---
title: ‘I never could pump the sea out,’ thought she, ‘but perhaps I might… — The Lilac Fairy Book · tree and pragmatics
description: ‘I never could pump the sea out,’ thought she, ‘but perhaps I might fill it up, if I were to make a big dam. Who acts: I, sea. A sentence of «The Lilac Fairy Book» by Andrew Lang, The Lilac Fairy Book, part 24, with its dependency tree and the pragmatics of every clause.
---

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[Mova](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/) · [this page in HTML](https://mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg3454/24/53/)

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# The Lilac Fairy Book, The Lilac Fairy Book, part 24, sentence 53

<!-- .ven lang=en -->
‘I never could pump the sea out,’ thought she, ‘but perhaps I might fill it up, if I were to make a big dam.

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**Who acts:** I, sea · **What happens:** not pump out, think, fill up, make · **To what, where:** sea, fun, big dam · **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 24. The page gives its syntax tree — a dependency tree in the style of Universal Dependencies — and its pragmatics clause by clause: who acts (I, sea), 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:pg3454:24:53
# text = ‘I never could pump the sea out,’ thought she, ‘but perhaps I might fill it up, if I were to make a big dam.
1	‘	'	PUNCT	``	_	5	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
2	I	I	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Number=Sing|Person=1|PronType=Prs	5	nsubj	_	_
3	never	never	ADV	RB	PronType=Neg	5	advmod	_	_
4	could	could	AUX	MD	VerbForm=Fin	5	aux	_	_
5	pump	pump	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	11	ccomp	_	_
6	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	7	det	_	_
7	sea	sea	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	5	obj	_	_
8	out	out	ADP	RP	_	5	compound:prt	_	SpaceAfter=No
9	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	5	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
10	’	'	PUNCT	''	_	5	punct	_	_
11	thought	think	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=1|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	0	root	_	_
12	she	she	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Gender=Fem|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	19	nsubj	_	SpaceAfter=No
13	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	12	punct	_	_
14	‘	'	PUNCT	``	_	19	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
15	but	but	CCONJ	CC	_	19	cc	_	_
16	perhaps	perhaps	ADV	RB	_	19	advmod	_	_
17	I	I	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Number=Sing|Person=1|PronType=Prs	19	nsubj	_	_
18	might	might	AUX	MD	VerbForm=Fin	19	aux	_	_
19	fill	fill	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	11	ccomp	_	_
20	it	it	PRON	PRP	Case=Acc|Gender=Neut|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	19	obj	_	_
21	up	up	ADP	RP	_	19	compound:prt	_	SpaceAfter=No
22	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	27	punct	_	_
23	if	if	SCONJ	IN	_	27	mark	_	_
24	I	I	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Number=Sing|Person=1|PronType=Prs	27	nsubj	_	_
25	were	be	AUX	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=1|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	27	aux	_	_
26	to	to	PART	TO	_	27	mark	_	_
27	make	make	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	19	advcl	_	_
28	a	a	DET	DT	Definite=Ind|PronType=Art	30	det	_	_
29	big	big	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	30	amod	_	_
30	dam	dam	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	27	obj	_	SpaceAfter=No
31	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	11	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

<!-- .fr -->
| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **not** **pump out** | could | I | the sea |  |  |  |  | vn spray-9.7-1 «NP V NP.theme»: agent=Agent sea=Theme |
| 2 | **think** *speech: other* | past |  |  |  |  |  |  | vn consider-29.9-2 «NP V how S»: agent=Agent clause=Theme |
| 3 | **fill up** | might | sea | fun |  |  |  | perhaps *property* | vn other\_cos-45.4 «NP V NP.patient»: agent=Agent it=Patient |
| 4 | **make** *a condition, not said to happen* | past | I | a big dam |  |  |  |  | vn build-26.1-1 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent dam=Product |

<!-- .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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