---
title: It seemed hardly to touch the water before it was carried away, and… — The Brown Fairy Book · tree and pragmatics
description: It seemed hardly to touch the water before it was carried away, and even his magic sight could not follow it. Who acts: It, magic sight, stream. A sentence of «The Brown Fairy Book» by Andrew Lang, The Brown Fairy Book, part 7, with its dependency tree and the pragmatics of every clause.
---

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# The Brown Fairy Book, The Brown Fairy Book, part 7, sentence 5

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It seemed hardly to touch the water before it was carried away, and even his magic sight could not follow it.

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**Who acts:** It, magic sight, stream · **What happens:** seem, touch, carry away, not follow, sight · **To what, where:** water

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This is a sentence of «The Brown Fairy Book» by Andrew Lang, The Brown Fairy Book, part 7. The page gives its syntax tree — a dependency tree in the style of Universal Dependencies — and its pragmatics clause by clause: who acts (It, magic sight, stream), 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:pg3282:7:5
# text = It seemed hardly to touch the water before it was carried away, and even his magic sight could not follow it.
1	It	it	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Gender=Neut|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	2	nsubj	_	_
2	seemed	seem	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	0	root	_	_
3	hardly	hardly	ADV	RB	_	2	advmod	_	_
4	to	to	PART	TO	_	5	mark	_	_
5	touch	touch	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	2	xcomp	_	_
6	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	7	det	_	_
7	water	water	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	5	obj	_	_
8	before	before	SCONJ	IN	_	11	mark	_	_
9	it	it	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Gender=Neut|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	11	nsubj:pass	_	_
10	was	be	AUX	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	11	aux:pass	_	_
11	carried	carry	VERB	VBN	Tense=Past|VerbForm=Part|Voice=Pass	5	advcl	_	_
12	away	away	ADV	RB	_	11	advmod	_	SpaceAfter=No
13	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	21	punct	_	_
14	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	21	cc	_	_
15	even	even	ADV	RB	_	18	advmod	_	_
16	his	his	PRON	PRP$	Case=Gen|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|Poss=Yes|PronType=Prs	18	nmod:poss	_	_
17	magic	magic	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	18	amod	_	_
18	sight	sight	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	21	nsubj	_	_
19	could	could	AUX	MD	VerbForm=Fin	21	aux	_	_
20	not	not	PART	RB	Polarity=Neg	21	advmod	_	_
21	follow	follow	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	2	parataxis	_	_
22	it	it	PRON	PRP	Case=Acc|Gender=Neut|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	21	obj	_	SpaceAfter=No
23	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	2	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

<!-- .fr -->
| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **seem** | past | It |  |  |  |  | hardly *property* | vn seem-109-1-1-1 «NP V S\_INF»: agent=Theme clause=Attribute |
| 2 | **touch** | to-infinitive |  | the water |  |  |  |  | vn contiguous\_location-47.8-1 «NP V NP»: agent=Theme water=Co-Theme |
| 3 | **carry away** | past · passive |  | water |  |  |  | away *property* | vn carry-11.4 «NP V NP»: subject=Theme |
| 4 | **not** **follow** | could | stream's magic sight | water |  |  |  |  | vn chase-51.6 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent it=Theme |
| 5 | **sight** |  | stream |  |  |  |  |  | nom sight «cognition transitive»: poss=agent |

<!-- .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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