---
title: Stepping cautiously along the wood, the poor man contrived to lay ho… — The Lilac Fairy Book · tree and pragmatics
description: Stepping cautiously along the wood, the poor man contrived to lay hold of the animal’s tale, and with a desperate effort the mule managed to regain his footing on dry ground, but at the cost of leaving his tail in the poor man’s hand. Who acts: poor man, mule, cost, animal. A sentence of «The Lilac 
---

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# The Lilac Fairy Book, The Lilac Fairy Book, part 19, sentence 94

<!-- .ven lang=en -->
Stepping cautiously along the wood, the poor man contrived to lay hold of the animal’s tale, and with a desperate effort the mule managed to regain his footing on dry ground, but at the cost of leaving his tail in the poor man’s hand.

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**Who acts:** poor man, mule, cost, animal · **What happens:** step, contrive, lay, manage, regain, leave · **To what, where:** wood, hold, cost, footing, dry ground, tail · **Speech:** someone speaks here

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This is a sentence of «The Lilac Fairy Book» by Andrew Lang, The Lilac Fairy Book, part 19. The page gives its syntax tree — a dependency tree in the style of Universal Dependencies — and its pragmatics clause by clause: who acts (poor man, mule, cost, animal), 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:pg3454:19:94
# text = Stepping cautiously along the wood, the poor man contrived to lay hold of the animal’s tale, and with a desperate effort the mule managed to regain his footing on dry ground, but at the cost of leaving his tail in the poor man’s hand.
1	Stepping	step	VERB	VBG	Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Part	10	advcl	_	_
2	cautiously	cautiously	ADV	RB	_	1	advmod	_	_
3	along	along	ADP	IN	_	5	case	_	_
4	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	5	det	_	_
5	wood	wood	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	1	obl	_	SpaceAfter=No
6	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	1	punct	_	_
7	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	9	det	_	_
8	poor	poor	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	9	amod	_	_
9	man	man	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	10	nsubj	_	_
10	contrived	contrive	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	0	root	_	_
11	to	to	PART	TO	_	12	mark	_	_
12	lay	lay	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	10	advcl	_	_
13	hold	hold	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	12	obj	_	_
14	of	of	ADP	IN	_	18	case	_	_
15	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	16	det	_	_
16	animal	animal	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	18	nmod:poss	_	SpaceAfter=No
17	’s	's	PART	POS	_	16	case	_	_
18	tale	tale	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	13	nmod	_	SpaceAfter=No
19	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	27	punct	_	_
20	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	27	cc	_	_
21	with	with	ADP	IN	_	24	case	_	_
22	a	a	DET	DT	Definite=Ind|PronType=Art	24	det	_	_
23	desperate	desperate	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	24	amod	_	_
24	effort	effort	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	27	obl	_	_
25	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	26	det	_	_
26	mule	mule	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	27	nsubj	_	_
27	managed	manage	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	10	conj	_	_
28	to	to	PART	TO	_	29	mark	_	_
29	regain	regain	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	27	xcomp	_	_
30	his	his	PRON	PRP$	Case=Gen|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|Poss=Yes|PronType=Prs	31	nmod:poss	_	_
31	footing	footing	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	29	obj	_	_
32	on	on	ADP	IN	_	34	case	_	_
33	dry	dry	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	34	amod	_	_
34	ground	ground	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	29	obl	_	SpaceAfter=No
35	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	39	punct	_	_
36	but	but	CCONJ	CC	_	39	cc	_	_
37	at	at	ADP	IN	_	39	case	_	_
38	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	39	det	_	_
39	cost	cost	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	27	obl	_	_
40	of	of	SCONJ	IN	_	41	mark	_	_
41	leaving	leave	VERB	VBG	VerbForm=Ger	39	acl	_	_
42	his	his	PRON	PRP$	Case=Gen|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|Poss=Yes|PronType=Prs	43	nmod:poss	_	_
43	tail	tail	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	41	obj	_	_
44	in	in	ADP	IN	_	49	case	_	_
45	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	47	det	_	_
46	poor	poor	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	47	amod	_	_
47	man	man	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	49	nmod:poss	_	SpaceAfter=No
48	’s	's	PART	POS	_	47	case	_	_
49	hand	hand	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	41	obl	_	SpaceAfter=No
50	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	10	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

<!-- .fr -->
| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **step** | gerund | the poor man *not said here* |  |  | the wood |  | cautiously *property* | vn run-51.3.2 «NP V PP.location»: agent=Theme along wood=Trajectory |
| 2 | **contrive** | past | the poor man |  |  |  |  |  | vn create-26.4 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent |
| 3 | **lay** | to-infinitive | the poor man *not said here* | hold of the animal's tale |  |  |  |  | vn create-26.4 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent hold=Result |
| 4 | **manage** | past | the mule |  |  | the cost |  | with a desperate effort | vn succeed-74-1-1 «NP V S\_INF»: agent=Agent clause=Eventuality |
| 5 | **regain** | to-infinitive | the mule *not said here* | mule's footing |  | dry ground |  |  | vn obtain-13.5.2 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent footing=Theme |
| 6 | **leave** | gerund | the cost *not said here* | mule's tail |  | the poor man's hand |  |  | vn keep-15.2 «NP V NP PP.location»: agent=Agent tail=Theme in hand=Location |
| 7 | **hold** |  |  | the animal's tale |  |  |  |  | nom hold «act transitive»: of=patient |
| 8 | **tell** |  | the animal |  |  |  |  |  | nom tale «communication intransitive»: 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 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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