---
title: Again and again they tried, but the basket was only a basket, with a… — The Brown Fairy Book · tree and pragmatics
description: Again and again they tried, but the basket was only a basket, with a few scales of fish sticking to the bottom, for the innkeeper’s wife had taken it to market the day before. Who acts: children, basket, fish, wife. A sentence of «The Brown Fairy Book» by Andrew Lang, The Brown Fairy Book, part 9, w
---

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# The Brown Fairy Book, The Brown Fairy Book, part 9, sentence 63

<!-- .ven lang=en -->
Again and again they tried, but the basket was only a basket, with a few scales of fish sticking to the bottom, for the innkeeper’s wife had taken it to market the day before.

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**Who acts:** children, basket, fish, wife · **What happens:** try, be, stick, take · **To what, where:** basket

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This is a sentence of «The Brown Fairy Book» by Andrew Lang, The Brown Fairy Book, part 9. The page gives its syntax tree — a dependency tree in the style of Universal Dependencies — and its pragmatics clause by clause: who acts (children, basket, fish, wife), 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:pg3282:9:63
# text = Again and again they tried, but the basket was only a basket, with a few scales of fish sticking to the bottom, for the innkeeper’s wife had taken it to market the day before.
1	Again	again	ADV	RB	_	5	advmod	_	_
2	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	5	cc	_	_
3	again	again	ADV	RB	_	5	advmod	_	_
4	they	they	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Number=Plur|Person=3|PronType=Prs	5	nsubj	_	_
5	tried	try	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Plur|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	0	root	_	SpaceAfter=No
6	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	13	punct	_	_
7	but	but	CCONJ	CC	_	13	cc	_	_
8	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	9	det	_	_
9	basket	basket	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	13	nsubj	_	_
10	was	be	AUX	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	13	cop	_	_
11	only	only	ADV	RB	_	13	advmod	_	_
12	a	a	DET	DT	Definite=Ind|PronType=Art	13	det	_	_
13	basket	basket	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	5	obj	_	SpaceAfter=No
14	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	18	punct	_	_
15	with	with	ADP	IN	_	18	case	_	_
16	a	a	DET	DT	Definite=Ind|PronType=Art	18	det	_	_
17	few	few	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	18	amod	_	_
18	scales	scale	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	13	conj	_	_
19	of	of	ADP	IN	_	20	case	_	_
20	fish	fish	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	18	nmod	_	_
21	sticking	stick	VERB	VBG	VerbForm=Ger	20	acl	_	_
22	to	to	ADP	IN	_	24	case	_	_
23	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	24	det	_	_
24	bottom	bottom	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	21	obl	_	SpaceAfter=No
25	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	32	punct	_	_
26	for	for	SCONJ	IN	_	32	mark	_	_
27	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	28	det	_	_
28	innkeeper	innkeeper	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	30	nmod:poss	_	SpaceAfter=No
29	’s	's	PART	POS	_	28	case	_	_
30	wife	wife	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	32	nsubj	_	_
31	had	have	AUX	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	32	aux	_	_
32	taken	take	VERB	VBN	Tense=Past|VerbForm=Part	5	conj	_	_
33	it	it	PRON	PRP	Case=Acc|Gender=Neut|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	32	obj	_	_
34	to	to	PART	TO	_	35	mark	_	_
35	market	market	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	32	advcl	_	_
36	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	37	det	_	_
37	day	day	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	32	obl:unmarked	_	_
38	before	before	ADV	RB	_	32	advmod	_	SpaceAfter=No
39	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	5	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

<!-- .fr -->
| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **try** | past | children *= child* |  |  |  | again; again |  | vn amuse-31.1 «NP V ADV-Middle»: agent=Experiencer |
| 2 | **is a** | past | the basket | a basket and a few scales of fish |  |  |  |  | tree rules |
| 3 | **stick** | gerund | fish *not said here* |  |  |  |  | to the bottom | vn shake-22.3-2 «NP V NP PP»: agent=Agent to bottom=Co-Patient |
| 4 | **take** | past · perfect | the innkeeper's wife | basket |  |  | day | before *property* | vn bring-11.3 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent it=Theme |

<!-- .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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