---
title: At least, he could transform himself into a needle, but try as he mi… — The Lilac Fairy Book · tree and pragmatics
description: At least, he could transform himself into a needle, but try as he might he never was able to imitate the hole, so every woman would have found him out at once, and this he knew. Who acts: thing, this. A sentence of «The Lilac Fairy Book» by Andrew Lang, The Lilac Fairy Book, part 10, with its depend
---

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# The Lilac Fairy Book, The Lilac Fairy Book, part 10, sentence 26

<!-- .ven lang=en -->
At least, he could transform himself into a needle, but try as he might he never was able to imitate the hole, so every woman would have found him out at once, and this he knew.

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**Who acts:** thing, this · **What happens:** transform, try, not be, imitate, find out, know · **To what, where:** thing, least, hole, woman

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This is a sentence of «The Lilac Fairy Book» by Andrew Lang, The Lilac Fairy Book, part 10. The page gives its syntax tree — a dependency tree in the style of Universal Dependencies — and its pragmatics clause by clause: who acts (thing, this), 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:pg3454:10:26
# text = At least, he could transform himself into a needle, but try as he might he never was able to imitate the hole, so every woman would have found him out at once, and this he knew.
1	At	at	ADP	IN	_	2	case	_	_
2	least	least	ADJ	JJS	Degree=Sup	6	obl	_	SpaceAfter=No
3	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	2	punct	_	_
4	he	he	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	6	nsubj	_	_
5	could	could	AUX	MD	VerbForm=Fin	6	aux	_	_
6	transform	transform	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	0	root	_	_
7	himself	himself	PRON	PRP	Case=Acc|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs|Reflex=Yes	6	obj	_	_
8	into	into	ADP	IN	_	10	case	_	_
9	a	a	DET	DT	Definite=Ind|PronType=Art	10	det	_	_
10	needle	needle	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	6	obl	_	SpaceAfter=No
11	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	13	punct	_	_
12	but	but	CCONJ	CC	_	13	cc	_	_
13	try	try	VERB	VBP	Mood=Ind|Number=Plur|Person=3|Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Fin	6	parataxis	_	_
14	as	as	SCONJ	IN	_	20	mark	_	_
15	he	he	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	20	nsubj	_	_
16	might	might	AUX	MD	VerbForm=Fin	20	aux	_	_
17	he	he	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	20	nsubj	_	_
18	never	never	ADV	RB	PronType=Neg	20	advmod	_	_
19	was	be	AUX	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	20	cop	_	_
20	able	able	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	13	advcl	_	_
21	to	to	PART	TO	_	22	mark	_	_
22	imitate	imitate	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	20	xcomp	_	_
23	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	24	det	_	_
24	hole	hole	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	22	obj	_	SpaceAfter=No
25	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	31	punct	_	_
26	so	so	ADV	RB	_	31	advmod	_	_
27	every	every	DET	DT	PronType=Tot	28	det	_	_
28	woman	woman	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	31	nsubj:pass	_	_
29	would	would	AUX	MD	VerbForm=Fin	31	aux	_	_
30	have	have	AUX	VB	VerbForm=Inf	31	aux	_	_
31	found	find	VERB	VBN	Tense=Past|VerbForm=Part|Voice=Pass	13	parataxis	_	_
32	him	he	PRON	PRP	Case=Acc|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	31	obj	_	_
33	out	out	ADP	RP	_	31	compound:prt	_	_
34	at	at	ADP	IN	_	35	case	_	_
35	once	once	ADV	RB	NumForm=Word|NumType=Mult	31	obl	_	SpaceAfter=No
36	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	40	punct	_	_
37	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	40	cc	_	_
38	this	this	PRON	DT	Number=Sing|PronType=Dem	40	nsubj	_	_
39	he	he	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	40	nsubj	_	_
40	knew	know	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	31	conj	_	SpaceAfter=No
41	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	6	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

<!-- .fr -->
| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **transform** | could | thing | thing |  | least |  | into a needle *result* | vn turn-26.6.1 «NP V NP.patient PP.result»: agent=Agent himself=Patient into needle=Result |
| 2 | **try** | present |  |  |  |  |  |  | vn amuse-31.1 «NP V ADV-Middle»: agent=Experiencer |
| 3 | **not** **is** | might | thing |  |  |  |  | able *property* | tree rules |
| 4 | **imitate** | to-infinitive | thing *not said here* | the hole |  |  |  |  | vn patent-101 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent hole=Theme |
| 5 | **find out** | would · perfect · passive |  | every woman |  |  |  |  | tree rules |
| 6 | **know** | past | this |  |  |  |  |  | vn comprehend-87.2-1-1-1 «NP V»: agent=Experiencer |

<!-- .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 Lilac Fairy Book» by Andrew Lang, Project Gutenberg book 3454 (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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