---
title: When the whale pulled hardest the elephant was dragged into the wate… — The Brown Fairy Book · tree and pragmatics
description: When the whale pulled hardest the elephant was dragged into the water; and when the elephant pulled the hardest the whale was hauled on to the land. Who acts: whale, elephant. A sentence of «The Brown Fairy Book» by Andrew Lang, Story of Wali Dâd the Simple-Hearted, part 2, with its dependency tree 
---

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# The Brown Fairy Book, Story of Wali Dâd the Simple-Hearted, part 2, sentence 65

<!-- .ven lang=en -->
When the whale pulled hardest the elephant was dragged into the water; and when the elephant pulled the hardest the whale was hauled on to the land.

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**Who acts:** whale, elephant · **What happens:** pull, drag, haul on · **To what, where:** hardest, elephant, water, hardest whale, land

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This is a sentence of «The Brown Fairy Book» by Andrew Lang, Story of Wali Dâd the Simple-Hearted, part 2. The page gives its syntax tree — a dependency tree in the style of Universal Dependencies — and its pragmatics clause by clause: who acts (whale, elephant), 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:pg3282:35:65
# text = When the whale pulled hardest the elephant was dragged into the water; and when the elephant pulled the hardest the whale was hauled on to the land.
1	When	when	ADV	WRB	PronType=Int	4	advmod	_	_
2	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	3	det	_	_
3	whale	whale	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	4	nsubj	_	_
4	pulled	pull	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	0	root	_	_
5	hardest	hard	ADJ	JJS	Degree=Sup	4	obj	_	_
6	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	7	det	_	_
7	elephant	elephant	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	9	nsubj:pass	_	_
8	was	be	AUX	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	9	aux:pass	_	_
9	dragged	drag	VERB	VBN	Tense=Past|VerbForm=Part|Voice=Pass	4	conj	_	_
10	into	into	ADP	IN	_	12	case	_	_
11	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	12	det	_	_
12	water	water	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	9	obl	_	SpaceAfter=No
13	;	;	PUNCT	,	_	18	punct	_	_
14	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	18	cc	_	_
15	when	when	ADV	WRB	PronType=Int	18	advmod	_	_
16	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	17	det	_	_
17	elephant	elephant	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	18	nsubj	_	_
18	pulled	pull	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	4	conj	_	_
19	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	22	det	_	_
20	hardest	hard	ADJ	JJS	Degree=Sup	22	amod	_	_
21	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	22	det	_	_
22	whale	whale	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	24	nsubj	_	_
23	was	be	AUX	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	24	aux:pass	_	_
24	hauled	haul	VERB	VBN	Tense=Past|VerbForm=Part|Voice=Pass	18	parataxis	_	_
25	on	on	ADP	RP	_	24	compound:prt	_	_
26	to	to	ADP	IN	_	28	case	_	_
27	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	28	det	_	_
28	land	land	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	24	obl	_	SpaceAfter=No
29	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	4	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

<!-- .fr -->
| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **pull** | past | the whale | hardest |  |  |  |  | vn push-12-1 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent hard=Theme |
| 2 | **drag** | past · passive |  | the elephant |  | the water |  |  | vn carry-11.4 «NP V NP»: subject=Theme |
| 3 | **pull** | past | the elephant |  |  |  |  |  | vn slide-11.2 «NP V»: agent=Theme |
| 4 | **haul on** | past · passive |  | the hardest whale |  | the land |  |  | vn carry-11.4 «NP V NP PP.destination»: subject=Theme to land=Destination |

<!-- .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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