---
title: To launch the boat and put to sea to rescue the net was a thing not… — The Lilac Fairy Book · tree and pragmatics
description: To launch the boat and put to sea to rescue the net was a thing not to be thought of. Who acts: net. A sentence of «The Lilac Fairy Book» by Andrew Lang, The Lilac Fairy Book, part 23, with its dependency tree and the pragmatics of every clause.
---

<!-- md -->
[Mova](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/) · [this page in HTML](https://mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg3454/23/127/)

<!-- crumbs -->
[home](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/) / [corpora](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/) / [tales](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/) / [The Lilac Fairy Book](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg3454/) / [The Lilac Fairy Book, part 23](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg3454/23/) / 127

# The Lilac Fairy Book, The Lilac Fairy Book, part 23, sentence 127

<!-- .ven lang=en -->
To launch the boat and put to sea to rescue the net was a thing not to be thought of.

<!-- .vintro -->
**Who acts:** net · **What happens:** launch, put, rescue, be, not think · **To what, where:** boat, thing

<!-- .vabout -->
This is a sentence of «The Lilac Fairy Book» by Andrew Lang, The Lilac Fairy Book, part 23. The page gives its syntax tree — a dependency tree in the style of Universal Dependencies — and its pragmatics clause by clause: who acts (net), 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:pg3454:23:127
# text = To launch the boat and put to sea to rescue the net was a thing not to be thought of.
1	To	to	PART	TO	_	2	mark	_	_
2	launch	launch	VERB	VB	Mood=Imp|VerbForm=Fin	0	root	_	_
3	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	4	det	_	_
4	boat	boat	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	2	obj	_	_
5	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	6	cc	_	_
6	put	put	VERB	VB	Mood=Imp|VerbForm=Fin	2	conj	_	_
7	to	to	ADP	IN	_	8	case	_	_
8	sea	sea	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	6	obl	_	_
9	to	to	PART	TO	_	10	mark	_	_
10	rescue	rescue	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	6	advcl	_	_
11	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	12	det	_	_
12	net	net	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	15	nsubj	_	_
13	was	be	AUX	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	15	cop	_	_
14	a	a	DET	DT	Definite=Ind|PronType=Art	15	det	_	_
15	thing	thing	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	10	parataxis	_	_
16	not	not	PART	RB	Polarity=Neg	19	advmod	_	_
17	to	to	PART	TO	_	19	mark	_	_
18	be	be	AUX	VB	VerbForm=Inf	19	aux:pass	_	_
19	thought	think	VERB	VBN	Tense=Past|VerbForm=Part|Voice=Pass	15	acl:relcl	_	_
20	of	of	ADP	IN	_	19	obl	_	SpaceAfter=No
21	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	2	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

<!-- .fr -->
| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **launch** | to-infinitive |  | the boat |  |  |  |  | vn throw-17.1-1-1 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent boat=Theme |
| 2 | **put** | infinitive |  |  |  |  |  | to sea | vn invest-13.5.4-1 «NP V PP»: agent=Agent |
| 3 | **rescue** | to-infinitive |  |  |  |  |  |  | vn steal-10.5 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent |
| 4 | **is a** | past | the net | a thing |  |  |  |  | tree rules |
| 5 | **not** **think** *speech: other* | to-infinitive · passive |  |  |  |  |  |  | vn focus-87.1-1 «NP V» |

<!-- .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.

<!-- div src -->

**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.

<!-- /div -->

<!-- pn -->
- ← previous: [sentence 126](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg3454/23/126/)
- next →: [sentence 128](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg3454/23/128/)
- ↑ back to [The Lilac Fairy Book, part 23](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg3454/23/)