---
title: There was a good deal of water, but when I let down my rope, somethi… — The Brown Fairy Book · tree and pragmatics
description: There was a good deal of water, but when I let down my rope, something caught it, and I could not in any way draw it back. Who acts: good deal, I, something. A sentence of «The Brown Fairy Book» by Andrew Lang, The Brown Fairy Book, part 5, with its dependency tree and the pragmatics of every clause
---

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# The Brown Fairy Book, The Brown Fairy Book, part 5, sentence 39

<!-- .ven lang=en -->
There was a good deal of water, but when I let down my rope, something caught it, and I could not in any way draw it back.

<!-- .vintro -->
**Who acts:** good deal, I, something · **What happens:** be, let down, catch, not draw back, deal · **To what, where:** rope, deal, way, water

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This is a sentence of «The Brown Fairy Book» by Andrew Lang, The Brown Fairy Book, part 5. The page gives its syntax tree — a dependency tree in the style of Universal Dependencies — and its pragmatics clause by clause: who acts (good deal, I, something), what happens, when and where, as Mova's frames read it from the tree.

<!-- .note-en -->
**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:pg3282:5:39
# text = There was a good deal of water, but when I let down my rope, something caught it, and I could not in any way draw it back.
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	a	a	DET	DT	Definite=Ind|PronType=Art	5	det	_	_
4	good	good	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	5	amod	_	_
5	deal	deal	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	2	nsubj	_	_
6	of	of	ADP	IN	_	7	case	_	_
7	water	water	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	5	nmod	_	SpaceAfter=No
8	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	18	punct	_	_
9	but	but	CCONJ	CC	_	18	cc	_	_
10	when	when	ADV	WRB	PronType=Int	12	advmod	_	_
11	I	I	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Number=Sing|Person=1|PronType=Prs	12	nsubj	_	_
12	let	let	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=1|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	18	advcl	_	_
13	down	down	ADP	RP	_	12	compound:prt	_	_
14	my	my	PRON	PRP$	Case=Gen|Number=Sing|Person=1|Poss=Yes|PronType=Prs	15	nmod:poss	_	_
15	rope	rope	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	12	obj	_	SpaceAfter=No
16	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	12	punct	_	_
17	something	something	PRON	NN	Number=Sing|PronType=Ind	18	nsubj	_	_
18	caught	catch	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	2	parataxis	_	_
19	it	it	PRON	PRP	Case=Acc|Gender=Neut|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	18	obj	_	SpaceAfter=No
20	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	28	punct	_	_
21	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	28	cc	_	_
22	I	I	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Number=Sing|Person=1|PronType=Prs	28	nsubj	_	_
23	could	could	AUX	MD	VerbForm=Fin	28	aux	_	_
24	not	not	PART	RB	Polarity=Neg	28	advmod	_	_
25	in	in	ADP	IN	_	27	case	_	_
26	any	any	DET	DT	PronType=Ind	27	det	_	_
27	way	way	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	28	obl	_	_
28	draw	draw	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	18	conj	_	_
29	it	it	PRON	PRP	Case=Acc|Gender=Neut|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	28	obj	_	_
30	back	back	ADV	RB	_	28	advmod	_	SpaceAfter=No
31	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	2	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

<!-- .fr -->
| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **be** | past | a good deal of water |  |  | there |  |  | vn exist-47.1 «NP V»: agent=Theme |
| 2 | **let down** | past | I | my rope |  |  |  |  | vn give-13.1-1 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent rope=Theme |
| 3 | **catch** | past | something | deal |  |  |  |  | vn get-13.5.1 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent it=Theme |
| 4 | **not** **draw back** | could | I | deal |  | any way |  |  | vn scribble-25.2-1 «NP V NP PP.destination»: agent=Agent it=Theme in way=Destination |
| 5 | **deal** |  |  | water |  |  |  |  | nom deal «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 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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