---
title: Maurice himself could not keep quiet; staggering now on one leg, now… — The Lilac Fairy Book · tree and pragmatics
description: Maurice himself could not keep quiet; staggering now on one leg, now on the other, and rolling about like a ship in a cross sea, trying to humour the tune. Who acts: Maurice. A sentence of «The Lilac Fairy Book» by Andrew Lang, The Lilac Fairy Book, part 18, with its dependency tree and the pragmati
---

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# The Lilac Fairy Book, The Lilac Fairy Book, part 18, sentence 31

<!-- .ven lang=en -->
Maurice himself could not keep quiet; staggering now on one leg, now on the other, and rolling about like a ship in a cross sea, trying to humour the tune.

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**Who acts:** Maurice · **What happens:** not keep, stagger, roll about, try, humour · **To what, where:** one leg, tune

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This is a sentence of «The Lilac Fairy Book» by Andrew Lang, The Lilac Fairy Book, part 18. The page gives its syntax tree — a dependency tree in the style of Universal Dependencies — and its pragmatics clause by clause: who acts (Maurice), 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:pg3454:18:31
# text = Maurice himself could not keep quiet; staggering now on one leg, now on the other, and rolling about like a ship in a cross sea, trying to humour the tune.
1	Maurice	Maurice	PROPN	NNP	Number=Sing	5	nsubj	_	_
2	himself	himself	PRON	PRP	Case=Acc|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Emp|Reflex=Yes	1	nmod:unmarked	_	_
3	could	could	AUX	MD	VerbForm=Fin	5	aux	_	_
4	not	not	PART	RB	Polarity=Neg	5	advmod	_	_
5	keep	keep	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	0	root	_	_
6	quiet	quiet	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	5	xcomp	_	SpaceAfter=No
7	;	;	PUNCT	,	_	8	punct	_	_
8	staggering	stagger	VERB	VBG	Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Part	5	advcl	_	_
9	now	now	ADV	RB	PronType=Dem	8	advmod	_	_
10	on	on	ADP	IN	_	12	case	_	_
11	one	one	NUM	CD	NumForm=Word|NumType=Card	12	nummod	_	_
12	leg	leg	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	8	obl	_	SpaceAfter=No
13	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	17	punct	_	_
14	now	now	ADV	RB	PronType=Dem	17	advmod	_	_
15	on	on	ADP	IN	_	17	case	_	_
16	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	17	det	_	_
17	other	other	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	5	parataxis	_	SpaceAfter=No
18	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	20	punct	_	_
19	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	20	cc	_	_
20	rolling	roll	VERB	VBG	Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Part	5	advcl	_	_
21	about	about	ADV	RB	_	20	advmod	_	_
22	like	like	ADP	IN	_	24	case	_	_
23	a	a	DET	DT	Definite=Ind|PronType=Art	24	det	_	_
24	ship	ship	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	20	obl	_	_
25	in	in	ADP	IN	_	28	case	_	_
26	a	a	DET	DT	Definite=Ind|PronType=Art	28	det	_	_
27	cross	cross	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	28	amod	_	_
28	sea	sea	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	24	nmod	_	SpaceAfter=No
29	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	30	punct	_	_
30	trying	try	VERB	VBG	Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Part	20	conj	_	_
31	to	to	PART	TO	_	32	mark	_	_
32	humour	humour	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	30	xcomp	_	_
33	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	34	det	_	_
34	tune	tune	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	32	obj	_	SpaceAfter=No
35	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	5	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

<!-- .fr -->
| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **not** **keep** | could | Maurice  Maurice |  |  |  |  | quiet *property* | vn keep-15.2 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent |
| 2 | **stagger** | gerund | Maurice  Maurice *not said here* |  |  | one leg | now |  | vn run-51.3.2 «NP V PP.location»: agent=Theme on leg=Trajectory |
| 3 | **roll about** | gerund | Maurice  Maurice *not said here* |  |  |  |  | like a ship in a cross sea; about *property* | vn run-51.3.2-2 «NP V»: agent=Theme |
| 4 | **try** | gerund | Maurice  Maurice *not said here* |  |  |  |  |  | vn try-61.1 «NP V S\_INF»: agent=Agent clause=Eventuality |
| 5 | **humour** *not said to happen* | to-infinitive | Maurice  Maurice *not said here* | the tune |  |  |  |  | tree rules |

<!-- .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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