---
title: When you reach the river tie this ball to your foot, and it will tak… — The Brown Fairy Book · tree and pragmatics
description: When you reach the river tie this ball to your foot, and it will take you across—you cannot manage it in any other way. Who acts: you, it. A sentence of «The Brown Fairy Book» by Andrew Lang, The Brown Fairy Book, part 6, with its dependency tree and the pragmatics of every clause.
---

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# The Brown Fairy Book, The Brown Fairy Book, part 6, sentence 128

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When you reach the river tie this ball to your foot, and it will take you across—you cannot manage it in any other way.

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**Who acts:** you, it · **What happens:** reach, tie, take, not manage · **To what, where:** river, ball, you, other way

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This is a sentence of «The Brown Fairy Book» by Andrew Lang, The Brown Fairy Book, part 6. The page gives its syntax tree — a dependency tree in the style of Universal Dependencies — and its pragmatics clause by clause: who acts (you, it), 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:pg3282:6:128
# text = When you reach the river tie this ball to your foot, and it will take you across—you cannot manage it in any other way.
1	When	when	SCONJ	WRB	_	3	mark	_	_
2	you	you	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Person=2|PronType=Prs	3	nsubj	_	_
3	reach	reach	VERB	VBP	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=2|Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Fin	6	advcl	_	_
4	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	5	det	_	_
5	river	river	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	3	obj	_	_
6	tie	tie	VERB	VB	Mood=Imp|VerbForm=Fin	0	root	_	_
7	this	this	DET	DT	Number=Sing|PronType=Dem	8	det	_	_
8	ball	ball	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	6	obj	_	_
9	to	to	ADP	IN	_	11	case	_	_
10	your	your	PRON	PRP$	Case=Gen|Person=2|Poss=Yes|PronType=Prs	11	nmod:poss	_	_
11	foot	foot	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	6	obl	_	SpaceAfter=No
12	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	16	punct	_	_
13	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	16	cc	_	_
14	it	it	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Gender=Neut|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	16	nsubj	_	_
15	will	will	AUX	MD	VerbForm=Fin	16	aux	_	_
16	take	take	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	6	conj	_	_
17	you	you	PRON	PRP	Case=Acc|Person=2|PronType=Prs	16	obj	_	_
18	across	across	ADV	RB	_	16	advmod	_	SpaceAfter=No
19	—	-	PUNCT	:	_	23	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
20	you	you	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Person=2|PronType=Prs	23	nsubj	_	_
21	can	can	AUX	MD	VerbForm=Fin	23	aux	_	SpaceAfter=No
22	not	not	PART	RB	Polarity=Neg	23	advmod	_	_
23	manage	manage	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	16	conj	_	_
24	it	it	PRON	PRP	Case=Acc|Gender=Neut|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	23	obj	_	_
25	in	in	ADP	IN	_	28	case	_	_
26	any	any	DET	DT	PronType=Ind	28	det	_	_
27	other	other	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	28	amod	_	_
28	way	way	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	23	obl	_	SpaceAfter=No
29	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	6	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

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| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **reach** | present | you | the river |  |  |  |  | vn body\_motion-49.2-1-1 «NP V NP ADV»: agent=Agent river=Theme |
| 2 | **tie** | imperative | you *not said here* | this ball |  |  |  | to your foot | vn mix-22.1-2 «NP V NP PP.co-patient»: agent=Agent ball=Patient to foot=Co-Patient |
| 3 | **take** | future | it |  | you |  |  | across *property* | vn bring-11.3 «NP V NP ADVP»: agent=Instrument you=Destination |
| 4 | **not** **manage** | can | you | ball |  | any other way |  |  | vn supervision-95.2.2-1 «NP V NP.theme PP.predicate»: agent=Agent it=Theme in way=Eventuality |

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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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