---
title: If anyone was to get hold of it, and find that they could cross rive… — The Brown Fairy Book · tree and pragmatics
description: If anyone was to get hold of it, and find that they could cross rivers and seas without any trouble, they would never discover how to cross them for themselves. Who acts: anyone, people. A sentence of «The Brown Fairy Book» by Andrew Lang, The Brown Fairy Book, part 8, with its dependency tree and t
---

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# The Brown Fairy Book, The Brown Fairy Book, part 8, sentence 66

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If anyone was to get hold of it, and find that they could cross rivers and seas without any trouble, they would never discover how to cross them for themselves.

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**Who acts:** anyone, people · **What happens:** be, find, cross, not discover, hold · **To what, where:** rivers, people, hold · **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 8. The page gives its syntax tree — a dependency tree in the style of Universal Dependencies — and its pragmatics clause by clause: who acts (anyone, people), 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:pg3282:8:66
# text = If anyone was to get hold of it, and find that they could cross rivers and seas without any trouble, they would never discover how to cross them for themselves.
1	If	if	SCONJ	IN	_	5	mark	_	_
2	anyone	anyone	PRON	NN	Number=Sing|PronType=Ind	5	nsubj	_	_
3	was	be	AUX	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	5	cop	_	_
4	to	to	PART	TO	_	5	mark	_	_
5	get	get	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	26	advcl	_	_
6	hold	hold	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	5	obj	_	_
7	of	of	ADP	IN	_	8	case	_	_
8	it	it	PRON	PRP	Case=Acc|Gender=Neut|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	6	nmod	_	SpaceAfter=No
9	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	11	punct	_	_
10	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	11	cc	_	_
11	find	find	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	5	conj	_	_
12	that	that	SCONJ	IN	_	15	mark	_	_
13	they	they	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Number=Plur|Person=3|PronType=Prs	15	nsubj	_	_
14	could	could	AUX	MD	VerbForm=Fin	15	aux	_	_
15	cross	cross	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	11	ccomp	_	_
16	rivers	river	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	15	obj	_	_
17	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	18	cc	_	_
18	seas	sea	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	16	conj	_	_
19	without	without	ADP	IN	_	21	case	_	_
20	any	any	DET	DT	PronType=Ind	21	det	_	_
21	trouble	trouble	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	15	obl	_	SpaceAfter=No
22	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	5	punct	_	_
23	they	they	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Number=Plur|Person=3|PronType=Prs	26	nsubj	_	_
24	would	would	AUX	MD	VerbForm=Fin	26	aux	_	_
25	never	never	ADV	RB	PronType=Neg	26	advmod	_	_
26	discover	discover	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	0	root	_	_
27	how	how	ADV	WRB	PronType=Int	29	advmod	_	_
28	to	to	PART	TO	_	29	mark	_	_
29	cross	cross	VERB	VB	Mood=Imp|VerbForm=Fin	26	parataxis	_	_
30	them	they	PRON	PRP	Case=Acc|Number=Plur|Person=3|PronType=Prs	29	obj	_	_
31	for	for	ADP	IN	_	32	case	_	_
32	themselves	themselves	PRON	PRP	Case=Acc|Number=Plur|Person=3|PronType=Prs|Reflex=Yes	29	obl	_	SpaceAfter=No
33	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	26	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

<!-- .fr -->
| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **is** *a condition, not said to happen* | past | anyone |  |  |  |  | get *property* | tree rules |
| 2 | **find** | infinitive | anyone *not said here* |  |  |  |  |  | vn declare-29.4-1-1 «NP V what S\_INF»: agent=Agent clause=Theme |
| 3 | **cross** | could | people | rivers and seas |  |  |  | without any trouble | vn crane-40.3.2 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent river=Patient |
| 4 | **not** **discover** | would | people |  |  |  |  |  | vn discover-84-1 «NP V PP.topic S\_ING»: agent=Agent |
| 5 | **cross** | to-infinitive |  | people |  |  |  | for people | vn crane-40.3.2 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent they=Patient |
| 6 | **hold** |  |  | hold |  |  |  |  | nom hold «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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