---
title: The crocodile called it a ‘chance’; but he might as well have dragge… — The Brown Fairy Book · tree and pragmatics
description: The crocodile called it a ‘chance’; but he might as well have dragged me into the river at once. Who acts: crocodile, hole. A sentence of «The Brown Fairy Book» by Andrew Lang, The Brown Fairy Book, part 25, with its dependency tree and the pragmatics of every clause.
---

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# The Brown Fairy Book, The Brown Fairy Book, part 25, sentence 103

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The crocodile called it a ‘chance’; but he might as well have dragged me into the river at once.

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**Who acts:** crocodile, hole · **What happens:** call, drag · **To what, where:** course, me, river · **Speech:** someone speaks here

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This is a sentence of «The Brown Fairy Book» by Andrew Lang, The Brown Fairy Book, part 25. The page gives its syntax tree — a dependency tree in the style of Universal Dependencies — and its pragmatics clause by clause: who acts (crocodile, hole), 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:pg3282:25:103
# text = The crocodile called it a ‘chance’; but he might as well have dragged me into the river at once.
1	The	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	2	det	_	_
2	crocodile	crocodile	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	3	nsubj	_	_
3	called	call	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	0	root	_	_
4	it	it	PRON	PRP	Case=Acc|Gender=Neut|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	3	obj	_	_
5	a	a	DET	DT	Definite=Ind|PronType=Art	7	det	_	_
6	‘	'	PUNCT	``	_	7	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
7	chance	chance	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	3	xcomp	_	SpaceAfter=No
8	’	'	PUNCT	''	_	7	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
9	;	;	PUNCT	,	_	16	punct	_	_
10	but	but	CCONJ	CC	_	16	cc	_	_
11	he	he	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	16	nsubj	_	_
12	might	might	AUX	MD	VerbForm=Fin	16	aux	_	_
13	as	as	ADV	RB	ExtPos=CCONJ	16	cc	_	_
14	well	well	ADV	RB	Degree=Pos	13	fixed	_	_
15	have	have	AUX	VBP	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=1|Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Fin	16	aux	_	_
16	dragged	drag	VERB	VBN	Tense=Past|VerbForm=Part	3	conj	_	_
17	me	I	PRON	PRP	Case=Acc|Number=Sing|Person=1|PronType=Prs	16	obj	_	_
18	into	into	ADP	IN	_	20	case	_	_
19	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	20	det	_	_
20	river	river	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	16	obl	_	_
21	at	at	ADP	IN	_	22	case	_	_
22	once	once	ADV	RB	NumForm=Word|NumType=Mult	16	obl	_	SpaceAfter=No
23	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	3	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

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| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **call** | past | the crocodile | course |  |  |  |  | vn initiate\_communication-37.4.2-1 «NP V NP.recipient»: agent=Agent it=Recipient |
| 2 | **drag** | might · perfect | hole | me |  | the river |  |  | vn carry-11.4 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent i=Theme |

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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:** «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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