
# text = There was no time to call back the whales, so, holding the net tight in his mouth, he wished himself across the river.
1	There	there	PRON	EX	PronType=Dem	2	expl	_	_
2	was	be	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	0	root	_	_
3	no	no	DET	DT	PronType=Neg	4	det	_	_
4	time	time	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	2	nsubj	_	_
5	to	to	PART	TO	_	6	mark	_	_
6	call	call	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	4	acl	_	_
7	back	back	ADV	RB	_	6	advmod	_	_
8	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	9	det	_	_
9	whales	whale	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	6	obj	_	SpaceAfter=No
10	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	22	punct	_	_
11	so	so	ADV	RB	_	22	advmod	_	SpaceAfter=No
12	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	11	punct	_	_
13	holding	hold	VERB	VBG	Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Part	22	advcl	_	_
14	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	15	det	_	_
15	net	net	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	13	obj	_	_
16	tight	tight	ADV	RB	_	13	advmod	_	_
17	in	in	ADP	IN	_	19	case	_	_
18	his	his	PRON	PRP$	Case=Gen|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|Poss=Yes|PronType=Prs	19	nmod:poss	_	_
19	mouth	mouth	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	13	obl	_	SpaceAfter=No
20	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	13	punct	_	_
21	he	he	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	22	nsubj	_	_
22	wished	wish	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	2	parataxis	_	_
23	himself	himself	PRON	PRP	Case=Acc|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs|Reflex=Yes	22	obj	_	_
24	across	across	ADP	IN	_	26	case	_	_
25	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	26	det	_	_
26	river	river	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	22	obl	_	SpaceAfter=No
27	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	2	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

<!-- .fr -->
| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **be** | past | no time |  |  | there |  |  | vn exist-47.1 «NP V»: agent=Theme |
| 2 | **call back** *speech: assert* | to-infinitive | no time *not said here* |  | the whales |  |  |  | vn initiate\_communication-37.4.2-1 «NP V NP.recipient»: agent=Agent whale=Recipient |
| 3 | **hold** | gerund | Hare *not said here* | the net |  | Hare's mouth |  | tight *property* | vn keep-15.2 «NP V NP PP.location»: agent=Agent net=Theme in mouth=Location |
| 4 | **wish** | past | Hare | Hare |  | the river |  |  | vn wish-62 «NP V NP»: agent=Pivot himself=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 Brown Fairy Book» by Andrew Lang, Project Gutenberg book 3282 (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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